We bought a Sirius Conductor SCH1W satellite radio and remote recently. Our challenge was that we have all of our home entertainment and amplifier equipment in our living room, but we have speakers in our upstairs bedrooms. We needed a device that would allow control of the audio source in the living room, would be simple to use, and perhaps most importantly, one with a remote user interface. Having an IR blaster controlling an iPod wouldn't do you much good if you couldn't see what you were playing.The Sirius Conductor, with its RF remote, fit the bill perfectly. As you can see it has a nice, large LCD display and works through walls (though unfortunately I was unable to get enough range when I tucked it away inside of our oak entertainment center, but the radio unit is small enough that it's not too obtrusive to leave it exposed).
Anyway, the device works great as a Sirius radio. What turned out to be an unexpected bonus is its excellent universal capabilities. Of the stack of admittedly cheap universal remotes I have none was able to communicate so quickly and easily and with all my devices as the Conductor. It can support up to 6 devices, has an extensive list of existing codes for programming a wide variety of devices, and even has learning and macro capabilities. Come that with the built in IR blaster and I can even control IR devices through walls using its Z-Wave RF capabilities.
Even better is the fact that the radio's base station can communicate with multiple remotes, and a remote can communicate with multiple radios. I finally have a solution that will allow me to consolidate all of my components down to one remote, and a remote that can be used anywhere in the house. I can also consolidate to a single "remote platform" so that my wife and I don't have to face a different remote for every task. The remote clone feature, which will let me set up one remote and make a copy of it with the second will be very handy. Very nice!
Now all I needed was an extra remote. You can't buy them from the normal channels, but after calling tech support at Crutchfield.com they were nice enough to give me the phone number for Directed Electronics (Directed.com) the company that manufacturers the radios, 1-800-876-0800. The staff there was friendly and I worked my way to customer service, then the tech support department before finally getting to parts. Tell them you need a replacement remote for model # SCH1W.
They are shipping me a new remote for a less than $27! Amazing. I'm getting this sophisticated RF and learning remote for $32.73 with shipping. Quite the deal.
Update (August 7th 2007):
Well, it's been quite a challenge but I've gotten my Conductor set working nicely. The first issue I had was that the IR blaster didn't work. Both Directed and Crutchfield were very helpful but we were unable to get the IR blaster working and they explained that I would have to wait over 3 months for a replacement unit.
The second issue was that no matter what I did I could not get the second remote to pair. The way it is supposed to work is that you pair one remote to the tuner then use the setup menus to do a "Remote Copy" from the primary remote to the new secondary remote. It would seem to work with no errors saying "Transmitting" on one, "Receiving" on the other, then "Success!" on both. However, the second remote would always report "out of range".
Luckily the replacement unit arrived from Crutchfield earlier than expected. I was able to pair the new remote to the new receiver then do a remote copy from the new remote to my old remote. Now I can have one remote on the third floor of the house and use the other as my multi-function remote for my entertainment center in the living room. Excellent!
It has taken much longer than expected, but I'm very pleased with the results. Along the way the guys at Directed and Crutchfield were great, gladly sending me replacements that I needed before I even returned the units I had. They didn't always have the answer but they were always polite and supportive and in the end it's working great.
Thanks!
