Philips Magnavox PMDVD6 Universal 6 Device Learning Remote Control

by Philips

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 11 x 4 x 1.8 inches ; 8 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0000UUXAC
• Item model number: PMDVD6
• Batteries: 2 AAA batteries required.
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 21, 2003

Product Description

This 6 device remote has dedicated DVD keys that are highlighted in blue on the key pad for easy referencing. It has advanced satellite functions in an easy keypad design. It also has a battery saver which deactivates remote if keys get stuck.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Does what a $70 Learning remote does, but for $15!", March 2, 2005

By 

spaceace (washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Philips Magnavox PMDVD6 Universal 6 Device Learning Remote Control (Electronics)

Pros:
Modern, thin design fits well in hand. It's a cheap LEARNING remote!

Cons:
The "one color" buttons may make it hard for those used to Crayola colored buttons to remember button functions. Small button labels and Finicky Learning newer DISH remotes.

I find complaints about the codes that come with this remote not working for this or that home theater item laughable. This is a LEARNING remote. If the codes don't work (and by definition that's why it's called a learning remote, you're paying for usage flexibility) you teach it how to replace the old remote. In today's gadget filled world, to have a 4 digit code developed for every US, Japanese, Korean, Tom, Dick and Harry brand of whatever is an awfully high expection for a consumer. Especially when many of us are budget conscious and would rather buy Apexs vs Sony. Having more "Me Too" brands out there make things cost less for us, but keeping up with codes for everything is a lot to expect of a company. Some years ago, universal remotes were made with a fixed number of codes. If none of the codes worked, you were out of luck. LEARNING remotes were available, but were usually the cost of a small TV itself. Well now learning remotes have come down in price and this Philips PMDVD6 is evidence of this...and what a good thing it is, too. I bought mine at a local Target.

I have a Vizio plasma [fr Costco], an "Aspire" progressive scan DVD [fr RadioShack], and a Dish Network 811 HD receiver. The remotes for the plasma and Dish were like the older universal remotes, if the codes didn't work or if the brand wasn't listed, you were usually out of luck, but with the PMDVD6 I was able to eliminate having 3 remotes and have a single, sleek remote reside on my coffee table. For those of you reading this as a result of Googling how to teach a learning remote to take the place of the Dish Network remote, the key is to change the remote address to "1". (See the Dish manual). Anyway, teaching one remote to learn the other is simple, but admittedly, a finicky process. Simply face the remotes to each other, preferrably on a table and not in your hands. You get into the learning mode in the PMDVD6 and hit the button you want to program on the PMDVD6. Then hit the button on the remote you are trying to eliminate. When you get the acknowledgement blink from the Philips, you've now programmed the PMDVD6 button to do what you wanted to do on the old remote. You go through the process for every button you use, like: Guide, Last channel, Info, mute, arrow left, arrow right, etc. Sometimes you have to get creative because newer remotes have "page up" and "page down" buttons. The PMDVD6 doesn't have a button labeled for this, but I use the FF or REV buttons. When controlling the program guide to page up or down, you don't need a FF or REV button, so using them as substitutes work. That's part of the beauty of this remote--the flexibility of programming almost any button on thePMDVD6. The bad part is that sometimes (especially with the UHF DISH remote) you have to try this process several times for the PMDVD6 to learn the button, but have patience, because it will work. Programming the DVD and the TV remotes into the PMDVD6 was a lot faster.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just what I needed., April 4, 2005

By 

Chris Faulkner - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Philips Magnavox PMDVD6 Universal 6 Device Learning Remote Control (Electronics)

This was just what I needed. It controlled the TV, VCR and DVD player perfect with codes and it was easy to teach it the controls for my Emerson Stereo. Also adding extra features for the TV, DVD and VCR was very easy.
just for refrence:
TV - JVC
DVD-Apex
VCR-RCA
Stereo-GE/Emerson

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great functionality for the price, June 21, 2005

By 

C. Chesser (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Philips Magnavox PMDVD6 Universal 6 Device Learning Remote Control (Electronics)

I was reluctant to buy this because I own a Philips Tivo that Philips gives absolutely no customer support for. But since this remote was cheap and has buillt-in Tivo functionality (and I broke my Tivo remote trying to make it work propertly) I decided to try it out.

I was disappointed to see that Philips still hadn't figured out how to make a remote properly operate channel changes with more than about 75% reliability on such an "off brand" cable boxes as Motorola (!) but it works at least as well as the original Tivo remote for this.

The good part was that it was easy to get it to operate my TV (Mitsubishi), my DVD player (Sony) and my VCR (Panasonic). Granted I don't use it for complex functions but if necessary I can drag out those original remotes. I once had a very expensive universal remote (Sony) with a touch screen that functionally was no better than this one, and besides it required two hands to operate because it was so wide and you couldn't operate it by feel because of the touch screen. With this remote you will learn the main functions by feel quickly. Although I'm guessing Philips will also provide zero support for this remote (their website pretends not to even recognize the model number and it only shows the remotes costing well into the hundreds of dollars), but if it breaks it's at least priced like a throwaway. It doesn't look cheap and plastic like many universal remotes either. Hard to go wrong here for the price.