JP1 Remotes

EdT · Joined: 04 Dec 2014 Posts: 39 Location: Canada

Which company is the real McCoy with more JP1 remotes ?
Just did a search and they are suing each other over patents ! ...LoL

mdavej · Expert Joined: 08 Oct 2003 Posts: 4501

URC has zero JP1 remotes. I guess that makes UEI the real McCoy. Many UEI remotes have "URC" in the model number, but that has nothing to do with the URC company. UEI was first, founded 3 years before URC, and probably did patent quite a few things first. However 99% of all UEI remotes wouldn't be user programmable via PC if it weren't for the JP1 community. URC, on the other hand, has been PC programmable, at least by integrators, for many years. UEI likely just sat on many of those patents, never using them until recently, long after URC.

URC and UEI OEM markets overlap a lot, but their retail market does not overlap as much. Most URC remotes are very high end and custom programmed by integrators. UEI remotes are very low end. Xsight was their failed attempt to compete with URC and Logitech in the high end market. IF their own software was as good as Remote Master, they may have had more success.

UEI is the only remote that can add any arbitrary function to their remotes via "magic" codes (EFCs), their major claim to fame. Other remotes can only acquire new functions by learning. UEI has a very clever, elegant and efficient way to store and use hundreds of protocols and many thousands of codes that few others can match. JP1 software exploits these capabilities to their fullest extent.

3FG · Expert Joined: 19 May 2009 Posts: 3367

URC (Universal Remote Control) doesn't make JP1 remotes; only UEI (Universal Electronics, Inc) does. UEI is the older and larger company. It is confusing that UEI remotes are frequently labeled URC-xxxx, leading people to believe that these remotes are made by URC.

MaskedMan · Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2014 4:29 am Post subject:

As for the lawsuits, UEI is losing each and everyone they bring.

http://www.cepro.com/article/uei_guilty_of_patent_misuse_in_claims_against_universal_remote_control/

http://www.cepro.com/article/urc_is_crushing_uei_in_remote-control_patent-infringement_claims/
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Edmund

EdT · Joined: 04 Dec 2014 Posts: 39 Location: Canada

3FG · Expert Joined: 19 May 2009 Posts: 3367

Well, it was before I was much interested in remote controls, but this copy of the OneForAll website (click on discontinued products) suggests that the very first offering of UEI was called the URC-2000. Since UEI predates URC by about 5 years, perhaps URC copied the OneForAll acronym?

MaskedMan · Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2014 4:39 pm Post subject:

Back then we didn't call a remote a remote, we said Remote Control, a universal wasn't a universal, it was Universal Remote Control. GE, Onkyo, Memorex, all of them used that three word phrase. It couldn't have been patented.
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Edmund