[mythtv-users] [OT] Universal remote recommendations...?

[Stephen Tait]

Gah! Well, I've finally had it with trying to configure my Philips SBC RU 
865. It seems it's impossible to get *all* of the buttons working at the 
same time in any way, shape or form which makes it entirely useless for 
MythTV usage without continually switching in between different modes. 
Shame really, as this glaring error excepted it's an utterly stellar 
remote. If it's in TV mode, the pause, play, ff, rew etc. buttons are 
disabled... if it's in VCR mode the volume and mute buttons are disabled. 
Argh on a stick.

So, I'm in the market for a new remote to use with my PVR-250 and was 
wondering what opinions people here might offer. Firstly, I'm UK based, 
which probably cuts down an awful lot of stuff from the off (bah) and I 
don't really want to pay £120 for a remote, much to the annoyance of the 
short-back-and-smarm sales rep I clashed with on Tottenham Court Road 
yesterday, and nor did I want to buy a PVR setup (sigh). I knew walking 
into the Sony Centre was a bad idea...

Most promising so far (in that it's not butt ugly and doesn't cost a 
fortune) is the Sky+ remote as resold by Argos in this example 
http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10001&langId=-1&catalogId=3151&productId=122374&clickfrom=name 
I think there may be another version of this same remote floating about 
with a flip-top keypad somewhere, but that's not much of an issue for me. I 
couldn't find an lircd.conf for it over at lirc.org, but that's probably 
due to the manufacturer not being Sky, which is just as well as I'm loathe 
to give Rupert Murdoch any more money... ;) Since it was designed for 
PVR's, I'd imagine it would fit the bill nicely, and is probably the nicest 
looking remote I've seen recently. Any Myth users out there using this 
thing successfully? Care to comment?

In terms of people I don't want to buy things from, Sony are right up there 
with Rupert Murdoch, but I've been told they make some good remotes. The 
selection I saw yesterday was far from inspiring (style over substance - 
lots of fiddly little buttons), but I know there's a few users on here who 
swear by Sony remotes.

Other than the fact I want all the buttons to work *all the time*, separate 
ff/rew and left/right buttons and it doesn't look like the back end of a 
bus, that's pretty much all the criteria I have. I'm not averse to rolling 
my own lirc.conf's if need be, but I'm just looking for stuff that 
definitely works (with PVR-250's and Nova-T's) and people are happy with.

Thanks for any suggestions!