A master remote to manoeuvre your way out

KOLKATA: Just got a new set-top box with your direct-to-home (DTH) service? And ended up with one more remote control? For sure, you must be wondering how comfortable life would be if there was a single remote to manage all your gadgets — TV, DVD player, set-top box and the rest. A master remote could be the ultimate gadget for all couch potatoes.

Universal remote control (URC) that can run just about everything — from TVs, DVD players, home theatres, to DVRs, set-top boxes and that even make power-point presentations — are hugely popular in the US and the UK, though the concept is yet to catch on here.

But a beginning has been made. URCs are now available in India at prices as low as Rs 990 for a simple model to about Rs 15,995 for a high-end variety.

"With the concept of a combined audio-visual unit including your TV, DVD player or audio system amplifiers, the frustration of remote juggling — holding three or four remotes and switching between them as you try to operate diverse gadgets in your home entertainment system is quite high," Sachin Rai, product head, Sony India told ET.

"This has led to universal remote commanders becoming the perfect replacement for all of them. With functions such as ease of programming and operation and extras such as learning, which lets you control virtually any component including the new cable set-top boxes, this market is slowly and steadily expanding," he said.

Sony India introduced URC's about three years ago. Currently, it's offering two models: an entry-level model at Rs 990 and the other at Rs 5,990. While the base model supports four components, the other model supports a lot more equipment.

Swiss technology firm Logitech Electronic recently did a soft launch of two URCs at Mumbai. A high-end URC Harmony 885 priced Rs 15,995 and a family remote Harmony 525 priced Rs 5,995.

"We are planning to do a pan-India launch soon. These remotes can control up to 15 equipment and can control as much as 250 activities," Moninder Jain, Logitech’s south Asia director said. "It can control the entire home theatre with the press of just one button.

Simply select an activity and the remote will analyse the state of your entertainment system. It will then send the required commands and make each component do exactly what you want. For instance, if you choose watch DVD, it will turn on the TV, DVD and stereo receiver and set all the inputs to the DVD and begin playing your disc," he added.

Of course, you need to configure these activities before you can start using the remote. One needs to connect the remote to the computer and enter the equipment model number and answer questions about how you watch TV or listen to music.

The remote set up wizard will walk you through the configurations set-by-step. In case there's a problem, the remote even comes with a handy Help button that guides you to solve the problem. These remotes support a large number of brands of home entertainment equipment.

Philips India is also planning to launch a few models of universal remotes. "We are firming up plans to launch a few models of URCs," said a Philips India official.

Not satisfied with options available in stores, you may try the popular Indian e-commerce sites. Here, you get options for universal remote control wrist watches at about Rs 600 that do pretty much the same job but are less sophisticated and may not offer all the functionality of a high-end URC. Additionally, you can also choose from an array of URCs of different prices.

And if models available in India don't appeal, you may try out models available overseas. These remotes also come in a wide range of both capability and price. Like most universal remotes, these remotes are preprogrammed to recognise major brand of TVs, DVD players and other devices. So you might have to manually programme it for some of your electronic device by punching in number codes.

debjoy.sengupta@timesgroup.com