Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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173 of 181 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
GREAT FUN!!, February 5, 2005
This item is GREAT! When you put it on your keyring, it looks like it is nothing more than the remote for a car alarm.
If anyone asks you what it is, you tell them exactly that. If you have your keys in your hand as you walk through a store, it is not unusual, but just carrying this device by itself might cause suspicion. PUT IT ON YOUR KEYRING! Keep your keys in your hand, try not to be too obvious or point your keys at the TV sets! Keep your arms down at your sides, it has a fairly good range.
Going into stores that have large displays of television sets, it is fun to hit the button and watch the sets go off. Some go off quickly, others take a while as the unit gets to that specific brand. Some sets can take quite a while to turn off.
Sony must be the very first code in this unit, as Sony sets go off imediately. Panasonic sets take 5 - 10 seconds.
At best buy, when brat kids are playing the video games, this unit will turn off the sets so they can't play anymore.
The one thing people forget, is that the same signal that turns TV's off, is the same exact signal that also turns TVs ON!! So if a TV set is off, then using this device will turn it ON.
So another great use is when you are at a restaurant and they don't have the TV set on, you can turn the set on, you just can't change channels and volume, you are stuck with what it was last set at.
GE makes a universal remote in which you keep pressing a button called "CODE SEARCH" until your TV set goes on, then hit ENTER, and all the features of the remote then work with that TV set. However, bringing a regular sized universal remote everywhere you go is not much fun, so this "car alarm remote" disguised universal ON/OFF TV remote is a nice thing to have on your keyring.
NOTE: If you are using this in department stores with security cameras, remember that video cameras can SEE the infrared light that these remotes use, that your naked eye can not.
(Point your TV remote at your own camcoder or digital camera, and you will SEE it light up like a flashlight through the video screen. By the way, this is a great way to test to make sure if a TV remote is working or broken. If you see the flashes of light with your camera, then the remote is fine, your TV has the problem, or something is blocking or standing in front of the sensor on your TV)
So if you have this aimed in the direction of a security camera in the store, it could be detected by store security. Then again, you are not doing anything illegal, the worst they can do is ask you to leave the store if you are caught having fun with this device.
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UPDATE - Battery Replacement
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After using this device for several months, I noticed that it would not turn off all sets anymore. Mystery solved, the batteries were just getting low.
THIS PART IS IMPORTANT.... When you unscrew and open the device, you see ONE 3V battery. People might replace this battery, find that the unit still does not work and think the unit is defective. There are TWO MORE 3V batteries on the OTHER SIDE OF THE PC BOARD! Those power the LED and need to be replaced too.
The first side with just the ONE 3 volt battery was a thin 2016 battery and I happened to have a 2032 which is double the thickness and fit perfectly in the battery slot. Turns out the website for this device even says to PUT a 2032 in the unit, even though it came from the factory with the 2016 in it.
Both are 3 volt batteries, but the thicker one will last longer, just as a AA battery will have more power than a AAA battery, even though both are 1.5 volts.
On the other side, you can't use the 2032's since you need to fit TWO 3 volt batteries in the slot (to get 6 volts) and two 2016's will fit, but only one 2032 would fit in the same space.
So, you will need to get (1) 2032 battery and (2) 2016 batteries when it comes time to replace them. They are available at Radio Shack and I even found them at the grocery store with the other batteries, so they are not hard to find.
With new fresh batteries, the unit is again working as before.
While the batteries were weak, it would have enough power to turn off the first sets in the string of codes, but then the LED would go dim and not turn off any other sets. So if after months of use, you find it turns off some sets and not as many others as it used to, time to replace the batteries.
I use this thing a lot, so the batteries lasted as long as they can be expected to, considering the small size of the batteries.
I have been thinking of taking it apart and putting into a hat with bigger battery pack and 4 infrared LEDs around the hat so that it turns all sets off no matter what way I am facing.
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47 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great tool to be put in the hands of The People, January 27, 2005
Contrary to other reviews, this device will turn off 90% of all US/Asian TVs within 17 seconds (and the other 10% by the time it finishes its sequence). Some may not operate it properly.
While it's of questionable courtesy to shut off TV's indiscriminately--as the "extremist" anti-TV White Dot and other advocates of the TVBGone support--there are ample occasions of TV's being left on and providing little more than noise and electricity drain to its environment. It is great to have this tool to empower everyone to be able to do the right thing regarding TVs that "should not" be on.
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27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Worth every penny; great for emergency rooms; new & improved!, October 16, 2006
Well, you can now escape other people's cigarette smoke, if you don't care to breathe it -- most of the time. But it seems there's no escape from TV in public places.
There you are, holding your seriously ill child on your lap in the emergency room at the hospital -- and the TV is blaring on about beheadings and rape. Great. Just what a five-year-old needs. Once we were the ONLY people in the emergency room, yet the nurse still refused to turn it off. I won't tell you what the show was.
Now you don't have to be helpless. Enter TV-B-GONE!
Just casually point the little black box at the tube and push the button. Within a minute or two (say 69 seconds), it will find the right code and stop the junk. If anyone else has been watching, they will blink, look around and pick up a magazine. Never, never, have I heard anyone complain when I've used my TV-B-Gone. And I've used it in plenty of doctor's offices and dry cleaners.
Mind you, I would never turn off the game in a sports bar to ruin other people's fun. For me, this fine little tool is about a bit peace and sanity.
OK -- batteries. After using this thing for a year and a half, it finally needed new batteries. That's a pretty darned good run. Radio Shack put crummy ones in, so they never worked. Off to the grocery store to try again. There's a new battery recommendation on the tvbgone website: use just two CR2032 batteries instead of three of the original 2016, they say.
Another reviewer complained that TV-B-Gone does just one thing, but . . . uh . . . check out the name. That's what it's for. Making TV be gone. Wanna watch TV? Then, dude, get a remote. (Or get up and walk to the tube, I guess.)
Another reviewer complained about regional TVs (NTSC versus PAL and so forth). There are TWO VERSIONS. Check out the tvgbone website for details. And note their disclaimer: "Although we tried our best to make your TV-B-Gone remote control turn off any and all TV's, there may be some few that it won't turn off."
It would be better if the device cycled through codes faster, but that's the only improvement I'd want. On the older models, you gotta wait those 69 seconds. Note that continuing to press the button is not necessary! The device is going to ignore you for next 69 seconds anyway, while it tries to do its job. (NOTE: I'm going to get the new, improved version. The "Instant Reactivation Feature" might make it work faster.)
I love the black plastic stealth design. Goes right on my key chain and keeps me anonymous as far as mean nurses are concerned.
And now, a word for another Amazon reviewer of this product, Aaron. I realize you are unlikely to read this, but since I can't get your mom on the phone just now, here it is. Aaron, your cruel treatment of young children (mentioned with glee in your review) reveals very immature and discourteous behaviour. Look, we've all played pranks. You probably meant to be funny. But please do pick on someone your own size. You could remember what it was like to be small yourself. What seems amusing at your age can cause a terrifying nightmare for a child -- which of course you would not be there to help with. At the very least, a ruined evening out is a pretty rotten thing to do to a kid or adult. If you read your review again, you might ask yourself how you made the world a better place that evening. How about you make up for it by turning off the TV next time you're in an emergency room at the hospital, okay?
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