Is there a good, cheap universal remote that will run my Dishnetwork DVR?
 

I bought an Acoustic Research touch screen universal, but it broke before I got it completely programmed. I saw enough before it went TU to know that it really wasn't going to work well with the Dish DVR.

Any good ones that don't cost an arm & a leg?

I have a Harmony 880 bout 200 bucks. Harmony has a model 1000 now I think, it is a touch screen for around 400 bucks.

I love the 880. Controls every piece of equipment I have (TV, DVD, HD box, surround sound, Sirius, cealing fan, lights ( i am a lazy bastard some times))

Lee;

My DISH DVR remote uses UHF for the DVR and the usual IR for everything else. You'll need a remote that can do the UHF. Think they did that so you could hide the DVR (no line of sight required).

before i had DN DVR I lost my remote and found NONE would work (still used IR)

Found it after a few days but I think I used about 10 different kinds of remotes. Granted not where expensive (was able to borrow most) and I refuse to drop $100+ for a damn remote.

Did get my PDA to work with it but I had to train the PDA with the existing remote

Mines a Dish 500. I think it sends both IR and RF. The Acoustic Research remote was a learning remote and it was doing OK running the DVR... just missing some commands I would have liked. The A/R remote would NOT operate my Yamaha receiver at all. For some reason it would not learn the IR commands.

When it started locking up I returned it... only to find out that Buy.com was closing them out and didn't have any more.

+2 for the harmony 880.

Great remote with all sort of programmable features/macros. If you need RF capability, go with the 890 (basically the same unit but includes the RF module).