URC WR7 Universal Remote Control for up to 7 A/V Components

• 4 My Favorite Channel Buttons
• Simple Sound.
• Macro Power.
• Combines 7 remotes into 1.
• Quick Setup

The WR7 is the best remote I've owned. I love it. So does my wife. It does everything I want (and I'm picky), is guest-friendly and geek-friendly, and it costs twenty bucks. You should buy it.

Other reviews have summarized well what's great about this remote, so I'm just going to add some geek details.

What I love:

Separate on and off buttons. Simple, but a huge ease-of-use win. Many devices now have discrete on/off codes, and this remote finally lets you use them. A big help to reliability when you've programmed a "system on" macro.

No LCD screen. Nice idea, but more often than not a crutch that replaces good design. Demands that you look down at the remote, takes space away from keys, and is typically butt-ugly.

Programmable macros, even on the device keys. So you can program the "DVD" button to switch the inputs on the receiver, the "TV" button to switch the Tivo to live TV mode, etc. Similar to the much-hyped "activity based" Harmony/Logitech remotes.

Decent IR emitter. So you hardly ever have to hit a key more than once, and macros execute reliably.

"Punch through" capability on most keys, so that the volume up/down keys can control the AV receiver volume no matter which device the rest of the remote is talking to.

Decent remote code database, and decent learning capability.

I've set ours up so that "power on" turns everything on using discrete codes, switches the receiver to the Tivo, sends the Tivo to the "Now playing" screen, and leaves the remote talking to the Tivo. This is 80% of our use cases taken care of. The "power off" key switches everything off using discrete codes, there's another 10% of the use cases. All of the device keys power up the relevant devices and switch the receiver inputs.

My last remote was a One-For-All 9910 that I'd JP1'd the heck out of, and this remote is better in almost all respects from a usability point of view. The 9910 was far more hackable, but for all the effort the end result was unsatisfying. Too many keys, and yet still missing some.

There are two aspects that could be improved in this remote:

Programming "advanced codes" is a bit weak. There's a way to access any key code the device's IR protocol can support, but it's hard to use. Since my original manufacturer's remotes didn't have keys for the discrete power on/off codes, I actually relied on my previous remote (the 9910) to help learn those.

Wish it had RF, so it could go through the cabinet doors. The after-market RF extenders are a stopgap that I'm considering, but they don't look that great and are way more expensive than the remote.

All up, I'm extremely happy with WR7. If you're up for a little bit of programming, you can make this one fine remote.

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I bought this to replace my universal remote that the dogs chewed up. This remote has several features, and lots of buttons. I like the red light up buttons as it makes it so much easier to find the button I am looking for in the dark.

My favourite thing about this remote is the many ways in which to find that pesky code. I find that often typing in the code for your brand of TV, VCR, whatever doesn't work and you can spend hours trying to figure out the proper code. There are at least four different ways (including a list of codes) to program this remote so something will work for your device. My favourite thing is the "learning" mode. You simply put it into "learning" mode and then copy the functions from your old remote to the new one and you can choose which buttons go where. I programmed my TV, cable box, and DVD player all within about 5 minutes and without having to enter a single code. Brilliant! Plus I was able to transfer the sleep function onto a key of my choice (that is the only button that seems to be missing from this remote).

My only complaint is that it is rather large, but that can be a good thing too as it's easier to spot in the couch cushions or under a blanket.

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I wanted a universal remote for our home theater setup (Panasonic TV, Onkyo receiver, Tivo, and Sony Blu-ray) that didn't cost that much and didn't suck; from the reviews I'd read, most universal remotes seemed to do one or the other -cost more than I wanted to spend (Harmony) or suck in at least one important way. This remote seemed to be well-reviewed, and it was a nice price.

It delivers: It took me 15 minutes to program it for all four devices, soup to nuts. Its quick-program function found the TV; its "scroll through codes" function found all three other devices. Then I set up punch-through audio, so that the receiver was the only audio output regardless of mode; macro power-on and -off, so that one button turns on the TV and receiver, and another turns everything off; and used the learning feature to teach it the dozen or so specialized buttons I needed from other remotes (Tivo skip back/ahead, Blu-ray open/close and chapter forward/back, etc.).

In terms of downsides, it's heavy, but not uncomfortably so (and certainly not to the point of being an issue), and it lacks some key buttons for a DVD or Blu-ray player, like open/close. Most universal remotes seem to be missing those, however, and it wasn't hard to pick unused buttons and map those functions to them.

I love the one-button backlighting, and the button layout overall is excellent. The tips in the manual are helpful -for example, it recommends that if you have a plasma TV, you take it into another room to teach it button functions from other remotes; that did the trick for me. Having three programming modes was very handy.

On the whole it does what it says on the tin for a great price, and is an excellent remote.

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I have programmed this remote with a bizarre quantity of devices and functions, one of which was completely customizing it to work Windows Media Center. This remote will do everything, and every single review I have read so far is wrong in stating limitations of memory or "it can't learn certain functions." Putting it in your review is fair, but it's very unlikely that this remote will have a problem with any code on any device, so do not hesitate to buy it thinking you might have that problem.

There are some remote functions that are harder to learn because when you are holding your finger down on the old remote no matter how long it only broadcasts a singular blip of signal. Most functions will have a continuous stream of signal so you can hold it down until the remote has gotten the code.

When reviewing the remote and claiming your trouble, perhaps tell the make and model of your device. Was it the DVD player you bought at the day-after-thanksgiving special at your local Piggy Wiggly? Some brand nobody would ever have heard of like Wackoshiba?

Someone else reported that they ran out of memory trying to program the remote. Having reprogrammed like 30 additional functions at one point, I don't believe that actually happened. (I say that with kindness.) What I think you're doing is you programmed all the devices and you then tried to remap buttons all over the place. The device handles everything you can think of by default if there are functions you want to add in there, that's fine, but you can't possibly have more than 2 or 3 functions per device that you might want to add to the remote. It sounds more like you are moving functions around instead of adding functions that are missing because this thing does everything, on every device type, on every brand. There are no missing keys, except for one...

One person noted that there's no sleep button you're right, except that you can probably activate a menu where there is the sleep function, and then click-click-ok and your sleep timer is set. Also, when you switch to TV, surely there's an extra button on the remote that you don't actually need for TV operation, just reprogram it to be your sleep button. For example, does "pause" work on your TV? Then program that key to be "sleep" for TV.

The real problem with this remote is in the design and I know my claim is perhaps equally obscure as the ones I call out above. I bought the remote for the lighted keys. Well, for myself and people with bad eyesight, the lighted keys will not help you to read the keys any better. Once you've learned the keys, you need the light to know where you're pressing, but it's pretty hard to actually read the keys. What is really a problem is the "light" key is all the way at the bottom so that if you are using one hand, you have to inch your way down to the bottom of the remote until you reach that key, press it, and then inch your way back up... but the real problem is I can't always do that fast enough before the light even goes out. The light is way, way too short in duration. Maybe that's because I can't read the remote easily, so it takes me too long to execute my function?

Even with the lighted keys, the light is red. It's not appropriate to backlight a remote with red light. And it's not like the button is lighted red and the label on the button is a solid color. Instead, there is a graphic stenciled on the button where the button's text is the lighted red area, and the rest of the button is coated in black ink. It causes the text label to actually be smaller, because it's an outlined stencil graphic. I've tried to use the remote with an elderly client and he could simply not make any use of the remote because he couldn't read it in daylight and he couldn't read it using the red backlight. (In the daylight, the text is dark grey from the clear rubber/plastic against the black stencil. How is anyone going to easily read that?) This style design isn't unique to this remote; there are other remotes with similar reverse printing like this. He can see solid white writing on a button, or he can see a [big] black number on a lighted button, but he cannot make out the stenciled number on a lighted button.

So I'd say the real problem with this remote is that it will take a while to learn how to use it, and until you learn how to use it, you'll need a flashlight to see what you're doing. There are some remotes you've used and you know they designed it so you would grab it in one spot most of the time and they made the relevant buttons right there where you can reach them without moving your hand around. On this remote, I'm sliding up and down the thing all day long when I can see what I'm doing.

However I have replaced multiple remotes with this unit and I use it willingly. I hope they release a next generation where the light comes on and stays on when you press ANY button!

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This remote is a screaming deal for the price. Stop looking at the Harmony remotes and buy this one.

My Harmony 659 suddenly stopped working after two years (I think the memory got corrupted), and I needed a replacement. Initially I was looking at the Harmony 880 and Harmony One, but couldn't get over the exorbitant prices and quality control issues. According to a couple of home theater forums online, the pro home theater installers usually go with URC or RTI remotes instead of Harmony, so I got curious. I stumbled upon this remote on Amazon. I was a bit nervous about replacing my Harmony with a screenless remote. My fears were unfounded. I was also looking at the URC R50 remote which has a huge screen, but I didn't like the button layout as much and this remote does everything I need it to at a fourth of the price.

This remote is incredibly easy to set up and customize. I hated using the Logitech Harmony software to update my old remote and customizing buttons was a pain. I had this remote set up in a half hour to control all of my components exactly like I want them, and it feels very responsive.

My main setup includes a Samsung PN50A550 plasma TV, Onkyo SR607 receiver, Comcast RNG110 cable box, and Sony PS3 with Nyko Blu-Wave remote/USB IR dongle. The code for the PS3 in the manual didn't work, but using the learning function on the remote, I was able to program in all the Nyko's commands in about 30 seconds, and it now controls my PS3 perfectly (except the Power On function, which requires a separate AC adapter costing at least $60 -for that price, I can just get up and touch the Power button on the console).

Pros:

* Macro function is awesome and works just like the Activity buttons on the Harmony remotes, except you can tweak the order it turns things on and program in delays for commands. You can program the device buttons (TV, DVD, etc.) to control the device if you just hit the key once, or execute a macro if you hold the key for two seconds (e.g. holding DVD turns on my TV, amp, and sets my amp input to my PS3).

* Separate Power On and Power Off buttons are very nice. You can power on/off each device or power on/off your whole system with a macro.

* Punch through options for volume, channel, Rew/FF/Play, etc. For example, this means that regardless of which activity you're using, you can set it up so that the volume control always is done through the amplifier.

* Good layout of buttons, although I agree with a previous reviewer that the Volume and Channel buttons should be a bit lower down on the remote closer to where your thumb rests.

* Feels solid in the hand, and costs twenty bucks.

Cons: can't really think of any! I don't miss having an LCD screen at all. Agree with previous reviewer 'JLR' that the screen is usually "a crutch that replaces good design. Demands that you look down at the remote, takes space away from keys, and is typically butt-ugly."

I look forward to many years with this remote.