URC MasterControl RF20 Universal Learning Remote w/ RF Capability

by Universal

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 2.2 x 1 inches ; 8 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000FL9E6K
• Item model number: MasterControl RF20
• Batteries: 4 AAA batteries required. (included)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (65 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
  • #39 in Electronics > Accessories & Supplies > Audio & Video Accessories > Remote Controls > TV Remote Controls
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 14, 2004

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Controls up to 10 Audio/Video components / Provides 453 Macros buttons (up to 190 steps each / Thousands of built-in pre-programmed codes / Power - 4 AAA Batteries (included) / LCD Display Size - 0.88 x 1.88 inch / Learning Function / Backlit Keypad / Size - Depth 1 x Height 8.5 x Width 2.5 inch / Weight – 7.1 oz. (with batteries)

Product Description

MasterControl RF20 is IR & RF capable. No more pointing - changing the way a remote works. Control up to 10 components. Includes DVD Guide for quick & easy setup. Preprogrammed and learning - guaranteed to work with all components. Fully backlit keypad. Customizable LCD screen. 40 Built-In Favorites channels. 432 macros. WITH OPTIONAL POWERBLASTER FOR RF CAPABILITY.

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Highly capable, but you'll need patience and some tricks..., February 9, 2010

By 

radium226 (CA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: URC MasterControl RF20 Universal Learning Remote w/ RF Capability (Electronics)

This remote is highly capable but has a bit of a learning curve--after about 4 hours of fiddling around with it and re-reading the manual, I've got a slick little setup that lets me simply push a "Movie" button or a "Game" button and everything turns on and goes to its proper setting. The navigation buttons control the DVD player, the volume buttons control the amp, and when I'm done, I hit Off, and everything turns off. Very cool.

Other than learning to program it (which is not as easy as it could be but thankfully need only be done once), there are only a few, minor gotchas.

- Tip #1: I highly recommend you not bother with pre-programmed device codes and just go straight for "learning mode" instead. The pre-programmed codes generally make on/off and volume work, but anything else (navigation keys on dvd player, source buttons on amp) is pretty sketchy. Save yourself time trying to figure out what works and what doesn't--just program all your keys manually. Also, the process for setting pre-programmed codes ruins all your nicely-renamed soft-keys (see Tip #2).

- Tip #2: Rename your soft-keys before programming them. This will make the learning process more intuitive and you can put all the useful keys on the first page and erase the obscure ones you never use.

- Tip #3: Take advantage of the ability to hide pages--the less random stuff your user has access to, the easier it'll be to use. I even erased the text on the unused keys and set the left over unused device buttons as "dummy macros" which return the user to the first page of the Main menu.

- Tip #4: Why program real devices? I created "virtual devices" as my first two soft-keys and then also tied them to a macro. The first device is labeled "Movie" and is tied to a macro that turns on the DVD player, TV, amp, and sets the amp to the DVD input. Then the remaining keys in my "Movie Device" are programmed for appropriate devices--the navigation keys control the DVD player, but the volume keys control the amp. The second soft-key is likewise labeled "Game" and functions similarly. Lastly, I set an OFF macro to turn everything off and kick you back to the Main menu.

- Tip #5: The remote has a rather poorly-named feature called "punch through" which can help you accomplish this (its really a re-mapping feature which maps buttons from one device into another). It's useful for making things more convenient--you can change the volume on the amp without having to leave the DVD player menu. Just map the Amp's volume controls to the DVD device.

Cons

- The only buttons that can be set to macros are the soft-keys, and the ON/OFF keys when on the main menu. It'd be nice if you could set any key to a macro no matter where you are. For instance, I would rather have used the actual OFF key for an Off macro in my "Movie" device but instead had to make a soft-key be my OFF macro.

- The manual is not too clear but two or three times over the more complicated items (like macros and "punch throughs") and you'll get it.

- Using pre-programmed codes is not very dependable and also blows away any custom labels. Just use learning mode instead.

- You can't hide any of the Main menu pages (there are two pages with 5 devices each for a total of 10 devices--but if you only have 5 devices, it'd be nice to be able to hide the other page).

- This isn't the RF20's fault, but beware that many devices don't have discrete ON and OFF commands--only a toggle. So if you set a macro to turn off three of your devices but one is already off, you may end up turning it on when you turn the other two off.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Impressive, but with flaws, January 8, 2009

By 

John E. Crider (Magnolia, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: URC MasterControl RF20 Universal Learning Remote w/ RF Capability (Electronics)

Wow! What an impressive universal remote (but with flaws)! Most of the buttons can 'learn' from a device's remote, or can be programmed with 'macros' (a series of button presses). For example, my DirecTV/TiVo remote has no 'OFF' button (but there's one on the box), so I programmed the universal remote's 'OFF' button for this. My Samsung HDTV has a complicated ZOOM procedure, and a complicated source selection procedure, so I simplified them for my needs. Practically all of the buttons on a device's remote can be duplicated on this remote. With cheaper 'universal' remotes, the most useful functions of a device's remote are there, but for other functions I need to keep the original remote around, so why bother. Now with this one, I can put the old individual remotes away.

But then there's the bug. One of the 'features' of this remote is 'erasing commands'. Why would you need this? Well, perhaps you decided to rearrange your screen buttons, and you didn't need one any more, so you cleared the label and deleted the command (key or macro). And here's the bug: the 'learning' method for programming buttons DOES NOT WORK, if a macro has previously been stored to the button. One would expect that any old command on a button would automatically be erased when a new command (key or macro) is saved, but that is not the case. The work-around for the bug is that you must manually erase the command first. So this is clearly what the 'erasing commands' feature is for. But that reason is not documented in the manual, and neither is the bug itself.

In fact, another problem with this remote is the manual. It appears glib and superficial. It leaves out some important details. One of the most powerful features of this remote is the macro capability, but the manual explains this only through one example, for the ON button on the MAIN page. It does not give any general step-by-step procedure for setting up a macro command on a button for an individual component. Most users will eventually be able to figure this out, but the manual should have more detail. In fact, what is missing from the manual is a chapter on how to set up macros for users who are serious about using this powerful capability. Also important is button layout, which is a design issue. For the screen buttons, for example, the most frequently used commands should be on buttons that are closer to the center of the remote -- that is, lower on the screen, whereas less frequently used or more destructive commands (such as RECORD or CLEAR COUNTER, for example) should be further away -- higher on the screen.

You should also be aware of the large amount of time that it can take to set up the remote as you might like it to be. The Pre-Programmed Code Method of setup is fast, but usually doesn't set up all of the buttons that are on the original remote. The Learning Method is also fast, once you have designed the button layout you want. You may, for example, set up the OFF button to actually do RECORD, since the ON button does the ON/OFF function for a component (this is the layout taken by one of the pre-programmed codes for a VCR). But doing the design of the button layout, and particularly learning how the various setup features work, then setting up macros, then changing things when you see how you can improve your layout -- these things can take a really long time. And the manual does not give you any help with some of these issues. And then of course you may want to document some of your layout, especially if the OFF button invokes RECORD, for example.

Yet another little 'bug' is in the manual's macro example. If the ON button is programmed in this way, then the ON buttons for the individual components no longer work as you might expect. That is, you may wish to play a CD and so you just want to turn on the audio amplifier (and the CD player). But now the AUDIO ON button invokes the MAIN ON button, so everything comes on instead. The manual doesn't warn you of these problems.

For the remote itself and its capabilities, I would probably grade it a 4.5 on a scale of 1 to 5. But because of the bug and the manual, it is tempting to grade it as a 1. So the compromise is 3.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good remote, but it's a killer to program,..., October 24, 2007

By 

S. Durann (Northeast, US) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: URC MasterControl RF20 Universal Learning Remote w/ RF Capability (Electronics)

The RF20 is a pretty good remote, but it's a killer to program, esp the Macros. No lie took me ALL DAY and 4 Calls to Technical Support to program the thing. I have to say,URC's Technical Support Dept. was VERY HELPFUL one of the best and got me through it though. The instruction book seems to have everything needed listed but for some reason I found it hard to follow and somewhat annoying to read.
The remote's got a few quirks like it may take a few attempts to get it to learn from your other remotes, and having to come all the way out to square 1 to see if your learned commands took, but nothing I couldn't live with...Beats having 8 remotes on the coffee table. One thing though, my girlfriend hates the thing, feels its too complicated bouncing through the menus...so I guess this solves who controls the remote issue...LOL.
Once programed works well,I'd recommend it's purchase.