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One for All Sky Plus
by p_j123
This sky remote is the official remote which is provided with all sky HD boxes. If this remote is lost or broken you are able to buy this controller online for about £14 from play.com.
Connecting the controller to the television is important so the remote is able to change the volume. By doing this you will only need the one ... controller. Otherwise two controllers would be needed one for navigating around Sky and one to change volume and channel (eg. AV1, AV2). To be able to connect the controller you need to press the 'TV' button, and then hold down select and red for 2 seconds, and then you must enter the TV code which is unique for each brand. The TV code is given on the manual for the controller; the manual will give codes for virtually every TV brand.
The remote is very good quality. I believe this because the controller is made using a rigid plastic and the battery compartment is made out of a rubber type material. Moreover the buttons are easy to press and the numbers and text do not fade as mine are still there after 2 years. The reason for me no scoring full on durability is because the battery compartment does not have a very strong clip and therefore after about 1 year my compartment is loose and cannot be held by its own clip. This is why I now have a rubber band holding the compartment as I am not willing to pay another £14 for another controller.
The controller is very reliable as long as you are in range of the sky box and on the same room. My remote controller has never failed on me and always works, unless someone is sitting right in front of the box!!! When you purchase the remote two AA batteries are provided.
Through the remote you are able to change the channel and increase and decrease the volume. As this remote is for either sky plus or HD you are able to pause, play, forward and rewind live TV. To be able to see the TV guide (what programs are available) you simply press the TV guide button. The select button opens up a mini menu at the bottom where users are able to see the program they are watching and the backup button will remove the mini menu. Moreover you are able to turn the sky box onto sandy by pressing the power button.
If I am being completely honest this controller is very simple to use. The texts printed on the buttons virtually describe to the user what will happen if you press that button.
To conclude, this controller is very simple to use, and it is a good quality remote. Also the price for the remote is very reasonable considering it is the official controller.What more could I say about a controller!
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Logitech Harmony 650 Remote
by missj1981
I have this Remote for 2 months already and I won't go back. With around five remotes I thought it was time for just getting this remote, turning five remotes into one. It certainly made my life easier!
I use the Harmony to control my Sony TV, LG Media Player, Onkyo amp and XBOX. The setup of the remote took me about an hour ... or two to complete (a computer with Internet is required). You have to remember what you want to do with the remote. You can recreate shortcuts buttons as like 'watch tv' and within one touch you can put on the television and also turns on the amplifier for you at the right settings.
The same can be done for all possible set-ups. As the turning on the Xbox or media player. The best feature here is that the remote can be set that for example when you are watching TV, you can control the picture on the TV by changing channels and turning up and down the volume. So you have a remote control for all your devices..
All this works for me almost no problems. The only problem that I can see is that the remote assumes that some products are turned off. So when a device is already on and you press the button for turning on, it turns the device off. You can simply press the button again so you turn the television back on again. You have a help function on the remote which helps you with most settings and also the installation of the remote is quiet easy. In short, I think this is a good product, it cleans the table a bit and looks really nice too.
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One for All Sky Plus
by kat1234
We first signed up to Sky almost three years ago now and opted for a Sky plus box. With that box came this Sky Plus Remote Control. On first investigation, this looked pretty daunting to me - so many buttons, what could they possibly all be for? As time has gone on, I have grown to know and love my Sky remote (when I can wrestle it ... from the iron grip of my other half!)
The remote itself is actually pretty heavy when the batteries are in. It takes two AA batteries to power and I would say these last us between two and three months (this will vary depending on usage/battery quality of course!). The remote fits nicely in the palm of your hand and has a soft rubber backing too which is smooth but gives good grip to prevent and unnecessary damage from slipping out of hands.
The remote is nicely designed with soft rubber buttons that are easy to compress and the remote is suitably sensitive to this - you do not have to press too firmly for it to work. It is also pretty self explanatory and easy to use with all buttons clearly labelled. This labelling is in white text that does slightly wear off with use.
The feature that I most like about the remote is that it can be used to control your sky box and your tv. At the top of the remote there are three buttons - a power off/on button, the sky button and the tv button. By selecting the relevant button (sky or tv) you can switch between controlling tv and sky. This reduces the need for separate remotes and therefore I have less clutter in my lounge.
All features of Sky+ can be controlled by the remote - recording, playback, channel selection and it is easy to do so. The signal strength between the remote and box is also good, with all commands well picked up without the need to keep pressing on buttons. Another handy feature is that your Sky box will detect if the batteries in the remote are getting low and display a message on screen prompting you to change them - thus avoiding that annoying moment when you want to pause something but the batteries are flat.
As I say, we have had Sky now for three years and we have recently replaced our remote as it did completely stop working. To be fair, it had taken a fair few batterings from falling onto our wooden floor, and the catch holding the back in place had already broken, but it was still annoying that it completely stopped working. Without the remote, the Sky+ box is really difficult to work so we had a frustrating few days whilst waiting for our new one to arrive. It cost £13.99 from Amazon, so if we need to replace it too often it will work out quite expensive.
All in all, this is a good, solid remote that is easy and convenient to use.
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