RC User Reviews: Sony RM-VL900 Remote Control (8)

The following page was printed from RemoteCentral.com:

User reviews for the Sony RM-VL900 from Sony Electronics.

Ratings	Reviews	MSRP (USD)
Average: 4.51/5.00 Median: 4.67/5.00	102	$59

The Sony RM-VL900 is an economical all-button universal remote that can control up to 8 devices. It has multiple macros, full learning capability on every key, plus a great ergonomic design.

Message
Forum

Our
Review

Clicker Picker
Specifications

Add Your
Review

Find universal
remotes at:

Navigation: [ < Previous|Next > ]

Now viewing user reviews page 8 of 15 for
the Sony RM-VL900 remote.

[ Go to: |<< First|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|Last >> ]

Written by DJ Mandeville from Maryland, USA.

The reviewer has used this remote control for 1-3 months.

Review 53 made on Tuesday April 9, 2002 at 6:26 PM.

Strengths:

Ease of operation and programming despite the manual's attempt to confuse. (Must have lost something in the translation)

Weaknesses:

The backlighting vs. battery life issue, if you call this a weakness.

Review:

I, as most other reviewers here have found this remote to have solved all of my remote problems. Six remotes of mine now sit in a drawer. (What am I going to do with all these extra batteries?) I was able to program all features of all six remotes using a combination of component codes and the learning capability. The only tricky part I had was my Kenwood VR-309 receiver remote uses a single key to cycle through the video inputs. The RM-VL900 did not seem to be able to learn the function of this key until I figured out to press this button as many times as I needed to switch to the input I wanted. In other words, to program the AMP-DVD(0) button, I set the VL900 to learn for that key and pressed the Kenwood remote VIDEO button three times to switch my receiver to VIDEO3 mode (It took some practice to get the timing just right). This is the "micro-macro" hidden capability that was mentioned in the review for the Sony 700. Thank you remotecentral.com!)
When I started looking for a Universal Remote for my entire system, I could not believe the prices, when I read the review of the 2 low priced Sony remotes, I drove immediately to Best Buy and picked one up. I chose the 900, because it will operate up to 8 components.

Quality:

Features:

Value:

Written by Stacy from Washington State, USA.

The reviewer has used this remote control for 1-3 months.

Review 52 made on Tuesday April 2, 2002 at 8:51 PM.

Strengths:

Good "Feel" of buttons. Memory capacity. Easy to set up. Controls everything! Great price. Excellent quality feel.

Weaknesses:

Placement of some buttons.

Review:

I purchased this remote (on the advice of this board) after returning an RCA.
I had just started to set up the 900 when I had to shout; �This thing ROCKS!� After trying out some other brands of universal remotes, I wasn�t expecting too much. This product has brought back my faith in the availability of quality technology at an affordable and �sane� price. I was able to set it up in an intuitive manner to operate my system with no compromises.

Harman/Kardon AV120 Dolby/DTS/DSP Receiver
ProScan (RCA) TV
RCA VCR
Toshiba 3750 DVD/CD/MP3

Quality:

Features:

Value:

Written by Brian Bowker from Washington, USA.

The reviewer has used this remote control for 1-3 months.

Review 51 made on Monday March 18, 2002 at 2:33 PM.

Strengths:

Complete programability, Macro buttons, simple and inexpensive (relatively)

Weaknesses:

Volume and Channel buttons could be placed higher up making them more ergonomic.

Review:

Like many people with home theaters setup in their TV room, I have purchased (and returned) many inexpensive universal remotes looking for one that could sit by itself on my coffee table. The problem with most entry level universal remotes is that they always seem to lack at least one or two really key functions for one, if not all, of your devices.

I was about to give in and pay the $200 that it seems to take to get a remote that �does it all� and includes a lot of whiz-bang features like a touch screen and then pray that my wife wouldn�t hate it and throw it. But then I read about the VL-900 and decided that for $60 I would give it a try. And brother, this remote just might save my marriage!

Every button is programmable, so if a preprogrammed code for one of your devices is lacking a few features you just (easily) reprogram those buttons using your old remote. I finally have just one remote for my wife to choose from. The only thing I haven�t programmed it to do is tune the surround sound settings for my amp, but I don�t mess with those often any how and don�t generally want my wife doing that by accident either.

The macro buttons are worth the extra $20 above the VL-700. I�ve been able to set them up to completely turn on and configure my system to watch a movie at the press of just one button. I found this easy to set up but others might have more difficulty if they do not have a programmers mind set. I do wish it had more like 6 macro buttons rather then just 3.

I would unreservedly recommend this remote to anyone that would like to have just one remote and does not feel the need to do deep programming with it. This is a great remote and I wish I had found it years ago!

Quality:

Features:

Value:

Written by Ed from Texas.

The reviewer has used this remote control for 1-3 months.

Review 50 made on Friday March 15, 2002 at 1:43 AM.

Strengths:

Excellent, smoothly performing instrument. Plenty of capability for setup of TV, VCR, Sat, Amplifier, and CD player. Very good value.

Weaknesses:

The 8 component buttons could be a bit larger for better fault-free access. But, the primary weakness is the VERY poorly and imprecisely written instruction manual. Also, the tech support at the 800 number was useless and robotic. After successfully programming most all of the features, it took me another week to get the System Control (macro) functions to work right. Problem was the manual, and failure to cover the various responses one can get when pressing the buttons in various ways, such as When the length of time they are pressed varies. The 800 number tech support was useless and robotic. Ultimately, got the instrument set up to 100% satisfaction.

Review:

All things considered, an excellent instrument.

Quality:

Features:

Value:

Written by Richmond T from Melbourne VIC Australia.

The reviewer has used this remote control for 1-3 months.

Review 49 made on Monday March 4, 2002 at 10:59 PM.

Strengths:

Easy to program, macros, relatively cheaper than most RCs, learning ability.

Weaknesses:

A little bulky, some buttons a little small.

Review:

This product is fantastic. I was able to program the DVD player by just putting the supplied code. The other devices that did not work with the supplied codes were easily programmed into this unit via learning capability. I expected the TV and receiver to be pre-programmed (same brand) and it was. For the price, it is good value compared to other RCs. This remote controls:
- Sony Wega TV
- Sony Receiver
- Toshiba DVD Player
- Panasonic CD Player
- Panasonic VCR
- Cable Decoder (made by General Instrument for Optus)

and I had two spares! (I might add the tape deck but I rarely use it)

If you need a universal learning remote up to 8 devices in this price range, this unit would get rid of your RC clutter. Like having a remote for remotes!

Quality:

Features:

Value:

Written by Patrick Smith from Chicago.

The reviewer has used this remote control for 1-3 months.

Review 48 made on Tuesday February 26, 2002 at 12:34 PM.

Strengths:

This remote has all the useable functionality that the AV2100 has and is easier to handle and use. The learning function is very powerful and is easy to use, especially once you discover that you must unlearn a key prior to re-learning the key (for some time I thought only a subset of the buttons were learnable)

Weaknesses:

Customer Support: The operators at the other end are horrid. I don't think they have ever used the remote. When I had a problem unlocking the remote, I had to tell them how I finally solved it. The operator admitted that they don't have any more information in their knowledgebase than what is included in the consumer product manual.

Product: Lack of back-lighting

Review:

Great value: solid functionality at a reasonable price.

Please add this to the product manual here at remotecentral.com: To unlock the remote, hold the key and WAIT until the function select buttons blink twice, then while continuing to hold the key, press the and keys. When the ~~key LED blinks twice, the remote is unlocked.~~

Quality:

Features:

Value:

Written by Tom from CA.

The reviewer has used this remote control for 1-3 months.

Review 47 made on Friday February 22, 2002 at 9:39 PM.

Strengths:

This remote has lots of strenghts. That's not the problem. See product weaknesses.

Weaknesses:

I have a Yamaha RX-V992 receiver/amp wich came with a Yamaha RAV 130 remote control. The receiver is a high quality, main-stream product.

I bought an RM-VL900 based, in fact, on the offical and user reviews on this web site. It accepted all of my componets OK, until the V992. The was no "code" for this application, but that's OK. The VL900 accepted all the commands on a "learning" basis, EXCET FOR ALL OF THE COMPONENT INPUT CODES! I've spent over 3 hours working on it, and on the phone with Sony product support. The people at product support obviously knew nothing. All told, I called back 5 times trying to find a tech who knew something. All any of them could say was that if I'd followed the instructions, then their only answer was "Sony doesn't guarantee that all remote control functions can be learned by the VL900." I said I understood that, but the basic functions needed to work. They then said they did NOT agree with me that component input selection on an amp is a basis function! I asked then what good a macro remote is if it won't even "learn" the component input commands (even an a mainstream brand like Yamaha). They said that Sony only guarantees that their remotes, even the VL900, will only, for sure, operate vol +/-, mute, channel +/-, power on/off!

I asked what I should do, and they told me to buy a Yamaha remote. Horrible customer service/product support; and, while I guess the product has some good features, it certainly did not meet even my basic needs.

Review:

Quality:

Features:

Value:

Navigation: [ < Previous|Next > ]

Now viewing user reviews page 8 of 15 for
the Sony RM-VL900 remote.

[ Go to: |<< First|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|Last >> ]

Return to the user reviews index...

Add your review