5/19/2012

Sony RM-AX4000 Home Theater Remote Control Review

Sony RM-AX4000 Home Theater Remote Control
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
Added to original review on 5/11/2007. **THERE IS NO VISTA USB DEVICE DRIVER FOR THE RM-AX4000** Upgrading our home computers to Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit Edition has rendered this remote control useless.I recently purchased a RM-AX4000 to replace my existing Sony RM-AV3000 universal remote and hopefully *FINALLY* have a single unit to replace my seven currently used remote controls...
The remote control itself is well designed, has a nice display with a blue backlight, and is well built with a silver brushed metal front panel and rubber buttons.
However, the included software works reasonably well but could be a lot easier to use.
Initially I setup the unit without using the PC based software by inputing the four digit preset codes for each component. This worked but gives basic functionality and no macros (which Sony calls "XPRESS Functions").
Using the included software to configure the remote requires that you run a wizard which steps you through configuring the unit. I found that it worked better to use the preset codes rather than trying to have it learn from each individual remote.
However, once I did this and downloaded the settings to the remote, the "ALL OFF" button (which is intended to power off all of your A/V components with a single button press) stopped working properly. I have an A/V system consisting all recent model Sony components and for some reason I can't quite fathom the "ALL OFF" button powers everything off, except for the receiver. The "ALL OFF" button on the existing remote which came with the receiver works fine.
After spending two days messing around with the configuration of the RM-AX4000 I was unable to resolve this issue. Also, you must run another initial wizard in order to configure the macros. This whole process requires you to teach it, using the existing remote control for each component. This takes time, and the resulting macros needed tweaking to get them to work properly. This whole process could have been better.
After spending two days learning how to configure the RM-AX4000 using the software I have a single remote which works well......
Overall, I rate this item 3 stars because of the poorly implemented PC software.
Update - a new version of software, AX Remote Editor 1.1, is available for downoad from the Sony Website. You are now no longer forced to run the initial setup wizard !
Update II - the AX Remote Editor 1.1 software seems to run OK on Windows Vista, but THERE IS NO VISTA USB DEVICE DRIVER FOR THE RM-AX4000.


Click Here to see more reviews about: Sony RM-AX4000 Home Theater Remote Control



Buy Now

Click here for more information about Sony RM-AX4000 Home Theater Remote Control

No comments:

Post a Comment