Business Hopes To Click With Losers Of TV Remotes

Miracle Remote Inc. of Tampa offers replacement remotes geared to specific television brands for $29.00. The remotes require no programming or codes.
CANDACE C. MUNDY / Tribune



By B.C. MANION bmanion@tampatrib.com
Published: Apr 15, 2006

TAMPA - It used to be if you lost or broke your television's remote control, you had two choices: Replace it with the same model, or get a universal.
Now there's another option.
Miracle Remote Inc., a Tampa company, has partnered with Dynatron, a manufacturer of remote controls, to offer a simple alternative.
"You just put in the batteries, and it works," says Michael Monsky, president of Miracle Remote.
Each of the eight models is geared to specific brands so no programming or code numbers are required.
"A universal remote comes with codes and instructions. You have to find your kind of TV. And then sometimes the TV, like Sylvania, will have eight different codes, and you might have to try them all," Monsky says.
Miracle Remotes are designed to operate the key features on all of the televisions produced by each particular brand since 1988, Monsky says. The eight models cover about 85 percent of TV sets manufactured in the past 15 years, he says.
They're also designed to work the same way as the original, Monsky says. If you knew how to turn a game on or off, open the parental lock, change the picture size, program favorite channels or adjust your picture on your original remote, you'll know how to do it on these remotes, says Dan Ruback, vice president of sales for the company.
Many functions on televisions won't work if you don't have the original remote, Monsky says.
"Mitsubishi has a parental lock. If that somehow gets locked up on your TV, if you don't have the remote control, you can throw the TV in the garbage," Monsky says.
If you have an older Sony, but not its remote, you can't get past Channel 13, Ruback says.
Besides addressing those issues, Miracle Remotes are easier to use than others because they have fewer - and larger - buttons.
Monsky and Ruback, who are first cousins, are confident their remotes will do what customers want.
They began selling remotes about 20 years ago as part of an electronics repair business they ran in New Jersey.
Eventually, they got out of the repair business, moved to Florida and set up a Web site to sell remotes. They still sell thousands of original remotes, and they have developed remotes that are used in hotels.
The remotes were unveiled in January at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Monsky and Ruback say they have used the customer input given over the years to decide which functions to include on Miracle Remotes.
"Over and over and over, we hear the exact same reason they need an original remote," Monsky says. "The PIP [picture in picture] doesn't work. The input doesn't work."
The remotes, which sell for $29.99, are available at MiracleRemote.com or Target.com. They are scheduled to be in Target stores in the fall.
Negotiations with Best Buy and Circuit City are under way.