VCR VOICE PROGRAMMER LETS YOU TALK TO - NOT CURSE

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 13, 1993                   TAG: 9303130372
SECTION: SPECTATOR                    PAGE: S-14   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JONATHAN TAKIFF KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
VCR VOICE PROGRAMMER LETS YOU TALK TO - NOT CURSE - REMOTE CONTROL
Infomercials have hustled us to purchase miracle car waxes, vegetable slicers/dicers and exercise machines "not available in any store."
Now a novel, high-tech device for controlling a TV set and VCR "with the power of your voice" is getting its sole push via direct-response radio and TV advertisments, too.
Replacment remotes for home electronics are a boom business, selling at a rate of 26 million units per annum, estimates one maker. And the "8 out of 10 people who can't program our VCRs" are particularly in need of his special remote, claims inventor Michael Bissonnette in the radio spot for the VCR Voice Programmer, his "incredible breakthrough product" which carries a $169 price tag.
Unlike the VCR Plus control system - which is built into 10 percent of videocassette recorders now sold in the U.S. - the VCR Voice Programmer does not require you to enter specific program codes found in newspaper and TV Guide listings.
Instead, just depress a single button on this remote and talk to it, following cues on a liquid crystal display screen that tell you when to speak the day, channel, on and off times of the program you wish to have taped.
An hour before the appointed start time of the show, the VCR Voice Programmer's LCD screen starts blinking the news that it's ready to record, and reminds you to put a tape in the VCR. A more incessant count-down, with an audible beep, begins five minutes before showtime.
The unit will then turn on the VCR, tune the right channel and start recording. If you're cabled, it switches the cable box (previously left on) to the proper channel, too. A total of four different shows running in a single week can be verbally pre-set in advance.
The Voice Programmer performs some other neat tricks, too. During video tape playback, you can control play, stop, pause, fast forward and rewind functions vocally. Or just say "zap it" and the tape speeds forward through a minute-length commercial, then resumes normal play.
You can also jump from one viewing channel to another (by announcing, say, "one . . . two" to move to channel 12).
While billed as a miracle cure for technophobia, the VCR Voice Programmer does require reading of two cartoon-ladened set-up books plus an operating guide. It takes about an hour for a single user to get a system running - first training the smart remote to hear your voice, then transfering infrared operating codes from your old remotes to the new one.
(In roughly the same time, you could finally study up on how to set your VCR's clock so it stops blinking 12, and how to work the recorder's on-screen programming!)
Four different family members can store their own voice commands in a single VCR Voice Programmer, even concocting their own words for transport operations. The controller also can be switched to operate two different sets of video components.
In my programming experience, the infrared information transfer didn't go so well, until I put new batteries in the old remotes. And several of my voice sampling entries had to be re-done, before the unit recognized my gurglings.
Even then, this smart remote occasionally mis-heard me. I learned that it pays to turn down the television's volume - a "distraction" to the remote - whenever entering vocal commands.
When all else fails, or you don't want to wake a bed partner, you can manually enter functions like "record" or change the viewing channel up and down with push buttons on the remote, most hidden under a sliding cover.
Convinced now? You can order yours at 1-800-788-0800 or 1-800-VCR-TALK.
But take heed that a simpler, cheaper ($60-$80) and less sexy solution to VCR program-itus will be delivered to stores later this month from at least two manufacturers. It's a combined universal remote and VCR programmer that requires just the press of a few buttons for setup of taping time, day and station.
Better yet, both the VCR Pro 4 (by One For All/Universal) and Fox 4 Record are pre-programmed to adapt quickly to different brands of video equipment, even if you've lost the original remotes.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB