Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
I have had my uhf/ir remote since about 1997. It has traveled in an rv all over the US. Dusty, moist, dry conditions. It get a lot of use and has never failed. Our grandson gave it a drink of coke, which made the keys sluggish. I disassembled the unit,a simple task, washed the rubber keyboard and pc board in water, blew it dry and reassembled it. It works fine.

Strengths:
Batterys last a long time. The remote will switch channels 200 feet from the rv. I like to watch tv outside of the motorhome. At home it works from every room and the garage. Great unit.

Weaknesses:
None!!!

Price Paid:  $50.00 from Dish Network

Summary:
I own the UHF/IR version of the Dish remote. I'm sorry to be a wet blanket here but I have been through 5 of these remotes since I bought my Dish system. They are unreliable and apt to fail when you need them. It is true they are not expensive so a replacement is no hardship. It seems that Dish could have made them more reliable. From what I have observed, the keyboard is some kind of magnetically coupled Hall effect device that needs perfect alignment between the sensors and the magnetics in the buttons. If anything gets between them the buttons fail. Also the electronics get squirrelly with time. I don't know what that's about. So in sum, be prepared to corner the remote market during the life of your Dish system. You will be buying a lot of replacements.

Strengths:
Ergonomic and versatile.

Weaknesses:
Electrically and mechanically unreliable.

Similar Products Used:
None.

Price Paid:  $50.00 from Dishnetwork

Summary:
A "must have" for the older generation

Strengths:
Do you live in an area where the local stations are available on both DirecTV and Dishnetwork? Are you trying to decide which satellite system to get for your easily confused parent or grandparent? Well, for me, this remote made that choice a no brainer. Get the Dishnetwork system. The "blue button" remote that will come with it is absolutely perfect for the older generation. That's because, with this remote, you can turn the TV on and adjust the volume even while you are in the satellite mode. This means that Granny will not have to change back and forth between satellite mode and TV mode. That's a gigantic plus because "mode changing" is usually what confuses her, and causes her to phone you up and ask you to come over and "fix" her TV/Satellite. If this is your problem, then you can go one step farther and absolutely grannyproof this remote by first, programming the remote to work with granny's brand of TV set, and then superglueing a cover over the TV mode button, VCR mode button, power button and TV/Video button. Of course this means that she'll have to use a separate remote for the VCR. But that's no problem...she rarely uses the VCR anyway.

Weaknesses:
The above mentioned TV on/off button is the button labeled Aux. It only works like that so long as you never program anything into the Aux mode. I you ever program the Aux mode to operate any device, then the Aux button will forever cease to function as the TV power button. And there's nothing that you can ever do to restore it to that function.

Similar Products Used:
I know of no other UHF remote that works with a Dish receiver.

Summary:
Not sure what the last reviewer expected, but this is a small, $50 remote for Echostar, a TV, and a VCR. He compared it to a $400 Pronto. I got it with my Dish 4700. The UHF is great, operates the satellite from any room in my house. Sometimes you need to hold the remote in a certain direction (vertical mostly) from a far room. Great feel on the buttons. The batteries tend to come slightly loose inside and rattle, also, when the batteries wear down, control becomes erratic, esp. of my RCA TV. So I change the batteries before they are totally dead. Also, you can't change VCR channels with the keypad. Channel up/down works, but that's not perfect. It learned both the TVs and one VCR that I have tried to use it for. Basically, there are only 1 or 2 remotes right now that can operate these satellite receivers from another room by UHF, this is excellent for that.

Strengths:
UHF, pretty solid

Weaknesses:
Doesn't do much for my VCR, poor battery life

Price Paid:  $70.00 from Local DishNetwork dealer

Summary:
My three UHF remotes are about three years old. Two of them came with the DishNetwork (Echostar) receivers I purchased at that time. They work fine, except for controlling my
AV equipment. When I complained to DishNetwork that these "universal" remotes didn't work with major brands of AV equipment (Pioneer, Toshiba, Denon), they told me that no universal remote works on all brands, and that nothing could be done to rectify the problem. I laughed when they suggested I purchase new remotes to see if it would take care of the problem. I tried to explain what the word "universal" means, but it fell on deaf ears.

Due to the lack of support provided by DishNetwork for this remote, I would not buy the newer one and certainly can not recommend it to others.

Strengths:
Easy to use. The UHF feature is great for using multiple television sets with one Sat receiver, which can be located in any room in the house. I have had no problems with that aspect of the remote.

Weaknesses:
It was advertised as a universal remote, but it is not. I have tried several different brands of AV receivers, DVD players, and VCRs. It works with very few brands. It has not been supported by DishNetwork.

Similar Products Used:
Sony