Remote design flaw?

I got my 950 a few days ago and today I programmed the remote to control my other components.

After setting it up for my DVD player I discovered that I couldn't use the directional buttons on the remote to navigate the menus on DVDs without triggering the play, pause, FF, etc., functions.

Am I missing something?

Nope, it's a noted weakness in the Home Theater Master SL-9000 (which is what the 950's remote is taken from). For DVD use, the directional pad needs to work as a directional pad -- and you may need to learn those functions to it. For transport controls (play, pause, ...), I "borrowed" several of the small round buttons directly above the macro buttons at the bottom of the remote and learned the transport controls to them. (I even marked them on the buttons with a Sharpie marker, although it has worn off recently.)

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gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review

As gonk noted, it's a well known problem with this remote. I use my original DVD remote to select options and start the movie, then use the transport functions on the Outlaw remote while watching.

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Philip Hamm

Because my wife was never able to figure out how to use the remote, much less buttons being overwritten for the exact problem you're having, I opted to put the remote in the junk drawer and replaced it with a Home Theater Master MX-700. The MX-500 is very similar to the 700 but cheaper. I recommend picking up one of these.

Yep, this is an annoyance! Can't tell you how many times I went to navigate the menu just to stop the DVD. While ramdonly pressing keys I discovered that four of the round buttons controlled the navigation, I didn't like the way they were set up so I reprogammed them. It took some time but I finally go for these round buttons instead of the arrows. Why didn't I just reprogram the arrow buttons? Because my wife and daughter also use this remote and the arrow keys are labeled with their function and they "read" the labels on the keys.

I have never used the 950 remote for anything other than programming my $12 learning programmable remote that has separate transport and menu navigation keys.