The Tune In! remote control by Beery Systems, Inc. is a universal remote control that can be used to control up to 6 separate devices. It can be used to control TVs, VCRs, cable boxes, DSS/DBS receivers, amplifiers, amp tuners, audio cassettes, CD players, digital audio tape, laser disk players, …well, you get the idea. It can control just about anything. It is lightweight, not extremely large and the buttons are big and easy to push in. (There are only 20 buttons not counting the 12 number pad buttons). There is also a button to light up the number pad. (By the way, it runs on 4 AAA batteries).

You might ask, "Yo, Don! How can this control so many devices with just 20 buttons?" Well, you have to program Tune In! to go into different "modes". There is a 2 key sequence to go into modes such as CD player or DSS, etc… After you punch in the mode keys, then you can use Tune In! to control that specific device. This review will be broken down into categories for some of the devices that Tune In! can control. Before you get started using Tune In!, you have to program it to recognize the electronic device that you want to control. Tune In!s web page is loaded with codes for almost any device. In fact, their web page has a lot of information that you might need. I downloaded 18 pages of documentation just for programming the channels on the TV, and another 11 pages for doing different setups. At times it seemed as though they were overloading me with information, but the reality is that the information was written in an easy to understand way.

TV control-

With regard to controlling your TV, Tune In! has a number of useful functions. Most notably, is the function that allows you to punch in a station’s call letters, like "CNN" and it sets the channel to CNN, which in my case is channel 32. In order to do this, though, you need to program Tune In! to know that channel 32 is CNN. So the first thing you have to do with Tune In! then is program all of the channels that you wish to use. This could take quite a bit of time, especially if you have 100 channels to program. But, setup time aside, here is a quick list of the other TV functions Tune In! has:

Favorite Channel Surfer-

This function stores up to 10 of your most-watched stations for quick and easy channel surfing.

Bookmark a channel-

This function allows you to Channel surf during commercials then press Ch Find to return to where you were. Mark 2 stations and you can toggle between the two channels.

Key Copy-

This function is used to copy keys of one mode to another.

Channel Hide-

This function is used to restrict access to certain channels, so only those who know the codes can find them.

There is also a sleep timer and a function for doing macro commands. If you wanted to use Tune In! to turn off your TV and VCR automatically, you can use the sleep timer, and the macro command function. But you need to make sure that you place Tune In! somewhere that it can "beam" both devices from the same spot. (That goes for any other devices as well).

VCR control-

To controlling your VCR, it would seem that all you needed to do is use the identification code for your device, and you are all set. The codes are downloadable from Tune In!s web page. I did this and was able to program Tune In! to recognize my VCR. But all I was able to do is control the tape playing (PLAY, STOP, FF, REW, REC, and Pause) functions. In order to use the VCR to pre-program channels to record, you need to contact Beery Systems to get the set-up codes. For example, if you had a remote control which has a wheel that rotates to allow you to scroll up and down while in the menu area for pre-programming, you would need to get the codes otherwise you still need both remote controls.

The Tune In! remote can control many more devices but to describe them all would take too long. Suffice to say, if you have a device that can be programmed via a remote then the Tune In! remote will probably be able to control it.

Overall, Tune In! takes a lot of time to set-up, and you need a really good memory to remember which buttons are for which commands while in the different modes. In some cases, you may need to hit 3 buttons just to turn on the power to a specific device. And you may need a lot of different set-up codes to make the remotes that Tune In! is replacing truly obsolete. The TV functions are the most flexible. If you really want a universal remote that is capable of running all of the devices listed above, then Tune In! is a worthy candidate.

Price: $49.95 (+ $5.20 S & H)