Need "wife friendly" remote (1 Viewer)

[Pamela]

Roger-

I got a refurbished TSU1000 from J and R, and I've had no problems with it. It's worked perfectly. No cracks, blemishes or malfunctions (of course, as I write this, it's probably self-destructing). I'm really, really happy with it. After reading all of the posts here about the preference for hard buttons, I thought I might not like it, but I really love it. I'm having a blast with it!

 

[Brian Schucher]

The RC2000 is a great remote but i like the MX500 better. I find the display easier to read and the battery life i have had so far with the MX has FAR outdone the RC. I was replacing the batts in the RC at least every month. Im still going on my original batts in the MX for three months now. BTW i have the original RC. Dont know if the battery life is better on the later models

 

[Guy Kuo]

The hard buttons issue on the Pronto is way overblown. In fact it has plenty of hard buttons, but you have to be smart about how you assign them. On my CCF I eschewed the standard usages for the buttons on the right side of the remote. Instead I use those for the most common transport and channel change functions. The two buttons on the bottom I use as volume up and down.

For instance during DVD Playback. The hard buttons on the right work as Play, FFD, Rev, Chap Fwd, Chap Back. That gives me most of the functions I need to work with a playing DVD without looking at the screen. For menu arrows and other less often used controls, I use soft buttons.

During VCR usage, those same hard buttons serve as Play, FFD, Rew, Channel Up, Channel Down. Again, this means I have 85 to 90% of my button pushes accessible on hard buttons.

During TiVo usage, the buttons are Play, FFD, Rev, Skip Forward, Skip Backward. See the pattern?

Do the button assignments carefully, and you'll get the advantages of hard buttons despite there being only a seven hard buttons. That will let you do 90% of your button pushing without invoking the LCD touch panel, but the advanced controls are easily accessible as well.

 

[Chris Maynard]

Guy - I couldn't have said it better myself. I know because I have tried so many times.

I believe the Pronto is the best remote you can get for the money.

 

[JonDeutsch]

I'm surprised noone has mentioned the upcoming valhala of remotes: The Marantz RC9200!!
Picture here:
http://www.remotecentral.com/cedia01/photo001.htm
Features:
- A touchscreen (COLOR) that looks similar in size to the Pronto's screen.
- 15 hard buttons! (more than 2x that of the Pronto)
As a current Pronto owner (love it), I can obviously see the need for more hard buttons - especially the 4 navigation buttons. They are obviously preferable. However, I love the flexibilty and intelligence I can give my remote. The new Marantz looks like it goes a long way towards becoming the "ultimate" remote for folks who like touchscreens.
Since Marantz has added the main navigation buttons to the hard button area, the touchscreen will have a lot more room for auxillary buttons, and they can be a lot bigger as well.
Bravo Marantz! Now when will they release this thing? And rumor has it that it's about $1200 (ouch).