learning remote can ONLY learn from IR original remote which is working well,

[micky]

Regarding remote controls that can learn, many say "can ONLY learn from IR original remote which is working well, please make sure that your original remote is an IR remote control and it is working well before place an order."

Of course it has to be IR and of course it would help a lot if it worked all the time, but why does it have to be an original remote, and not a universal?

They learn by shining the output of the first remote into the new remote.

In one case, I have a universal remote that has been assigned to my model device. It works fine. How could it be so different from the original remote that a learning remote could not learn from it? Plainly it uses the same frequency or encoding or it woudln't work.

I know they have "regions" for DVD's so by electonic/programming means you cannot play a DVD in the wrong region, so they could if they wanted have an accompanying code that differentiates an original remote from a universal remote, but why would they go to such trouble?

And who would implement it? Do the makers of original remotes accept that there are universal remotes** but want to make them slightly less valuable by not letting a learning remote learn from them?

Or would the makers of universal remotes or learning remotes put some limitation on them? Why? I don't see how it could increase sales.

And aren't they all made by the same companies anyhow?

**Don't they provide the codes so that universal remotes know the frequencies for all the various commands?

[Fred]

That's an over simplification with the original claim.

It doesn't.

Yes.

It isnt and it can learn from that.

They don't.

They don't. And some universal remotes can be programmed just by specifying the remote they are replacing, not by learning.

No one does.

Nope.

The more common ones, anyway.

[micky]

Thanks for the answers.

Two more questions. 1) When they say a remote will control 4 or 6 devices, I think if it as an Aux choice, you can choose anything, including a second TV.

But what if just has TV, VCR, DVD, CBL, Settop, AC, and no button is marked Aux or AnyOldThing. Does that mean only one tv per remote? Or do they just label the buttons to help remind you which one you chose, but any button, TV, VCR, DVD, CBL. AC. can contol anything that any other button can control.

2) My DVDR remote has 40 buttons. I only need 20, counting 0-9 When I teach a learning remote, do I have to teach it all 20 buttons separately or will it somehow learn some or all without individual button pushing? Will it at least assume 0-9 are still 0-9. That would leave 10. Will it learn any others so easily? (One ad seemed to say it did that, but I didn't want that one for other reasons.)

More below.

That's my question. I quoted the ads word for word.

I'll buy that.

Good.

Sure. That's what makes them universal.

Okay. It doesnt' matter if the previous answers make me happy, and they do.

Meaning, that the TV manufacturers aren't keeping those things secret from the remote manufactures, so why should they add an extra difficulty.

Yes. That's anothr thing. One of my devices wasn't in the list of devices. That was 5 or 10 years ago. Maybe by now it is. If so that would make things easier, but if not, I need one that learns.

[micky]

I looked first on Amazon and I didn't see any of those. That might show how Amazon, even without trying, manipulates the market, just because they have some modesl and brands for sale and not others.

However when I look specifically for logitech "Harmony" remotes, it has several. I saw none when I looked for learning remotes. (Even though for $269, it ought to be able to learn to teach physics and recite Shakespeare.

I lke it whent they say works with 400,000 devices and 6,000 brands. It's hard to believe there are that many.

Also hard to believe how expensive the Harmony ones are, $160 and up. I only paid $19 last time, and I was up to about $35 this time. :-)

But I'll tune my mind to spending more money.

This one is a surprise. Under $7 and it learns but only a little bit.

I noticed about stores only selling some brands when I changed supermarkets because of the virus. The Safeway is missing certain brands that I'm used to eating. Even Del Monte canned corn and spinach, week after week they only have them without salt, or you can buy an off- brand. I tried the spinach without added salt and it was terrible. Salting it helped a lot but I'd rather they cooked it with salt so it was well mixed. I haven't eaten the off-brand yet, but long ago I noticed that, at least that one day, an off-brand had trimmed the corn off closer to the cob so there's was a little that was hard and inedible at the bottom of many kernels. The Safeway doesn't have Nestle's chocolate syrup, but it does have malted milk flavored ice cream. I had never seen that before, but they have it every time I go there.

[Fred]

That varies with how fancy the new remote is. A few do allow you to switch between more than one specific device like a TV etc so the normal buttons do work fine on more than one TV,

Yeah, that's always a problem with any replacement remote.

? I only need 20, counting 0-9 When I teach a learning

Usually with learning remotes, but not with remotes where you specify which remote it is emulating.

Not usually with learning remotes.

The better remotes have downloadable manuals.

How low can you go ?

[micky]

Thanks for the comments.

You ain't seen nothin' yet.

[gfretwell]

I have a couple of those Chunghops and they are truly "learning". You can program any button to any function or even macro that an IR can present to it. The one in the back room runs the tv, sound system and the AC.

On the more conventional ones you can override the TV or other device buttons to program them to other devices. They usually want a setup code tho if they are not 100% learning. It saves reprogramming every key.

[micky]

That's good to know. That's what I wanted to know.

Okay, that will make part of it easier.

[micky]

Good to know.

I started to recall that I once had a learning remote, but I'd never used it. I remember 4 colored buttons that can accept any command. I think it's on the other half of my bed, but I'll need a crew to move all the junk that is there. I'll know in a few weeks. ;-)

[gfretwell]

I might have a Harmony here you can have if you are interested.