Sony RMNU1 HomeShare Universal Remote (Black)

by Sony

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 3.7 x 0.7 inches ; 8 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B004K1EOCU
• Item model number: RMNU1
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #21,192 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

HomeShare™ Universal Remote RMN-U1

Gain instant access to your wireless audio and home entertainment systems with the elegant, easy-to-use HomeShare™ universal remote controller. •Wirelessly control, browse and play music from your PC     music library to HomeShare® products.4 • On-remote guided set-up makes adding devices easy. • Using your Wi-Fi® network, wirelessly control your music     on your HomeShare® speakers. • 5-inch touch screen for instant access to your music     and home entertainment systems. • Connect to WPS compatible Wi-Fi® routers with the simple     press of a button. No passwords or lengthy numbers     to remember.

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Harmonize your home

It starts with just one speaker

Take your music wireless with just one speaker. Sony HomeShare™
network speakers and docks allow you to play and share music
wirelessly from multiple sources - like HomeShare Blu-ray Disc™
players, docks or AV systems.

Sync Up Your Music with Party Streaming Mode

Party Streaming™ technology synchronizes your speakers
to play the same song in every area of your house - so you can
move the party from room to room without missing a single beat.³

Music Everywhere HomeShare lets you effortlessly stream music to virtually any area of the house, change tracks, adjust volume and more at the source via remote control or even your iPhone®, iPod® or iPad® when using the free Network Audio Remote.2

Wireless Technology makes it easy With an easy-to-install wireless setup, HomeShare taps into the existing Wi-Fi® signal in your home, so you can focus on exactly where you want your music and how you want to control it.

Your music and more

Enjoy the music you want to hear, the way you want to hear it. With a
HomeShare Blu-ray Disc™ system or dock, you can access your personal
music library from a variety of sources, or stream internet music from sites
like Pandora^® (Coming Soon), Slacker^®, or vTuner.¹

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Setup is Simple

Connect the speaker to your network router with the supplied cable and follow the simple on-screen instructions.

Step 1

Insert CD-ROM into your computer and connect speaker to your router with supplied cable.

Step 2

Follow simple on-screen instructions to configure
your network.

Step 3

Place your speakers and access your music through any
of the control options available, such as the Network
Audio Remote.

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How it Works

Party Streaming Mode

Synchronize all your HomeShare speakers to play the
same song in every area of your house. Perfect for
parties or moving room to room.³

Room-by-Room Mode

Your HomeShare enabled Blu-ray Disc™ player and Home
Theater systems do more than play movies, in Party Streaming
mode, stream internet music or play a CD, then connect other
HomeShare devices and enjoy music throughout the house.²

Blu-ray Disc Player & Home Theater
System Connection

Room-by-Room mode allows you to play different songs
on different speakers throughout your house - so you can
set the right tone in every room, on every occasion.⁴

1. Broadband speed of at least 2.5 Mbps recommended (10 Mbps for HD). Content subject to change and may require fees.
     Wireless connectivity requires an 802.11 home network (802.11n recommended).
2. Requires devices connected to the same wireless home network.
3. Requires Sony HomeShare compatible products and a home network.
4. Requires a home network with content stored on a DLNA® compliant PC or server, and HomeShare compatible devices. See dlna.org for compatibility.

©2011 Sony Electronics Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Features and specifications are subject to change without notice.
Sony, HomeShare, Party Streaming and the Sony make.believe logo are trademarks of Sony. Blu-ray Disc is a trademark of Blu-ray Disc Association. Wi-Fi is a trademark of Wi-Fi Alliance.
iPod, iPhone and iPad are trademarks of Apple Computers, Inc. All other trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners.

Product Description

Sony HomeShare universal remote provides simple activity-based control of home theater products and the ability to send music through your home network to HomeShare speakers in any room. Navigate your music with jacket art and send songs to specific HomeShare speakers in any room. Simple guided set-up makes activity creation and independent and grouped control of HomeShare speakers easy with no PC programming required.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Almost, But Not Quite Good Enough, September 23, 2011

By 

Allan Hirt - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sony RMNU1 HomeShare Universal Remote (Black) (Electronics)

I have an old Marantz RC9500 that unfortunately does not have support for its software on newer systems. So I've been in the market for a new universal remote that won't cost an arm and a leg. I'm not a huge Harmony/Logitech fan (I had the Harman Kardon TC30 a few years back which wasn't bad, but I wanted something a bit more customizable, hence the Marantz). Logitech seems to have the market all sewn up at this point, and I was pleasantly surprised to find the Sony at about the same price point. I was considering getting the Sony Tablet S, but it didn't have any macros/programmability that way.

So the Sony shows up and I opened the box. I liked the way it felt in hand. It has a nice size and is pretty balanced. I like the fact it's got a little nub instead of a directional disk with an OK/Enter button in the middle. The screen was a nice size. The only real negative was that the volume and mute buttons were on the top. That was inconvenient.

Unlike its nice exterior, getting it up and running was a bit different. While it was easy and intuitive, it ultimately didn't work for me.

1. When setting up the Activities, such as watching a movie, you can't tell it which input to select on your receiver. It'll turn it all on, but after that was a bit ... well, not as customizable as I would have hoped.
2. It has pretty good support for different vendors and device types, but all you get it generic kinds of remotes for that brand and device (Type 1, Type 2, etc.). So it's up to you to sort all that out. Not so much fun. I would have rather Sony implemented a real database of sorts to select the device by model.
3. Because of #2, some profiles were missing buttons. This is where the big fail came in for me. I have a Sony SACD player and there are two buttons (HDMI and one to switch between stereo and multichannel) that were not in the CD player profile. So I tried to have the remote learn the IR commands. You would think I was asking it to interpret a foreign language. That meant to me there was a bug somewhere in that the IR code those mapped to may not be in the Sony. It could map other buttons on other devices. The irony of it failing on a Sony product's remote isn't lost on me.
4. There is seemingly no way to turn WiFi off and just have it be IR-based. Maybe there's a way, but it had the other flaws so I didn't bother to check.

I ordered the Harmony/Logitech 1100 and while it has a smaller screen, it does everything I need it to do. All of my devices were in their database, and I got it all set up (including what buttons I wanted mapped where) in a few hours. I didn't have to have it learn any IR commands. It's not as nice as my old Marantz in some ways, but it works as advertised. At the end of the day, that's all I wanted. The 1100 is smaller and lighter than the Sony. Time will tell if that's a good or bad thing. It's got its share of quirks as well, but I'll take a working solution over one that does not meet my needs.

Despite winding up with the Harmony which was better for my needs, for most people who have a more simple setup, I'd actually recommend the Sony. It feels better (to me), and has a bigger screen. The nub is more tactile. Is it perfect? No. But what is?

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not so good as a dedicated IR remote, November 3, 2011

By 

Angelina Izzi-Umemoto (Colorado Springs, CO) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sony RMNU1 HomeShare Universal Remote (Black) (Electronics)

I was really looking forward to receiving this remote as I had an RM-AV3000 and loved it (sadly it stopped working after several years). However, after living with this remote for a few days, I'm very disappointed. It is easy and somewhat intuitive to setup and start using, however, this remote lacks the ability to input a code specific to the device you're trying to program, like the RM-AV3000 did. As an alternative, it choose a specific type ("type 1, type 2, etc.) once you choose the manufacturer of the device your programming, and rarely do all the functions work as they should, so you wind up using the learn feature anyway. I would have liked to have the ability to input manufacturer specific codes into the remote. My Plasma HDTV made by panasonic uses dedicated buttons for ON and OFF- this remote, as far as I can tell, does not have the ability use specific ON/OFF commands for powering up/down your device, rather it uses a generic 'power toggle', which is fine for most modern electronics, except those that use dedicated buttons for on and off. The biggest problem I have with this remote is how slow it is. Using the activity command (watch TV, for instance), it takes a full 15 seconds to turn on my TV, cable box and receiver (My harmony 880 does it in 1/4 the time- the RM-AV3000 was even faster)- this is completely unacceptable. Not only that, but there's a lag-time between everything turning on, and when the volume control starts working. One can adjust the delay between commands, but the fastest delay is 1 second, which by today's standards is terribly slow. My other gripe was the very poor IR signal strength- you'd think this category of remote would provide a very strong IR signal, however, in my brief experience, it does not. The final complaint- my AV receiver is made by Sony (a mere 2 years old), yet, upon programming the RMNU1 it didn't work! I had to learn every function of my Sony receiver to the RMNU1, even though the instructions say it's 100% compatible with Sony electronics. I find it difficult to believe this is truly the case, so perhaps it was user error, although all my other devices seemed to work just fine.

Overall, I really liked the size, ergonomics, and weight of the RMNU1, but it has shortcomings that for me, make it a painful device to use. I'll be returning this remote and searching for something different. It's too bad, because I really liked it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Caution: Requires Thinking to Program and Operate, July 12, 2011

By 

J. Russell (Bolivar County, Mississippi) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sony RMNU1 HomeShare Universal Remote (Black) (Electronics)

Okay, I do admit that i am a BIG fan of Sony Electronics. However, there have been some disappointments experienced with some of thier offerings (i.e., VGX-TP20E). But for the majority of my experiences, I have been extremely satisfied. Sony's RMN-U1 is a step above most touchscreen universal remotes and exceeded my expectations in funcionality, customizable programmability, and solid construction. I will be enjoying this item for quite a while.