Sky Plus remote

This is the remote control for Sky plus boxes, It will work all Sky plus boxes, you need a different remote for the HD box.
It will not work standard Sky boxes.

A triumph of style over substance!

There's no doubt that this remote is beautiful and very well made - and I was expecting great things from it. Was I disappointed!

For a start ergonomically it's much too long for single-handed operation and it's much to heavy. It also relies on a jog-wheel to select functions, but the gearing of this is such that it requires a great number of turns to do anything. The resistance of the wheel is also tiring and just when you thought you'd stopped at the function you want, it will slip back to the previous one when you let go. It's also poor at this price that the bottom half of this remote does not illuminate. Bear in mind that the electro-luminescent display only lights for up to 15 seconds, otherwise it's completely blank. There's no motion sensor so you have to either flick the jog-wheel or touch the screen for a second to get the display to light up.

However, the electro-luminescent display itself and the size of its buttons are excellent. But the number of functions on this is very limited. You can add extra functions, but these are few and mostly not useful. Moreover, you can't choose them - they're pre-set, and you can't add them to the touch display, only to the ridiculously long-winded jog dial wheel.

The learning function of this remote is also poor: I have a new Toshiba TV, but the remote won't control all the functions and is reluctant to learn them direct from the Toshiba remote. Also the SRU9600 will NOT control the Humax 9200 PVR, although it lists Humax among the brands in the PVR list. I spoke to Philips who gave me some extra codes to try - which didn't work. They then confirmed the non-compatibility.

Overall this remote is not worth the money, and frankly is not worth buying unless you want a sophisticated interface with basic functions. I now have the Logitech 525 which is superb.

NOT XP COMPATIBLE

If you have media Center XP then DO NOT BUY THIS REMOTE. The receiver does not work with XP, only the remote works and you have to have an older 2005 receiver for it to do that. Don't waste your money if you don't have the receiver already.

Not really universal

Be very careful, when this says 'universal' it means 'universal for TVs', not universal - as others do - for types of device: i.e. TV, DVD, SAT, CD, AMP etc. So be very careful it's what you want. It wasn't what I do.

Not a very good choice

This product has some rather annoying and possibly major design faults. The little wheel that you can see in the picture is used to navigate the main LCD screen and is used to choose between appliances, unfortunately it is so sensitive that you might select TV and in the process of pushing the required buttons, your suddenly turning the Hifi on or the DVD player off.

The menu system for adding steps required to watch tv or record dvd is annoying. During the learning process, that could consist of 10 button combinations or more, there is no back button or redo button, so if you make a mistake at the end, you'll have to start again.

A colour LCD screen is a lovely thing to see, but it brings it's own issues. Presumably because of the battery drain, Philips has set the timeout for the screen to a very low 2 seconds (This can be changed by the user) and before any button press is sent to the appliance the screen will switch on. This causes a delay of about 1 to 2 seconds between your first button press and the appliance responding. A small grievance.

All the appliance that I use are Philips, TV, Freeview, Hifi and DVD recorder, therefore I would expect this remote to support all functionality for each of these devices. Unfortunately the only way to get all the devices working correctly is to teach the universal remote all the different key strokes. This is standard procedure for most universal remotes, but I thought same brand would mean something. Once the remote has all of this stored, you have to access the keys through a function button and then spin that wheel to choose the key. This is slow and annoying.

Actually works!

I needed two remotes replacing so I bit the bullet and bought this. I have tried cheaper all-in-ones and they were useless.
This one however not only looks great but it actually works. You tune automatically - will take you good 10mins of reading the manual and then you simply point and press and it will be tuned in within a couple of minutes.

I have manage to get it to operate my Bush TV, Sagem freeview box, ALBA DVD player and an old video (it can store up to 4 appliances). It works the teletext and menu functions well too - you do have to figure out which buttons do what.

I bought this form somewhere else at a lower price - don't suppose I can say where. Amazon have fantastic customer service however so I still recommend it at this price.

It if you have any probs tuning it it then hold the remote against the led light on your tv/dvd etc - sometimes it struggles to tune when lots of things are in it's reach. One you have tuned it in then you simply use it like you would any normal remote except you don't let the baby play with this one as it looks too nice.

Philips remote

Ipurchased the wireless remote sender units to operate a Panasonic Sky Digital receiver. Unfortunately it doesn't work with the Sky digibox (Philips warn that it doesn't work with certain manufacturers equipment, but doesn't refer to Panasonic). I'd check with them before purchasing.