weemote DV Remote Control

A few months ago I reviewed the weemote 3 from Fobis Technologies. Today it’s time to look at another of their children’s remotes, the weemote DV. The weemote 3 did a great job simplifying TV viewing, but can the weemote DV do the same thing for DVDs?

First Impressions
Picture your average remote: it’s probably black or silver and has a ton of little buttons on it, right? Ok, the weemote DV looks nothing like that. Instead, like the weemote 3, it features a colorful, rounded body and brightly colored buttons. However, it also has a soft rubber ring around its edge that makes it easy to grasp. Finally, there are only nine buttons (Play, Pause, Stop, Ok, Up, Down, Left, Right and (M)enu) on the weemote DV. Removing a screw on the bottom allows you to change batteries and access the three programming buttons.

Setup
Setting up the weemote DV is very simple. Just find your DVD player manufacturer in the instruction manual and enter the matching codes until you find the one that controls your player. If for some reason, you can’t find one that works, don’t worry: unlike the weemote 3, the weemote DV is a true learning remote so you can use your current remote to teach the weemote DV commands for any of its nine buttons. The learning feature also lets you use the weemote DV with devices other than DVD players. For example, you could program it to control a CD player and use the “Up” and “Down” keys for volume.

Testing
I tested the remote with our Sony DVD player. Unfortunately, the first weemote DV we received had a defective LED, making it impossible to program the remote using the codes from the manual. A quick e-mail to Fobis Technologies and a new remote was on the way. In the meantime I was able to use the learning feature (which uses a different LED) to program the weemote using my original Sony remote control. Programming was done by pointing the remotes at each other and following a simple sequence for each button.

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