| Does this sound like a process at your house? Pick up | | | | much more customized to your system, thus making |
| TV remote, press power button, pick up surround | | | | everything extremely simple to operate. Not only can |
| sound remote, press power button, pick up cable box | | | | this type of remote control your home theater |
| remote, press power button, pick back up surround | | | | components, new advances from Universal and Lutron |
| remote, press correct input button for cable, pick back | | | | have made it pretty simple for the remote to control |
| up TV remote, press correct button for surround | | | | your theater lighting as well. This allows your dealer to |
| sound receiver, repeat until you get picture and sound? | | | | do some pretty cool stuff, like making the lights come |
| This used to be standard procedure for everyone but | | | | up to a dim level when you press the pause button on |
| the ultra wealthy until just a few years ago. Imagine a | | | | your DVD player! |
| world where a properly programmed remote could | | | | New RF technology has come about in recent years |
| send out all of those commands, in the right order, with | | | | that makes things even better. It used to be, if you |
| just the press of one button!! | | | | wanted to hide your gear, you mounted a small IR |
| Programmable remotes have made remarkable | | | | pickup device that gathered in the IR signal from |
| strides in price/performance ratio over the last several | | | | remote controls and transmitted this down a wire, |
| years. We have also seen a change in the way we | | | | back to a device that sent the signal out to all of the |
| use our systems compared to a few years ago. As | | | | gear. This worked fine until flat panel TV's were |
| interactive menus have become so much more | | | | introduced. Flat panel TV's spray out an IR interference |
| popular for everything including cable, satellite, DVD, | | | | pattern that made this type of pickup pretty unreliable. |
| and gaming, the left/right/up/down/enter buttons on a | | | | Just recently RF remotes have come out that let you |
| remote have become by far and away the ones | | | | send the signal via radio frequency to a small base |
| most used to navigate our systems. | | | | station near your equipment, while also sending a direct |
| These days, the wand type of programmable remote | | | | IR feed to the TV. This is simply the best of both |
| is best suited for the new navigation world our | | | | worlds and is highly recommended. |
| systems live in. | | | | When you think about the money that can be spent |
| You will find two categories of universal type remotes | | | | on a complete home theater system, a good |
| here. For the more budget conscious, there are models | | | | programmable remote is the best possible investment. |
| you can program yourself. These include remotes | | | | It truly is your constant point of interfacing to the |
| from Harmony and others. The advantage to these is | | | | system. Get it done right, and your system should |
| their lower cost, the disadvantage is, to make them | | | | provide you with great pleasure; try to cut costs and |
| simple for everyone, they lack the ability to do some | | | | use the factory remotes usually results in quite a bit of |
| custom things. The other types come from Universal, | | | | frustration or just one person in the family who can |
| RTI, Pronto, Crestron, Control 4, etc are typically | | | | figure out how to use and enjoy the system! |
| programmed by a professional dealer and can be | | | | |