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| The JVC LT-47X899's remote is large, bulky, uncomfortable and generally unimpressive. On the plus side it does work as a universal remote, but we don't know why you would actually want to use this thing to control all of your other devices. |
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Ergonomics & Durability (4.6)
 The JVC LT-47X899's remote is rather large, measuring 8 13/16 inches long, 2 5/16 inches wide and tapers from 1 1/4 inches thick at the back to 1/2 inch thick at the front. It is fairly light, for its size, but the large width and the lack of contouring means that it doesn't feel particularly comfortable in the hand. That said the light weight does help when you have to shift your hand to the front or back of the remote as it doesn't feel too far out of balance. It's made of rather slick plastic, which in combination with it's large size means it will likely be dropped more than average. The rather cheap plastic does concern us in terms of durability, but there are no major moving parts and the battery cover feels well put together. The buttons on the remote are soft plastic, without only average key travel and not much tactile feedback when pressed. We were not impressed by the JVC LT-47X899's remote, we feel like not a lot of thought was put into it and it's basically just a cheap remote that you get with your TV.
Button Layout & Use (5.25)
The rather large width of the JVC LT-47X899's remote means that those with smaller hands will have to stretch to reach controls on the opposite side of the remote, this effects the Menu and CH- buttons in particular. All of the other most commonly used controls should be within easy reach for most. The large length of the remote results in a lot of shifting of your hands required to access any controls except for those right around the central D-Pad. In particular commonly used controls like the number keys, inputs and power button all sit on the upper half of the remote and require quite a bit of hand shifting to access. Given the lack of contouring and slick plastic we believe this constant hand shifting will likely result in the remote being dropped quite a bit. The angle at which you can control the TV is good, however, we were able to turn the TV on at an angle of only 10 degrees from the face of the TV.
Programming & Flexibility (6.0)
The JVC LT-47X899's doesn't have programmable buttons, but you can use it to control other pieces of your home theater setup, including a set top box, VCR, DVD or Stereo. To test how easy it is to set up we programmed it to control our Comcast Cable Box. We found the process to be simple, with good instructions found in the back of the manual, along with a list of codes for a variety of different devices. Of course given that we are not particularly impressed by the remote you may want to go out and find a more comfortable universal remote.
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