Alright, I have not posted much here, so be gentle, especially since I know some of this has been rehashed already on this forum in various posts. I am currently in the market to upgrade my model 950 remote (the SL-9000?), since I recently got Tivo (yes, I know I am behind the times), and I am tired of 6 remotes. Anyways, I am not very happy with how my current remote works on menu based devices (ie. DVD, Tivo) due to its lack of separate menu navigation controls. How old is this remote anyway? I would have thought dedicated navigation keys would be a must for DVD. Other things I dislike about the SL-9000 are that many buttons feel/look the same, backlight does not help read secondary functions written below buttons, and the balance (difficult to use number keys with one hand, or else it falls on floor). So I would appreciate any advice from anyone with experience in this area, since I value your opinions.

The devices I currently operate are:
1. Sharp 32 in. TV (has A,B,C,D fav channel buttons which I use a lot)
2. Tivo Series 2
3. Mitsubishi VCR
4. Toshiba DVD
5. Outlaw 950/770
6. Harmon/Kardon CD

The remotes I am considering are the Universal Remote MX-500 (or equivalent), any URC series (100, 200, 300), or a Harmony (probably H659 or H680). So here are the questions:

1. What makes one brand better/worse than the other or what are your likes/dislikes of either brand or model? Specifically functionality, feel of buttons, size, weight, balance, programming, ease of use, cost/benefit ratio?

2. How do the URC professional (MX series) remotes compare/contrast with the consumer series (URC-100,200,300)? Why get one over the other and why do they even have these categories?

3. Is there some sort of chart comparison online within these remote brands? I am finding it very difficult just to see what extra features are added as model numbers increase within brands, as well as make comparisons between brands.

4. What are the best places to buy these? I have seen Wal-Mart suggested for the Harmony and BlueDo for URC.

5. How old are these remotes? Seems the MX-500 has been around almost as long as the SL-9000. Any chance for difficulty controlling some devices, especially the Tivo or 950? How about obsolescense? Should I worry about RF capability even if nothing I currently own uses it?

Thanks for your time.

I have had almost every remote out there at some point and I now own 3 mx-700's. IMO they are they most functional remotes I have ever used, but the Pronto was the most fun (but I hated touchscreen). I would recommend going to www.remotecentral.com for more research.

Remote Central is an excellent resource for remote research - it is a very thorough resource with some truly exhaustive reviews of most every notable universal remote available.

What makes one better/worse than another? Some of that is a matter of personal preference. Since Jed M mentioned the Pronto, I'll use it as an example: some people are huge fans of the Pronto touch screen's degree of customizability and control, while other people prefer to be able to find buttons by touch without looking down at the remote and therefore can't get comfortable with a touch screen in place of a good hard button remote. (Like Jed M, I fall into the second category.)

The Universal Remote URC series are a derivation of their MX remotes - the MX remotes were never intended to be sold to the average consumer, which is why they are hard to find outside of web dealers such as BlueDo (who I think still has the best price I've seen for MX-500's). Rather than upset the custom installer market for which the MX was intended by changing the official distribution channel for the MX's, Universal created the URC family. I haven't used a URC remote, but from the reviews I've read it sounds like they are packaged and presented in a way that makes it easier for the average user to pick one up and get it working quickly for their system - a very useful trait in a universal remote. The MX-500, while perhaps not as conveniently documented (there's no accompanying DVD to walk you through the process like there is for the URC's, although the remote is quite good), is very flexible and is in my opinion the remote to beat in the sub-$100 or even sub-$150 or $200 remote market. It is an older design, but Universal has kept it up to date (including continual updates to the onboard code library, from what I understand) and the very convenient learning capability assures you of being able to cope with hardware that is rare or extremely new. It would have no trouble with a Tivo, and there are a tremendous number of people successfully using the MX-500 with Model 950's and Model 990's. I'd tend to stick with the MX's unless you spot a really sweet deal on a URC.

I don't know of a chart for comparing remotes, although it is an interesting idea. Among the Universals, I tend to boil it down to the following:

• MX-500 and MX-700 were the original two, with the 700 adding a computer interface, much expanded macro capability, and more memory (20 devices instead of 10, 4 pages of buttons instead of 2 for each device).
• MX-600 and MX-800 added RF support to the 500 and 700, respectively.
• MX-650 and MX-850 replaced the 600 and 800, with the only significant change being to the navigation pad (which went from a disc that handled all four directions as well as the center "select" command to a disc for direction control around a separate center button for "select").
• URC-100, 200, and 300 provided a "consumer" line.
• MX-350 is the custom installer version of the URC-200 (same remote, just a different name).

I'm not as up to speed on the different Harmony remotes, so I can't help with sorting them out among themselves.

I routinely recommend BlueDo for the MX-500 (just bought a two-pack of MX-500's from them - one for my dad's birthday and the other for my mother-in-law's christmas). My MX-700 came from an eBay dealer.

If you end up with an RF device in the future, I believe that there are devices that can convert an IR signal to RF, but the industry standard is still IR - a device with nothing but RF remote capability is very rare (the only one that comes to mind is a Bose unit, about which I shall say no more). In most cases, folks are using the RF capability of the MX-600/800 or the URC's as a way to control IR devices without having to aim at them or have the equipment in view.

As usual, Gonk is pretty spot on.

I would just like to add that if you are brave enough to venture the EBAY route, I will recommend a seller by the name of Dougtheaterman. I have bought 6 mx-700's through him with no issues. He has great prices and in the one case an mx-700 was DOA (not mine, another forum buyer), he replaced it no problem.

I have the Harmony 676 and use it with my TiVo, DVD player, Xbox and several other devices. It works extremely well (after an extended and occasionally discouraging period of tweaking the setup.)

If you're interested, Dell has the Harmony 880 (the fancy new color model) for about $176 shipped, with no rebates to mail. Go to http://www.hot-deals.org and scroll down to the info for the Harmony 880 from Dell.com. In the description there is coupon code to get the price down. Just paste this into the box in the shopping cart, and it is automatically applied and the total price will change to reflect this. I ordered mine last Friday and it arrived on Tuesday. I haven't set it up yet, but look forward to playing with it this weekend. Enjoy.

Jeff

So I asked for the URC MX-500 for Xmas 2005. I received it and have been using for ~ 4 months now. I just changed the batteries, but I use the light a lot. All I can say is that the MX-500 is an excellent remote, beyond my expectations. I "learned" all my remotes in one night, and literally took the batteries out of and stored away 10 remotes permanantly! One suggestion I would make to anyone is to make a template for all assignable LCD buttons before learning them. I decided after the fact that many buttons I had assigned were illogical or hard to reach, so I had to re-learn most of them. Try putting most common functions on bottom right side and keep similar functions together (ie. surround modes). Also put most commonly used functions on page 1. I absolutely love combining activity based functions with device based functions on this thing. No more switching between "sources" on the remote. To anyone with a wife or significant other; my wife never touched the 950 stock remote. She now uses this remote easily and loves it as well, although I do not think she will admit it

Thanks for all your help!

p.s. Get 'em while they last. I heard they are discontinued.

I've been using the Harmony 890 (I believe it's the same as the 880, but adds RF capability) for about three weeks now, and I find it very user friendly. My wife wasn't too excited to learn "another" remote, but when I asked her how she liked it she tentatively said, "well, I'm not mad yet".

This remote controls pretty much anything, and will determine obscure remotes like the Sirius Sportster and CyberLink PowerDVD add-on remote.

That said, the set up software could be a little less quirky. It took me probably over 10 hours to get this thing set up the way it is now, and I'm not sure I'm done.

That's just my 0.02, never used these other universals, don't work for any of these companies, etc.

Best of luck to you with your remote. I'm glad that I finally found "One Remote To Rule Them All" -- just jump in and go for it. If you don't like it, eBay it and try the next guy!

-- Otto