This is 6-in-1 Smart Remote from Radio shack (nobody calls it 15-1994) CHEAP, beautiful backlight, nice size, nice layout

NO dvd button, DOES NOT CONTROL ANY OF MY SONY EQUIPMENT!!

OK Ok it is real cheap. And I love the way it looks simple cool backlight that lights all of the buttons and stays on so long as you continue to push buttons. You would be surprised how few high $$$ backlit remotes do not stay on.

nice button layout

But HEY wheres the DVD button...that is a big hint that it does not support many of the latest dvd players. (does not control my Sony S530D dvd player)

And worst of all the remote does not support Sony Receivers at all even under the 'miscellaneous audio' nothing worked to support my sony 555ES receiver.

SO if buy it try it out if it supports your equip...great if not start shopping again.

Similar Products Used:

Sony universal, mitsubishi, rca

Radioshack - Gah!
Heavy and pretty bulky
No fancy-schmancy LCD screen
Manual is beyond horrific

Wow. What a remote! After doing some research and reading all of the reviews and comments here at audioreview as well, I decided to bite the bullet and head into Radioshack (Gah!) for this remote. You will not be disappointed. For the amazing price (on sale at $29.95) this cannot be beat. I have already convinced two friends to pick it up, they were so impressed as well.

Of course, for the price, the unit is not overtly attractive and doesn't have the main bells and whistles item we are all looking for in a learning remote these days (LCD screen). But everything else about this remote is superb. Once you go on-line and download the 'real' manual at hifi-remote.com or another site, the instructions are easy to follow and the results impressive.

Without any tweaks on my part, the unit automatically learned my DBS, VCR, and TV without any problems at all (once I entered the unit code of course). The learning functions worked well for all my units, except my receiver. But I was able to use the Advanced Codes listed on-line to directly program the receiver and any other instructions that were missing form my other units.

Now, I have all functions from my units, as well as 4 custom macros designed for more advanced functionality. I am currently running a DVD, CD, DD/DTS Receiver, TV, VCR, and DBS with no problem. I highly recommend this remote (after you put black tape over the Radioshack name on the front though - Gah!).

Similar Products Used:

Universal remotes with receiver, DVD, CD, TV, VCR, etc.

BACKLIT DISPLAY, LEARNING, MACROS

BUTTON LAYOUT (SHOULD HAVE DVD CONTROLS TOGETHER)

I love this remote. All these reviews that say anything remotly negative are a bunch of punks. For the price it far excedes any expectation of a radio shack product. I was the worse skeptic. RADIO SHACK??? What the ****! BUT I am now the proud owner of a radio shack 1994 remote and love it. It does it all and more! If you have to use more than one remote now to watch a program go out and buy this remote TODAY! you can store all those other remotes and proudly display your new programmable learning universal remote with pride. I can amaze my friends by programming the macro to turn on my tv,stereo,reciever,dvd player and open the dvd tray all with one button. I have also programmed one of the smart keys to turn the tv on and turn the station to NICKELODEON for my 4 year old. Now she has "her" button on the remote(4s) and uses it and never has to ask us to turn on the tv and turn it to her favorite station.---GREAT!

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ALL IN ONE

Deceptively agile, learning functions, I've ditched all of my remotes save my blasted Apex DVD remote

factory manual it's pretty much useless

Wow...this remote...let's just say that I have a weakness for gadgets to begin with so those lcd screen remotes like the Sony 2100 and the Philips, etc hauntingly call out to me everytime I would walk into an electronics store. I would not have picked this thing up in a million years had I not read the reviews here. This thing is deceptively agile and can do it all. The only thing I'm having difficulty programming is all the Apex DVD functions I use, but I hope to get that licked soon. At the very least I've dumped my vcr, tv, cd, md, and receiver remotes! And yes I have every function programmed in that I use. I can program my vcr to tape different events, change my sound fields on my receiver, shuffle/repeat on my cd player, you name it. For the price, screw those other remotes. The gadget ghost is no longer haunting me, besides I do tend to like the feel of old fashioned remote buttons anyway. Plus I like the way the remote backlights. If you get this remote it's imperative that you visit www.hifi-remote.com for the real manual, not to mention all the advanced codes. After visiting the website you'll find out what a little gem this inexpensive remote is!

Similar Products Used:

Sony

Learning to most any button, good balance, fits well in the hand, soft feel, good button placement, Shift-able buttons, macros, Upgradeable with home made JP1 unit (finally).

The original Manual.. what on earth were they thinking?? use the upgraded manual at http://www.hifi-remote.com

I need to build the JP1 hack box to make it operate my Sherwood RVD-6095 reciever.

Why buy anything else?

I know that since the remote is the most used piece of equipment in a Home Theater System, some might think that the more money you spend, the better your remote will be. But this remote is cheap, effective, and very user friendly. If this isn't the best selling remote, there are alot of bad buyers out there.

I purchased this remote back in May 2000. At first I did not know how to use any of the advanced functions. It has operated all of my equipment EXCEPT for my Sherwood RVD-6095 reciever. It never bugged me too much. I loved the way it operated everything else I had. The remote is solidly built, the backlighting is great, buttons are well laid out, well balanced, you can program functions from your old remotes that didn't come pre-programmed.

I eventually came across Rob's page (http://www.hifi-remote.com) and discovered the "advanced" manual that he had written (I got sick of going on line whenever i wanted to do some tinkering, so i turned it into a document format with working links so that i can use it off line the same as if it was on the webpage, very convenient). I now have Macros that turn on my CD and receiver, set them to the right inputs, and starts playing; and another that powers my TV, DVD, Receivers. And after moving some keys around and learning some stuff, the remote now has every keystroke that my other remotes had, in 1 convenient unit, at a really awesome price. I didn't think it could get any better, until they invented the JP1 upgrade box...

Now with the development of the JP1 box (http://www.hifi-remote.com/hack/index) I will finally be able to get my 15-1994 to operate my reciever. In case you haven't read about this box, look into it. For a minimal cost ($10 to $30 depending on your local electronics stores) and couple of hours building time, you can make this remote do almost anything you want it to. You can automatically program buttons instead of learning them (which saves SOOOOO much memory) and you can more easily change the layouts of the buttons, and more efficiently program macros and advanced codes. With this box you now have a completely programmable, completely learning remote for about $40-$50. in a general sense, you have the range of capabilities of a Pronto with a cheaper, hard button remote (which i personally prefer over a LCD remote because I don't need to look at the unit to do stuff).

The 15-1994 is cheap, easy to manage (kids and wives can understand it too), relatively easy to program (JP1 programming is kinda difficult for the novice), and is a quality constructed remote. If you want to impress your friends with a $400 LCD remote, then buy one. But if you want a remote that is affordable, durable, upgradeable, dependable, and user friendly, they why buy anything else?

This thing is now my favorite part of my home theater system

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One For All AV Producer 8 URC-8080

Learning capable for low cost & backlit too! Good tech support line.

Codes that don't work my HK equipment and limited learning memory. Tedious code search function.

I read many good things about this remote from another site specializing in remotes. True to what the people on that site said, this is a very capable remote for the price, but with limitations.

I started-off using a Sony TV code to program it for use with my 27fs12 Sony Wega. That worked fine. The only button that didn't transfer over that I wanted was the picture mode button. Since the fs12 doesn't have PIP functions, I "taught" that button to be used as the picture mode button. That worked perfectly as well.

Next, I went to the Harmon Kardon codes because the rest of my system includes an AVR300 receiver and a DVD5 player. None of the codes worked for these components. So I called tech support. They were very prompt in answering my call, very polite, and as helpful as they could be. They admitted that the additional codes they told me to try might not work either. They did not.

The code search function is too tedious to even mention here, so that left me with the task of learning all the buttons I could from the AVR300 remote and the DVD5 remote to the 15-1994. I began the task rather haphazardly, and after about 25-30 buttons, I found that it wouldn't take anymore--it was out of memory. This is typical for this model.

Next, I used a special code to clear what I had done and start over. This time, I carefully planned what buttons were essential to movie watching/cd listening and transferred only those. It worked great, but of course it means that the old remotes have to be available in case I decide I need one of those features I deemed "non-essential" to my day-to-day movie watching.

That's fine with me, though. For $30, I didn't expect much more than that, yet in a way it exceeded my expectations. How so? Well, I was able to put those "essential" features all on one device mode...so basically, I only have to switch modes between stereo and TV.

If the idea of getting an inexpensive universal remote is to make things more convenient, this one did it after some planning and tweaking. If you want one to totally replace your other remotes, you're probably shopping in the wrong price class.

BTW: This thing can operate x10 home automation components. I don't have any yet, but I'm looking forward to that. The volume rocker switch acts as a dimmer switch with the right modules installed! Cool, huh?

Similar Products Used:

RCA

Low Cost
Controls everything

None

My goal was to find a reasonably priced universal remote that I don't have to keep going back to the original remotes including setup. With the help of Yahoo jp1 group (groups.yahoo.com/group/jp1), remotecentral.com, and www.hifi-remote.com websites, I can now control every device that I have without ever going back to the original remotes by making up my own devide code, especially for Cambridge Audio CD Player and Panasonic Laserdisc Player.

You simply cannot get the flexibility and the control of 15-1994 with jp1 interface without spending spending $100 - $300 for a good learning remote. With the jp1 interface, programming a replacement remote only takes seconds which no other remote can duplicate at this price range. I have not tried other PDA based remotes such as Pronto, but I prefer discrete buttons over touch screen since I don't have to look at what I am pressing.

I am now using my 15-1994 to control:
Mitsubishi WS-55805 TV
Yamaha RXV-2095 Receiver
Cambridge Audio D500SE CD Player
Pioneer Elite DV-37 DVD Player
Panasonic LX600 Laser Disc Player
Mitsubishi HSU-69 SVHS VCR
RCA DTC-100 HDTV Set Top Box

Other than the learning curve of jp1 interface, this is probably one of the best value out there.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha Universal

Balance and feel

Device switching, backlight buzz

I don't have much experience with aftermarket remotes, so I was excited to get this one after reading the reviews here. However, after buying the 15-1994 I'm very disappointed. I own a Pioneer VSX-09 receiver, which comes with a universal pre-programmed and learning remote. For receiver control, I give it only a "B", since it will not operate tone controls. For other devices, it earns a "C-". It just doesn't have enough buttons for other devices, but switching to those devices is great.
As for the 15-1994, for receiver control it earns no more than a "D", maybe "D+". First, device switching must be done with the numpad, preventing its use for the tuner section. It would be so much better if switching could be programmed into the remote's device buttons. Second, even with advanced codes there is a dearth of buttons. For instance, you cannot select Dolby or THX, just DSP (which I never use). Since I cannot find an advanced code to do this, it will likely take something like a jd1 interface to decode it. Yes. I can learn it, but that's not all I need to learn: Setup, 5.1 trim, channel up/down, start sequence macros, shutdown macros, not to mention the many other functions to be learned for other devices. There is just not enough memory to do all that.
For other devices, the 15-1994 gets a "C" from me. It would get higher if it had more memory.
Finally, the buzz produced by the backlight is very annoying. Very. I can hear it over the TV.
I just want people to know that this remote will not replace your other remotes. It lacks memory and flexibility.

Similar Products Used:

OEM universal remotes