How to Upgrade Your FTA Remote
Most fta remotes are not very good. Phillips has an inexpensive remote that can "learn" the buttons on your exisiting fta remote. The Phillips SRP5107WM is available at Walmart for under $20.00 U.S. I have found the quality of these remotes to be very good and they are built much better than my latest fta remotes. The Phillips SRP5107WM may be programmed to control up to 7 different devices and it is advertised to work with 625 different brands. I have not had any problems using this remote to control a Pansat, Openbox, or a Manhattan receiver. Programming the Phillips remote is easy. You can program the buttons on the remote in any order that you want. This makes changing fta receivers easier on you and other family members because you can program the remote buttons to have the same function instead of having to learn a different remote for every fta receiver. For example, I put the scanned satellites under the Guide button on the Phillips. Some fta remotes have the scanned satellite list under the Zoom or Size button. The only problem I have with the Phillips remote is they all look the same. It would be nice if they came in different colors so you would know which remote goes to a particular fta receiver or other device. I can get around this problem by putting an identifying mark on the remote so I know what it is supposed to control. This remote has changed the way I do things. When I get a new receiver, I program the Phillips to control it and then put the original remote in storage. Currently I have one of these remotes set up so a couple of keys control the Gbox, a couple of keys control the tv and the rest of the keys control a Pansat 9500 HDX receiver. All of this is done under 1 setting on the remote. I have 6 more settings that I could program if needed. EB
