URC R40 "My Favorite Remote" Advanced Universal Remote Control for up to 18 A/V Components

Amazon offers a service to UK which includes import duty and VAT, customer services quickly confirmed that 1.9 firmware is now installed which resolves the earlier problems with forgetting learned commands, and the remote was delivered within a week.We gave up using R50 some time ago but find the R40 has addressed most points. Since the R50 was put away we have been using Harmony 650. With R40, at first the Harmony's motion sensor was sorely missed. It seemed most efficient for main keys and inter-activity macros to be placed just on the conventional hard buttons (with the more occasional commands and macros placed on soft buttons). The aim was to minimise button-presses and that the screen should be needed less often, but the result was that the settings for conserving battery power seemed to make more sense. While it remains to be seen how long batteries last in normal use, two sets were used just to program it!Small points are that if a pause of a certain duration is added to the start of a macro a quick press can still just issue a single other command only to be followed by the macro if the button is held down. When learning the commands, holding down the teaching button for different periods adjusts how often certain buttons repeat. The coloured buttons behave normally in the device pages but in the 'Main' state they can each bring up two pages of favourite channels in categories which are arbitrarily labelled 'Sports', 'Music', 'Movies', and 'News'.The R40's comprehensive Label and Macro Editor and virtually unlimited pauses, which go up in steps of 0.5secs, stand out as killer features. Some Harmonys (including H650) can, from inside an activity, do 'sequences' which may contain up to 5 steps without timed pauses. The older Harmony models can also use v7.7.0 software which allows commands and pauses to be added to the start or finish of activities (and lately with Myharmony too) but this means that an extra key must be identified and used to return from any activity, even if it is configured just for the sake of a macro at its start and/or finish. R40 copes much better with macros which can be placed on any key, and which can finish in any device or page within a device, but they are relatively slow.Since writing the review MyHarmony.com, for later models, has been enhanced by much better macros with timed pauses even within activities, so reckon Harmony is ahead again.Downsides are that rechargeable batteries don't have quite enough volts and the list of device codes is limited. Therefore H650 was needed for teaching from its excellent database, including all of the commands and the discrete inputs of our smart Tv, two Humax Pvrs, Panasonic DMR, and Home Theatre. Discrete Power commands are less commonplace but, in order to obviate the lack of power state tracking, the '0' commands can be used in lieu of discrete 'on' to bring devices out of standby, and the power toggle commands reserved just for the 'off' commands.Labels, Commands and Macros on the soft buttons can be reviewed and edited on the screen but, as a substitute for the interface of the familiar v7.7.0 Harmony software, the text and cut-and-paste functions of Microsoft 'Paint' were used to plan a configuration. This program is included with the various versions of Windows for PC and the results can usefully be saved and printed as a record.At first a chart was constructed for the bones of a primary 'watch tv' activity according to the principles mentioned above. In the event this proved quite easy to do while the distinction between devices and activities became less significant, and the operations which are most frequently needed can be performed with one button press. This also takes advantage of the option for less-bright screen lighting without backlighting, which can be set to occur when a conventional button is pressed.The on-board instructions help considerably and the memos etc. can later be skipped with direction controls on the thumb pad. The unfamiliar layout and setting up took a while to get used to but R40 is recommended for some more complicated setups. However putting more into it, or perhaps just comparison with other remotes, has seemed to make it rather slow and has removed another star.Revised 21.1.2014

I bought the R40 to replace an aging  Logitech Harmony 880 Advanced Universal Remote Control . I've used it for about a week, and I'm sending it back.Here is what's good about it:* The infrared signal is significantly better than the Harmony. The signal is stronger. The macro sequences are faster. Whereas I frequently have to start the "Help" recovery process on the Harmony, I don't think the R40 failed to signal the devices even once in all the time I've used it.* If feels a lot sturdier and better made (better fit and finish) than the Harmony.* It does not require any special equipment to program, and the programming is fairly intuitive and easy.Here is what's bad about it:* There is no documentation beyond a quick-start leaflet. No hardcopy manual. No documentation CD. Not even a downloadable manual which you can retrieve from the support website.* Speaking of the support website -- there is none. No documentation, no FAQ, no updates, no contact info, no nothing. The URC website provides no support whatsoever for their retail products.* Instead of documentation, URC builds programming directions right into the firmware. They provide detailed step-by-step directions of what you have to do, sometimes with so much detail you page through multiple screens. That's helpful to the first time user. A bit annoying for the second or third time user. By the end of the week, having to page through multiple screens of help just to adjusts one bit in a macro made me want to hurl the bloody remote against the fireplace.* There appears to be a large database of products, but no way to tell which entry is the appropriate one for your device. For instance, to add my Phillips DVD player I tell it it's a "Phillips DVD" and then it will sequence through a very loooong list of possibilities, telling me to find one that seems to work. Unfortunately, dozens of entries fit the criteria, and there was no way of known which one was the exact match for my player. It would be different if URC published a cross-reference of manufacturer and model number to their four-digit codes, but they don't.* Some people advocate ignoring their device selection setup and just use learning mode. Not only is that tedious, in some cases it just won't work. The remote control for my Samsung television has a SOURCE button to cycle through active input sources, but no button (such as HDMI1) to go directly to a given source. That's a command my TV understands and can be set through a proper device setup, but not with learning mode.* The Harmony remotes try to remember the state of your system, the R40 does not. This means you can switch from one device to another with a Harmony. It won't send the POWER ON/OFF command to, say, the television if it it's already on. The R40 sends the same sequence every time, so if I was watching Roku and want to switch to Blu-ray, the R40 would turn my television off. To switch reliably, I had to first go through a full system power-down before switching to the other device.* Due to the problem above, I frequently had my A/V system get into a bad state: a component powered down that should be on, the television displaying antenna instead of HDMI1, etc. The Harmony remote controls have a HELP button that will get you out of a situation such as this. The URC does not, so you need to recovery manually: go to the device that's set wrong and send a command to correct its state. That means that you may not be able to leave the TV with the babysitter or grandma and expect that they will be able to recover from problems. When the system is in this state, you can't even use the "power everything down and start over" trick.* After a week of use, I was still unable to operate key functions on the R40 (volume, mute, pause) by touch. That's due to poor button design and layout. Logitech, remotes, for instance, use the directional arrow control as an anchor point, and place the volume/channel buttons in relation to that. That makes it easy to operate the Logitech controls by touch. With the R40, I would often hit the MENU button instead of a volume control, which would take me totally out of the current activity and I'd have to find my way back to the location I was at.The URC R40 is a premium-priced product with excellent hardware but no documentation, no support, no updates, and poor usability.I ended up buying a  Logitech 915-000162 Harmony 700 Rechargeable Remote with Color Screen, Black . The R40 is significantly better hardware, but the Harmony 700 is better in almost every other way and 2/3 the price.