InstallCard actually offers quite a wide array of installation services from installing satellite radio to outdoor broadcast antennas (was not expecting to find that one). It seems that their business is much like Geek Squad but perhaps a bit more specialized and a little cheaper. Instead of just paying for a large general home theater setup you can order smaller individual setups. For example InstallCard has a card for AV Hookup, Flat TV, Bigscreen TV, Remote Setup, and Speaker Setup.  So if you only need your speakers wired you can just buy the Speaker Setup card.  They do have more general setup packages but there are multiple restrictions on each type of setup.

Which brings me to another point: if you choose to get the Universal Remote Programming e-InstallCard you should be aware of those restrictions. The service includes setup a single remote and up to 8 controlled devices. However, you only get up to 4 macros for launching activities. Also they will not actually touch any A/V equipment, and all your devices must be in the same room. So if you have two rooms with equipment you will have to buy another card in order to get the support person to walk into the next room. Or maybe you can just stack all of your stuff in one room and see what he does.

Somewhere, someone is missing the underlying problem — we need to make it easier to setup universal remotes. If you buy a Philips Pronto Remote for $600 you shouldn’t have to hire someone for another $250 to set the thing up.  That is almost $1000 dollars before you even get to turn your TV on (we actually have a testimonial on this from someone who has completely changed the way you live, but you’ll hear more about that when we are ready to publish the interview). For a thousand dollars my remote better be able to tell me what to watch and hold a decent conversation. At the same time. Both ways. Uphill. In the snow.

Everyone knows how awful it is searching through their Universal Remote’s instruction guide and trying to find the right code for your TV — trying each of the possible codes for your TV until one works, and then repeating it all over again for the DVD player.  Well the QuickSet from Universal Electronics (UEI) may finally put that hassle behind us with the help of an onscreen setup menu system and their XMP®-2 infrared (IR) protocol.

Typically remotes have had IR codes stored on an embedded chip, which has its limitations.  In order to get the remote to work you had to find and enter the right code for your brand of TV (or hope the auto-program function works, which it never does).  If your code wasn’t on there then, you were out of luck. QuickSet breaks that model by moving some of that processing off the remote — which has limited processing capability — onto the TV, which has much more significant processing power and the benefit of a visual display.  With a UEI QuickSet enabled device and remote, the user is prompted on-screen with the device name and type as well as a confirmation test to make sure the remote works. It’s that simple.

As we see it, UEI hopes bring high-end functionality to their remotes by shunting the processor and display muscle to the TV, which seems like a good idea. To make this work, they developed the XMP^®-2 infrared (IR) protocol –  essentially a two way IR network between the TV and the remote.  The majority of remotes today are one way IR and can only send signals and not receive them, which is why you had to find your code on the embedded chip by way of the user guide listings. Now new UEI remotes can just receive the proper codes directly from the device, guaranteeing a quick and easy setup.
Of course nothing is perfect.  In order to use UEI QuickSet you are going to have to buy all new equipment from select manufacturers that have partnered with UEI.  Plus not many people are willing to redo their entire systems just so they can program them quickly — as rewarding as that might feel. By comparison, a high-end remote costing $1,000 sounds like a bargain.

Because of these hurdles, it will take a long time for the system to really get going — if it even catches on. The fact is, major consumer electronics manufacturers could wallpaper the earth with their plans to introduce such approaches, but many never make it beyond a few experimental models.

I do like the idea behind UEI QuickSet and agree the code manual is obsolete, but I feel like most people would rather buy the nice high end remote for other added benefits such activities, macros, and touchscreens that pay dividends long after the setup process is gone from memory.