AXD7504 Learning Remote Control

The only way I can describe this remote is to suppose that somebody was getting paid by the button, while another got paid by the letter, and still another was paid by the color. I have never seen such a cluttered remote - this one is the worst I've seen in a long time, possibly in the history of remotes (except for Sony's remotes, they are indeed worse than this). The face of the remote looks like it was designed by the guy who works on the Texas Instruments scientific calculators. At the very least it was someone who felt that the use of color coordination, 'shift' keys and tightly spaced buttons is the new wave in controlling a sophisticated remote in the dark. Oh, and let's do it without any backlighting. While the keys glow in the dark, their multi-level controls remain unusable without turning on a light source. Now the good stuff. Nope, I have actually got nothing good to say.

Source Switching

To switch sources you simply select that source on the remote using the top 8 buttons. If you want to use the Home Media Gallery, CD, CD-R, DVR, XM, Sirius or Zone 2/3, you'll need to use the 'Shift' key located at the bottom left of the remote. If you want to get into the Setup menu, you'll need to first select the 'Receiver' button. One thing I found refreshing is that the Tuner could be used straight away, with the remote offering instant tuning of radio station via the central keypad. The negative is that there is no way to "load up" the receiver with automatic search and storage of radio stations. You can also enter stations directly by hitting the period key and then typing in the numeric value. The system is smart enough to not allow you to dial to a station that doesn't exist in the spectrum (like 65.5 for example), but not smart enough to auto-complete after the first decimal position (I've never heard of a station that was 88.35 Hz, nor does the receiver allow you to tune to "hundredths" of MHz.) To tune to 88.5 you have to enter 8-8-5-0.

I programmed the remote using both the preprogrammed method as well as the learning mode. The first item I attempted to program was the TV button - setting it to my very popular Scientific Atlanta Explorer 3250HD set top box. The Pioneer remote couldn't successfully control the box, even after trying all five available codes. I attempted to put the set top box on the DVR1 button as well as the TV CTRL button - all with the same disappointing results. I finally resulted to learning the commands, button by agonizing button. I did manage to program a Denon DVD player into the remote using the preprogrammed codes, however the Source Power control defaulted to the discrete 'Power On' control, making it impossible to turn the DVD player off in a conventional way with the remote.

Programming Tip: If you want the dedicated TV CONTROL area on the remote to control your set top box, TV or DVR, be sure to program the device or learn these commands into the TV CTRL button.

After all was said and done, the Pioneer remote was a pretty big disappointment. It's certainly usable, in a "I love to torture myself" sort of way. If you can't see in the dark, and the thought of using a scientific calculator brings forth terrifying flashbacks to trigonometry class, then we'd recommend a good universal remote control instead.