Review: Universal Remote Control R50

Theses days it’s easy to feel like your life is spiraling out of control. No, I’m not referring to your credit card bills, your 401K or your ungrateful kids. I’m taking about your home theater system. Getting the TV, the receiver, cable box and DVD player to work together is can be like holding a company-wide meeting with everyone playing on their Blackberries–nobody listening.

The key to corralling those unruly components is a good universal remote. These can range from simple 4-device replacement remotes to thousand-dollar customized touch screen systems. The new R50 by the aptly-named Universal Remote Control company is designed to give average users a high-end control experience for a reasonable price. At $150 it’s about the same price as the low-end Harmony remotes and $100 cheaper than the Harmony One.

The first thing you notice about the R50 when you pick it up is it’s weight. At a little more than a half pound, it’s got the heft and solid feel that makes you confident your kids won’t destroy it. The face of the remote bears a colorful LCD screen that displays the names of your devices (TV, cable, DVD …) and 44 buttons for controlling all those devices. Up to six devices can be displayed at once on the screen (more available by pressing the Next Page button). The buttons are well-laid out and backlit for use in the dark. It’s designed to control up to 18 components, 1,500 buttons and 48 favorite channels.

Programming is the area where the R50 differs from the Harmony line. This remote comes preloaded with codes for thousands of devices, so there’s no PC or Internet connection required to set it up. On-screen instructions lead you step by step through the setup process.

In configuring the R50 for my system (consisting of an audio receiver, cable box, DVD player, TV and video game system) I found the on-screen system fairly intuitive for basic setup. To start, you identify which device you want to setup, then through the on-screen list to select the brand. You never need to manually enter a device code, but you might have to try several offered by the remote before you find the one that controls your component properly. If by chance you run into a device that isn’t in the R50’s database, the remote is also capable of learning from your original remotes. Within 15 minutes I had all my main components working off the R50 sans the game machine because it operates via Bluetooth. When configuring my Motorola DVR I had to look under the Cable Box menu rather than the DVR menu. To control the TV I pressed the TV button on the remote, then LCD screen would change to reflect the buttons unique to that device.

Next I wanted to make sure my audio receiver would control the volume no matter which device mode I was in. The R50 uses a process it calls Copy and Paste to achieve that task, which was pretty easily done.

At this point a lot of people would stop, satisfied. For more advanced control, the R50 can do macros–execute a series of commands with a single button press. This is where the Harmony remotes excel by making the whole setup process activity-based rather than device-based. However, some users find the Harmony software locks you into activities and don’t allow for enough customization. The R50 can do essentially the same thing, but with a lot more steps. In this area, the R50’s screen prompts are a little lacking (and the unit comes with a barely adequate one-sheet manual). It took several attempts to get the remote to turn on the TV, AVR and Motorola box, switch input and then smoothly switch to DVD mode. For some steps you also need to insert delays (my TV takes a few seconds to start up before you can switch inputs), and this is somewhat of a guessing procedure. In the end, I got it all to work, and that’s what really matters. The unit allows up to an astounding 255 steps for an individual macro, which means that if you’re good, you can customize it to do virtually anything.  

The R50 will appeal to people who want to synchronize the parts of their home entertainment system, but don’t want to mess with a PC interface or pay a professional. Some of the steps may seem a little unclear at first use, but once the logic of it clicks for you, the procedure goes well.  It offers essentially the same functionality of some professionally-programmed remotes, for a lot less money

Universal Remote Control R50
$150
Color LCD screen
Built-in device database
On-screen setup instructions
Controls up to 18 devices
Stores 48 favorite channels
Macro control
Universal volume control
Runs on 4 AA batteries
www.universalremote.com