ERGONOMICS

With its piano-black plastic finish and blue-LED backlight, the XSight struts an attractive, new-tech look. It's a bit lighter then some of its competition - the URC R50 feels like a rock in comparison - and the buttons are nearly flush with the remote, making it hard to find the right one by feel alone. On the other hand, the remote responds immediately to button presses with a powerful IR signal that's easy to bounce off walls (if your aim is poor). The backlight clearly illuminates the buttons as soon as you pick up the remote, so you don't need to hit a button just to light up the surface. Some touchscreens can be too sensitive, while others require a hammer to get them to work. But the AR's touchscreen sensitivity seemed just right - and each press of the LCD is answered by a little beep to let you know you've hit it. My favorite navigation feature is a slider bar directly under the screen. Essentially this is just a page-forward/page-back control, but it works like a slider control on an iPhone. Unfortunately, the slider is the only control that doesn't benefit from backlighting.

Underneath the slider is a row of hard buttons that duplicate the soft keys on the LCD home screen. To me, these are unnecessary and could be replaced by a bigger Home button. Other welcome hard buttons are the Red, Green, Yellow, and Blue buttons for controlling Blu-ray Disc player functions. Another nice design touch is the large Pause button - to make life easier for DVR addicts.

SECRET WEAPON

The XSight Touch has one trick up its sleeve that most DIY remotes don't - built-in RF control (433 MHz). If you want to hide all your gear in a closet or behind a wall, you can do that by adding the RF extender, a small radio-frequency receiver with infrared output jacks that hook to up to 6 devices. This is the kind of option more frequently found in products developed for custom installation. Also, the remote is rumored to control a few DirecTV boxes that have built-in RF capability.

BOTTOM LINE

For people who've amassed a collection of audio/video gear, remote control clutter can be a constant annoyance. But it doesn't have to be. Among the many universal remotes out there, the XSight models strike a nice balance between ease of use and customization. There are remotes that will take less time to configure, but they'll also do less. There are remotes with more programming options, but they also cost more and are more complicated to set up. I haven't seen a perfect remote yet, but I'm sure that AR's XSight will satisfy a lot of users.

Price: $249 araccessories.com