VIZIO SV471XVT

Ergonomics & Durability (5.25)

The remote that Vizio includes with the SV471XVT measures 8 1/8 inches long by 2 1/16 inches wide and tapers from 1 1/4 inches thick at the base to 7/8 inches at the front. It has a soft touch finish on the contoured back that makes it more comfortable to grip, even with sweaty palms.

When holding the remote with your thumb on the main directional pad (D-pad) we found the remote was rather bottom heavy because of the weight of the batteries in the bottom part. This meant that it could sometimes slip from the hand if the grip wasn't tight. When you press a button, the entire remote lights up with a soft orange glow so you can read the labels in the dark.

The buttons on the remote are soft rubber, with good key travel, so you know when you've pressed them. We do have concerns about the remote in long-term use, though; the labels on the buttons could get scratched off fairly easily, and it just doesn't feel solidly built for long-term use.

Button Layout & Use (5.5)

The  remote has buttons laid out along the entire length, with a total of 46 buttons. The channel number and power buttons are at the top, while the volume and channel up and down buttons are lower down. This means you'll inevitably have to shift your hand up and down quite a bit to reach some controls, and we found that we couldn't switch from using the channel up/down to the channel number buttons without shifting the entire remote in the hand. The remote did work from wide angles, though; you don't have to be straight in front to use it.

Although there are a lot of buttons, they are all well labelled and these labels are pretty self-explanatory. As this is a programmable remote, there are 4 buttons at the top that determine which mode the remote is in: DVD, audio, cable or TV. This can be a little confusing, though, as there is no visual indication of which mode you are in, and some buttons do double duty. The record button on the second to bottom row also switches the aspect ration of the screen (thus the 'wide' label above it), so you could easily accidentally start recording something rather than changing the aspect ratio if the remote was in cable mode instead of TV mode.

Programming & Flexibility (6.0)

The remote can be used to control devices such as a DVD player, cable box, etc. There are 4 mode buttons on the top of the remote which determine which mode it is in. We found the process of setting this up to be simple: set the remote to the cable mode with the button found near the top. Point it at your cable box and press and hold the SET button until the LED blinks twice. Then enter the appropriate code for your cable box or other device, a list of codes is found in the back of the Vizio VO47L's manual. Sometimes there are multiple codes for a single manufacturer so repeat the process until you get the LED to blink twice letting you know the process is complete.