The layout of the buttons blows, but the overall operation is better than other universals I’ve used. It’s still annoying that it can’t read your mind do “setup” on the tv when i want it and “menu” on the tivo when i want it without making me switch into the device mode.

Maybe I’ll get the xbox version of this remote.

Life is good again.

Of course, you won’t really be able to appreciate the 3d because you’ll
have jammed a pen in your eye getting everything set up so it works this
way.

2. I’m inclined to believe that you have not compared composite to component on the same TV. Crawling dots around fixed parts of a video game display are not a fatality ! And I’m not talking about high-res here, just image “steadiness”. And color fidelity, too.

But I don’t mean to be obnoxious so I’ll leave it at that. Even if it takes Madden 2006, you’ll see the light eventually

Cheers,
–Jonathan

2. The complication of setting up both component and composite video sources (say, component for DVD and composite for Tivo) is too much overhead to to pay to get the small amount of marginal gain in picture quality.

Now that there is actually a reason to want higher video quality (Madden 2006 baby!) we can take the leap and figure it out. There was just no reason for it before.

Who cares about high res. broadcast TV anyway.

Cheers,
–Jonathan

First, programming them is like writing in assembly language. This is a task I do not want to do. (OK, I’ll admit this is less of a problem with those Harmony remotes, but the rest of my complaints hold true for those as well).

Second, they take … wait for it … forever … to switch a complex system.

Third, most of the time they are sensitive to the state of the equipment. “I tried to turn on your TV. Did it turn on? Is it in AUX2 mode? If not manually turn on the TV and switch it to AUX2 mode, then continue.” Thanks, go programmable remote. Yay!

Fourth, they’re STUPIDLY EXPENSIVE. OMG! It’s a remote control, people. Spend your money on an iPod, you’ll be much happier.

Fifth, undoubtedly you have *that one button* … you know the one … the one you really want to change with the remote but it just won’t do it. I’ve got a couple. The first is turning on/off the A and B speakers on my receiver. They are manual buttons. Ain’t no programmable remote in the world gonna do that. But I need that to switch sound from downstairs to upstairs. Second, for some reason, my stupid Sony VCR (still around so I don’t have to buy Elmo on DVD) has this data screen that pops up and won’t go away unless you have the original remote control.

Anyway, I’ve strayed from the topic a bit, but the point is, all the technology exists and it’s cheap. Why doesn’t somebody frickin’ build it already.

The real answer to this is on-demand digital content (for example, Front Row), so I’ll just sit tight and watch while the A/V equipment business is slowly eaten alive. Of course, I’m not sure how the XBox plays into all this. I’ll just says that someday all this crap should be wireless and auto-negotiate the best configuration for each given environment (how’s that for hand waving?)

And speaking of mis-design, my daughter received an Amazing Amanda doll for her birthday. She loves it, but it takes like an hour to program the thing. Why, for the love of God, doesn’t it have a little bluetooth interface so I can configure it from the computer? Or my cell phone? And why does it sound so bad? Is it really that hard to get a decent sounding speech syntesizer. It sounds as bad as my old Cricket speech synthesizer that I had on my Apple //e like 20 years ago. And the speech recognition is barely usable. My daughter says “it doesn’t look this hard on TV.” ARGH!

One final rant while I’m at it, my daughter had this little battery powered Barbie VW Beetle car to drive around. It had hard plastic wheels. These things wouldn’t grip on any surface known to man. Carpet? Nope. Concrete? Nope. Grass? Nope. Gravel? Nope. Hardwood floor? Nope. Linoleum? Nope. Where the hell are you supposed to drive this thing. And then, it takes like 100 feet to turn it around. And the truth is, at that age, they can’t steer anyway? So as a parent, you have to walk around behind it to guide it and keep it moving. ARGH! Put some rubber tires on it, make it turn and give me a frickin’ remote control.

One last thing… now admittedly I live where it’s hilly, but why doesn’t anyone put a CVT in a children’s bikes?

I’m not even going to start on cell phones.

The thing that really bugs me about all this is that within the first 3 minutes of use, all of these flaws are obvious to me. (One should not conclude that I have some uncanny ability to detect subtle flaws in products, but that these products are basically broken by design). I just can’t believe that someone didn’t figure this stuff out before shipping the product. And I can’t believe that no one calls them on it now.

I need a drink…

Of course, no fancy HD for me. There’s *no* point in spending money on that for me.

There is always this

https://www.audioauthority.com/indexh.php