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35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Sima SUR-20 Universal Remote, November 27, 2001
As your home theater system grows, so will the number of remotes. While you will know how it all works, your wife, your kids and visitors will be confused. It was my wife who pressured me to get a single, easy to use remote that would make basic operation possible when I was travelling or otherwise not at home. The touch screen devices were the only real choice, because they provided the key pad layout that changes to an intuitive layout for each device. I had been looking at the reviews for these types of remotes for some time, but most to them were priced for the high end. The high end is really, really nice...I just can't afford it. I was prepared to buy the Sony RM-AV2100 for $179.99, when I first saw the new RCA touch screen remote for $99.99. I tried to find some information about the RCA device, but there was none in the stores and nothing on the Internet. I was in Circuit City with my wife and had the Sony remote in my hand ready to pay, when my wife said, "What about this one?". It was the Sima remote for $99.99 with a manufacturer mail-in rebate for $30.00! The salesperson had one out and demonstrated its operation which seemed functional and intuitive. I put the Sony down and bought the Sima.Let me give you the bad news first. It had a very, very limited number of programmable preset codes. The touch keys have only about 2 to 4 preset icons that can be displayed. This is limiting when designating an individual key to perform a device specific function. There is no clock, and macro programming such as "all on/off" require the use of a device key on the keypad. But here is the good news. In spite of having a limited number of preset device codes, the Sima remote has a very easy to use learning mode that allows each touch key to be programmed from the original device remote in a quick, sequential manner that essentially eliminated the need for device codes. The ease of use in the learning mode made it easy to reprogram the keys until I thought it was in the most intuitve layout for myself and my wife, choosing whatever icons were available. The use of a device key for a macro was quite easy to work around, but I would have rather had a separate set of macro touch keys. I really liked the room light sensing, and the "touch on" for the keypad back lighting...the Sony remote does not have that feature! Overall, I can highly recommend the Sima SUR-20 as a solution to the universal remote problem. It is has intuitive layouts and is easily programmed. As it turned out, I had to tell my wife how to use it over the phone, and she had no trouble! I didn't have a chance to checkout the RCA remote, but at $99.99 with a $30.00 rebate, the Sima SUR-20 could have been my highest value audio/video purchase ever...right at the brake in the price-performance curve!!
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