One For All URC8603 Xsight Touch - 18 Device Remote Control

I have tried several universal remotes over the years and for the price this one must be the worse of the lot.

Most of these type of remotes now have a motion sensor (as early one-for-alls did) but with this one when you pick it up the touch screen remains off and requires a touch to to the screen to awake it.
This however is its most minor weakness.

The online software you have to use to edit device functions again is frankly pathetic.

It is not even possible to rename a touch screen button you have already defined, delete one or even change their order.

They did recently update their website software but again it is still very poor and the basic functions are missing.

I am also on my second one as the mute key fell off - I found it on living room carpet with small bit of white plastic.

Yes, I still use the remote and after paying this price one has to.

But alas I still have on my sofa by BD Player retore, TV remote, DVD player remote, Humax HDR remote and Sky+ remote.

I just mainly use the URC8603 to control my AV amp.

UPDATE:
The new online software now lets you edit the name of a touch key button and change their order.

If you need an extra function it seems best to learn it with the remote, upload edit from the remote control online, shuffle order of keys as required and download to remote.

Other negatives.
Some buttons on remote are very small.
Website does not save your login name or password (even some banking websites store some detail of your login).
Website uses ActiveX and thus only seems to work with Microsoft Internet Explorer 6,7 and 8 in compatibility mode.

With a TV, DVD player, Blu-ray player, Surround sound system and a HDD recorder I had a lot of home entertainment equipment and a big array of remotes!

So I've been looking for a universal remote for a while. This one was released a few months ago and looked good but no reviews and with a high price I was a bit reluctant to risk purchasing.

However suddenly five 5 star reviews appeared on the same day and I thought wow - this really is a great remote. Having received the item I wonder if they are all genuine reviews....

First impressions on opening the packet was it was a bit cheap and cheerful, well except its actually quite expensive. Products from companies like Sony sell at high prices but have a feel of high tech quality - so you don't feel so bad at your empty pockets! However this remote feels cheap and the buttons don't feel like they'll last for years. Its quality is lower than most of the free remotes you get with your TV/DVD/etc.

Anyway I was excited to try it out with my TV - and using just the remote it didnt take long to get it set up with my TV and DVD players. All three are fairly new and commonly found.

However my CD player, my Sony surround sound and my hifi amplifier were not recognised. To be fair the Sony is 6 years old and the amp is an unusual make. So I had to turn to the PC and use the software that comes with the remote. This is were my problems started....

The software is not software as such - you actually browse to a web site and everything is done from there. First problem was I use Firefox as my web browser. It turns out Firefox or indeed any web browser except Internet Explorer is not supported. So I switched to Internet Explorer - but this didnt work either. I discoverd that the website doesnt support Internet Explorer 8! However switching to Internet Explorer 8 but in backwards compatibility mode and with security lowered I got the software working. However it'd taken an hour to get to this point!

I was unable to ever get the amp working as I've lost its remote but thankfully I still have the remote for the Sony Surround sound and for the CD player and so was able to set the One For All in to learn mode and program it manually.

Overall once working the software is ok and fairly easy to use.

The "Activities" menu function looked useful. For example with my DVD player I need to switch on the TV, switch to AV mode and also switch on my surround sound. I then need to control volume via the surround sound, AV input via the TV and everything else to operate the DVD player - which the Activities option allowed me to do - in theory. I found in practice it seemed to forget some of the functions I programmed - such as the volume control to control the surround sound volume and not the TV volume. In the end I abandoned the Activities and just programmed new buttons for each individual piece of equipment. For example I re-programmed the DVD player volume controls to set the surround sound volume not TV volume. I would say this is the remotes greatest plus point - the ability to tell the remote to learn a new function just by specifying the key and then pointing the old remote at it.

One problem is while you can create new on screen keys there doesnt seem to be anyway of deleting them at a later date short of a full reset and losing everything.

The remote has crashed on me a couple of times when sitting in its cradle - it just freezes and I have had to remove the battery to reset it. Thankfully only date and time are lost and the remote functions are kept.

Overall the remote is very customisable but has a cheap feel and some of the smaller buttons are not easy to press. I have doubts about the remotes longegivity. Also a lot of the more useful functions require a PC and internet connection. If One-For-All stop internet support then the remote will be much less useful.

With a bit of time, knowhow and the original equipment remote control this remote can control pretty much any bit of equipment - even the more obscure functions. But it does take time if you have a lot of home entertainment equipment. I guess I spent a few hours getting things 100% right.

--- UPDATE ----

I've been using the product for quite a long time now. The crashing issue has got worse - despite me making no changes to the remote or upgrading it in anyway. I suspect this'll end up in the bin in the next few months. I buy a lot of gadgets - too many probably - and in the last 10 years this is the worst I've ever bought. 1 star is too generous.

I've read several quite negative reviews here about this product. I've used One For All kit before and was pretty impressed, so given that these other reviews were quite old, I decided to press on anyway. I'm glad that I did.

Maybe there have been revisions to the software and hardware that everyone has previously complained about because I don't agree with any of the previous complaints.

The device is very simple to set up if you want simple functionality - you probably won't need a PC to configure the unit if you have fairly recent devices that you want to control. That said, if you do have some exotic kit, and I do, then you can set it up very easily using the software/website provided. I had no trouble finding codes for all of the equipment I wanted to set up. I cannot review the learning facility of the device because I have not had to teach it any remote control codes by the learning method - everything was either pre-stored in the device or loaded from the website. Very comprehensive library of device codes indeed.

The software is not awful - I found it pretty straightforward and slick to use. You can always improve these things and the facility to rearrange extended buttons for each device is somewhat non-intuitive, but you soon get the hang of it. I'm a software developer, and I would not say that the software is terrible or difficult to use.

The unit itself does not have poor build quality - I find it of good quality, good build and pleasing looks. THe keys have a pleasing click and they are not so recessed that you cannot use them.

In, short, forget the other negative reviews. This is good kit, works very well and is extremely powerful if you really want to push its facilities.