find remote control for old TV

[VJ]

Hello,

My brother has a weird problem. He has an old (10+ years) Siemens TV that still works great, but the remote control doesn't work anymore. Many features are only accessible via the remote, but Siemens doesn't offer support for it anymore. He asked me whether I could find anything, ad will send me the typenumber of the TV and remote.

Considering his Denon home cinema amplifier has a programmable remote, I was thinking of using this. However, the 2 preprogrammed Siemens-choices are not adequate, and as his original remote doesn't work, we can't "learn" the new codes.

I was thinking of the following:
If I were to find the codes for the remote control (in i.e. a Philips Pronto file CCF, or LirC file), I could use either his laptop, my Psion, his Palm or my Symbian phone () to learn his Denon remote (most software seems to read these config files).

Is there any software that allows a laptop (this would be the easiest) to be used as a remote?
(software for Symbian exists in trial version, but it should work...)
Does anyone know of a database of remote control config files?

Are there other (better?) things I could do?

Thanks!


Jörg

[Fat Tone]

Google 'replacement remotes' - there are lots of people supplying them. You can get originals or (much cheaper) functional equivalents..

[VJ]

Cool! It would be a lot easier.
I checked some sites, but only this one http://www.remotecontrols.co.uk/ seems to have remotes for Siemens devices.
(I'll let him know this!)

Thanks!

Jörg

[Fat Tone]

NP. I myself have been the victim of a tidy-minded 3-yr old, and never saw the hifi remote again!

[Umfriend]

It's in that video-recorder you had to throw away cause something was stuck in it

[Fat Tone]

LOL! I have an electrified metal film applied to my AV-centre cabinet doors to prevent that. I think this one went straight to the bin. It's not all bad - when the amp finally went pop, It gave me an excuse to get my RXV-420

[KeiFront]

Just buy an universal mode remote control, I got 2 from philips that work great.

[VJ]

LOL@Umfriend

Reminds me of a friend of mine: some years ago, his son tried to put a waffle in the VCR. Oddly enough, the VCR accepted it, and pulled it straight in.

Just buy an universal mode remote control, I got 2 from philips that work great.

My brother's Denon remote is universal, but doesn't offer many required features (i.e. to program the TV); I have a universal Sony remote, but it has similar downsides. They only seem to offer the very basic commands (volume/channel).


Jörg

[Dilitante1]

another option is ebay

[Jammrock]

A universal remote should have the codes for that old TV. Most TV manufactures only changes their codes every few years. Replacement remotes can often times be more expensive than a cheap universal that has the codes.

[VJ]

A universal remote should have the codes for that old TV. Most TV manufactures only changes their codes every few years. Replacement remotes can often times be more expensive than a cheap universal that has the codes.

We tried two universal remotes. Both allow basic controls of the TV (channel selector, volume control), but not the more "advanced" features as channel programming and various adjustments (some require 2 keys to be pressed at the same time).
The replacement remote should offer everything the original one offered.

Jörg