A day in the life of the Commander
Written: Oct 11 '02
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Impresses your friends, one-touch multi-step programmable "macros"
Cons: Too big for one hand. Fingerprinty screen.
The Bottom Line: This remote will be the envy of your friends, unless your friends are in pro-sports, in Hollywood feature films, or are the Wrigley people.
|
|
|
| maddrewler's Full Review: Sony RM-AV3000 LCD Touchscreen Remote Control |
This report will be about pragmatics. You can read the in-depth specifications -- dimensions, features, voltage, warranty information, etc., etc., in one or all of these other thoroughly detailed Epinion reviews. (all of which are masterfully done, by the way.)
I'm going to tell you about how well it works on a normal day-to-day basis; a day in the life of the Universal Commander, if you will.
The Ergonomics
This thing is big. It's not too big that you can't put it on your coffee table and have people think it's a small laptop computer, but it is too big to hold in one hand and happily manage your AV system. You can turn the volume up and down and change channels (or DVD chapters -- same buttons as channel up/down) easy enough, but if you need to switch to a specific channel (i.e., one that is not immediately "up" or "down" from the one you're on) that will require you use one hand to hold the remote and the other to tap the touch screen.
There are two drawbacks to placing the numeric key pad where Sony decided to place it.
1) You will hold the remote in your right hand. Most of us righties will naturally, the lefties will be forced to because you can't reach the channel and volume buttons from a 'left-handed stance.' (If your thumb CAN reach across comfortably because you are Shaquille O'neil this is a moot issue because you can hire someone to change your channels for you anyway.) But from this natural or forced right-handed grasp, you cannot reach the numeric key pad on the touch screen because it is located on the LEFT side of the screen.
2) You cannot intuitively surf channels using the numeric key pad because you cannot feel the buttons like your good old TV remote. They are all in the touch pad which is smooth and has no distinction between where one button starts and another begins. Since the numeric portion of the touch pad never changes, Sony would have been better off making that portion into actual buttons, and the rest of the dynamically changing touch screen buttons can stay in touch screen format.
The rest of the buttons on the Commander are pretty well laid out. The menu navigator (the up down left right buttons) works well, and the "recall" button (the one that jumps to your previous channel) is well placed.
The Screen
The touch screen is easily the 'coolest' part of this product in that it looks so high-tech and 'PDAesque.' When you push the backlight button to illuminate the screen, it gives off a rich sci-fi blue glow that is even cooler when the lights are dimmed or off.
However, the draw back is that the touch screen, which, by definition, demands that your fingers are all over it, collects fingerprints like a fleece sweater collects dog hair. What's worse, when the screen collect fingerprints it's really difficult to read. And what's worse than that is when you try to wipe it, you accidentally press all the buttons and inadvertently change channels, switch to picture in picture, turn to video 1, then video 2 then turn the TV off and then back on again.
But boy is it cool looking!
Compatibility
The Commander is truly a commander. My Commander is really at home on my AV system because my home theater is largely composed of Sony units (Sony VCR, Sony progressive scan DVD player, Sony HDTV, Onkyo receiver, Motorola Digital Cable tuner, Sony 5-disc CD Player.) But wouldn't you know it, the one unit that the Commander has a hard time communicating fully with is my Onkyo. I don't blame the Commander for this, however. My Onkyo was top of the line at the time it was born but to the Commander, it's like the grand uncle that you never understood when you were a teenager. Granted, the Commander can still get most of the major functions correct and I customized the rest.
The one thing that baffles me still is why, when I go to my VCR controls (I've set the volume control when in VCR mode, to control the receiver's volume controls as most home theaters will require,) I can turn the volume up, but pushing the 'volume down' button yields no results whatsoever. Very strange. And annoying.
I think the Universal Commander was a great gift (from my wife for father's day) but I wish I was on the committee of engineers/designers/marketing folks that sat together and made this thing. It's darned near perfect, but not quite.
Recommended?
Yes. But only if you don't have an additional $100 or $200 to spend on the sleeker looking, smaller, just as smart, if not smarter, Marantz Universal Remote (RC2000 or RC3200)
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
maddrewler
|
|
Member: Drew
Reviews written: 4
Trusted by: 0 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.