Proliferation of Remotes Turns Off Consumers
As the creator of television’s first wireless remote control nearly 50 years ago, Robert Adler spawned generations of viewers who do their channel changing from the couch.
But today, the retired engineer is just as confounded as millions of others who fumble with the remote controls that clutter their coffee tables and routinely fall into the cracks of sofas.
Nearly every audio or video electronic gizmo comes nowadays with a remote control, and despite so-called universal remotes designed to alleviate the proliferation, advancements in this must-have armchair accessory still elude many consumers. The latest models require technological bravado, are expensive or don’t work as expected.
Adler, 90, has three remotes in his suburban Chicago home -- one each for his TV, VCR and DVD player. He has trouble navigating them just to play a movie.
“I think it’s scandalous how little the people who design these things seem to keep in mind that people don’t know it by heart as they do,” he said.
Today’s remote controls commonly sport 30 to 50 buttons to accommodate the growing features -- and complexities -- of modern electronics, from picture-in-picture modes of dual-tuner TVs to the ability to zap past commercials.
The average American household has four remotes, according to the Consumer Electronics Assn. Others estimate the average is even higher. Some companies are even making remote controls for personal computers, which are becoming entertainment hubs themselves.
Zach Scribner, a 25-year-old sound engineer in San Francisco, bought a $15 universal remote two years ago to tame eight-clicker chaos. It worked with one of his two TVs and his VCR, but not his DVD player or any part of his stereo.
“It’s not so universal -- it’s regional,” he said.
That’s because basic universal remotes under $50 are limited to the maker’s database of remote control codes. If your CD player’s make and model isn’t supported by that universal remote, you’re stuck.
“That’s why people go from six to three remotes -- and not one -- and that doesn’t help their cause,” said Ramzi Anmari, a vice president at Cypress, Calif.-based Universal Electronics, which provides universal remote technology to electronics firms and licenses its database of infrared remote codes.
Still, remote controls sold as aftermarket accessories are a growing business: U.S. shipments increased to 33.2 million units in 2003 from 30.7 million in 2002, according to the Consumer Electronics Assn.
Industry observers say low-end models still account for the bulk of the sales, even though more sophisticated all-in-one type remotes have emerged in the last few years.
On the cutting edge are remotes featuring touch screens, wireless technology that lets signals work through walls or even Internet access. The makers of the Guide Remote, which displays customized TV listings, hope to let users soon vote on reality TV shows via the remote.
Some companies, like San Francisco-based NoviiMedia and BravoBrava of Union City, Calif., both privately held, have developed software to turn other devices, such as personal digital assistants, into ubercontrollers. Palo Alto-based Agilent Technologies Inc. recently announced an infrared transceiver that can be built into mobile phones, turning them into remote controls for CD players and other home appliances.
Universal remotes that run closer to $100 or higher are smarter and more flexible. They can “learn” any remote’s function codes via an infrared zap. They also often have “macro” buttons that users can program to do a series of tasks with a single click.
The $200 Harmony H659 by Canada’s Intrigue Technologies, a unit of Swiss-based Logitech International, tries to ease user agony by providing prelabeled buttons such as “Watch TV” or “Listen to Music” that do the “macro” programming for you, automatically sending the right commands to your components.
Climb higher on the price scale and there are models that can operate more than a dozen devices -- sometimes including your air conditioner.
The $500 Home Theater Master MX-800 controls as many as 20 devices. The $700 Navitus Remote Control from Sony Corp. controls 18 and sports a fancy color LCD screen that presses back against your fingertip to confirm each command.
Royal Philips Electronics’ top-of-the-line $1,699 iPronto universal remote can wirelessly connect to the Internet to display on its LCD screen a TV programming guide and even news and e-mail.
The problem of misplaced remotes also has a solution.
The $80 Radio Shack 8-in-1 Kameleon is the first universal remote control to include a finder feature. If the remote disappears, a user can press a button on a separate finder device to make the remote control beep.
The Kameleon doesn’t have actual buttons. Instead, an LCD display lights up with on-screen buttons. Depending on which mode you want to be in -- say, TV or DVD -- then only that keypad appears.
Remote technology has come a long way since Adler’s two- and four-button models of the Zenith Space Command, which could turn the TV on or off, change the channel or mute the volume. For Adler, that’s heaven compared with today’s remotes.
“You need a pilot’s license to use these,” he said.
