Great remote for the price
Just bought this remote yesterday, so I cannot speak about durability. But after pondering over which Logitech Harmony remote to buy, for the past week, I came across Amazon's review for this remote. Though not as sleek and elegant as the Harmonies (I was looking at the 520, 550 and 720), I must say, for the price, this remote does all that I wanted from a remote.

The channel Up/Down buttons on our Samsung flat screen stopped working after 2 years. I wanted a replacement remote and was attracted by the Logitech Harmony line of remotes' sleek design and generally positive reviews. However the cheapest 520 was for and the other models went higher. Also the reviews indicated the battery life of the Logitech remotes was shorter due to their LCD screens and buttons blacklit glow feature.

After reading the reviews for this remote, I bought one from our local Sears store, selling for , just incase I needed to return it if it did not work with my TV. In a matter of minutes I was able to make it work for my TV, just by entering one of the Samsung TV codes that comes in the code list included in the remote packaging. Next I added my Pioneer DVD player. For special keys like Picture in Picture on the TV remote, you just make the Sony remote learn the command from the old remote by assigning it to any free button on the Sony remote. It's a very simple procedure, you just point both remotes to each other and follow a sequence of a few simple steps. Did the same for some special buttons on the DVD and have both remotes configured to this one instead. Infact I also went ahead and added the standing fan to the list so I can start/shut/rotate/oscillate and change speeds on the fan using this remote. Mapped it to the VCR button since I don't have a VCR :-).

The only minor issue is having to remember the various customized functions you have assigned to the various keys of the remote. Other than that, everything else is pretty straight forward. And at this price will not feel bad if the kids throw this around or if some buttons start dying in 2 years.

Great for most things, but not Dish Network!
I am using this universal remote to replace another universal remote that cost 5! I does almost everything the expensive one does, but if you have Dish Network, keep your Dish remote handy. I had to use the learning function to "teach" the Sony all of the Dish remote commands. Most are OK, but the annoying thing is that the directional buttons, which are constantly used by us satellite watchers to browse the guide or select porgramming. Apparently, when the Sony directional button is depressed, it only sends a signal once, and will not move the selector on the screen more than one position. The Dish remote will continuously move the selector in any direction, as when you are moving through the program guide. To make matters worse, most of the time, you have to press the button twice to get it to work. Had I known this before purchase, I probably would have kept looking. However, now that it's all programmed, I have narrowed down to 2 remotes, instead of 5. Nice job for an inexpensive remote control.

Some weird hiccups
I had high hopes for this remote and in most regards this remote met them. The learning feature is ridiculous. I have a WD TV which is not supported at this time but I was able to teach the remote everything I needed under the SAT button(including power). But still, not perfect.
I have a Sony AMP and this thing didn't control it. Thankfully I was able to teach it everything using the learning but this was not something I want to do for a full remote. This remote lets you set the volume control to either TV or AMP but its an all or nothing affair and I had to change my wiring to deal with this. Also, I don't know if this is because I had to set everything under AMP manually but the volume control works in increments of one. By that I mean I cannot hold down the volume buttons to raise it or lower it a lot.
I also had a weird problem with left and right being reversed out of the box.
Oh and this may be nitpicking but its not comfortable in the hand. The wedge shape makes is off balance and the edges do not make me want to keep it in my hand.
Overall it is a nice remote. It does everything it says it will. The learning feature is invaluable, but there are somethings that could have been improved.

Awesome and Affordable
I've been reading Amazon reviews for years, but this is the first one I've written - THAT'S how much I love this remote! First, let it be said I don't consider myself particularly "tech savvy" - I can read a set of instructions, IF they're well written - fortunately the manual for this remote is well laid out and easy to follow.

About my equipment: for Christmas, I bought a Pioneer Kuro PDP-5020fd HDTV and a Panasonic DMP-BD35k Blu Ray player for myself (um, I mean, for my FAMILY :) but at present I am mixing these modern technical marvels with a much older stereo system (NAD stereo amp and CD player) and even older Sony VCR for recording. All this with a cable box to boot. So you can imagine how many remotes I was trying to juggle. I was concerned that this cheap remote (got it under ) might not be able to control such varied things effectively. Also I noticed that Amazon's "bestselling" lineup for universal remotes had the much more expensive "Logitech" brand in the top 6 slots, followed by this remote. These Logitech remotes ranged in price from about to a whopping 0. Now I generally agree that you get what you pay for, so I was worried this little remote might not do the job. I'm so happy to report I was totally wrong!

The Blu ray player worked great after simply keying in the (provided) code, but the Sony had to "learn" some of the TV's remote control functions. This was easily accomplished following the manual. That said, in fairness I didn't try to teach the Sony every single command from the original remote - frankly if I need some of the more obscure commands once in a while it'll probably be easier just to dig out the Pioneer remote. But the 10-12 basic things I taught the Sony will easily satisfy my needs 90% of the time. Also, the codes provided for NAD wouldn't work on my older stereo amp. However with the "Codesearch" option I was able to find the right code in 5-10 minutes, and it worked fine. Finally, because I sent the sound from the TV through my stereo amp, I found that at first I had to switch to the remote's "AMP" button every time I needed to mute or adjust the volume - very annoying. But Sony was way ahead of me - they addressed this issue in the manual, and after a few easy button presses the volume/mute worked regardless of whether I was set on TV, cable, or amp. Sweet.

I did notice some of the other reviewers seem to have had some issues with programming various components, so I imagine it would be advisable to contact the manufacturer for advice if you have any unusual brands. But all I can say is everything worked perfectly for me. Best of all was the "One-Touch System Control". It was a snap to program ONE button to turn on the TV, cable box, and amp when I want to watch TV. BING, one button for everything "on" or "off". There are four of these system control buttons, so I programmed another to turn on the TV/DVD/amp when I want to watch a movie, and another to turn on only the amp/CD player when I just want to listen to CD's. Really, really nice.

Not to rag on other brands - I'm sure the Logitechs are super-cali-fragi-listicly fancy, with their LCD screens and all - but honestly for day-to-day use it's kind of hard to imagine that the average consumer really NEEDS to spend up to 10 times as much as for this little sweetheart. KUDOS, Sony!

greate remote
This is a wonderful universal remote. If you are looking for a remote control to operate all of your electronics devices, buy this one. The best feature is the system configuration feature in which you can turn everything on and off at the same time. Very convenient and easy to use.