Wow, discontinued... I guess the MX-800/850 are taking its place. Makes me wonder if the MX-500 will follow suit.

The MX-850 looks pretty sweet. I was going to get a pronto, but my wife thought it was too bulky.

Has anyone compared it to the higher end Harmony remotes? The cost is about the same ($200-300).

Cheers,

My understanding is that the MX-850 and MX-800 are direct descendents of the MX-700. Both the 800 and 850 offer RF capability, which the 700 lacks, and the 850 uses a different nagivation keypad (the select button in the center is a separate button from the four-way navigation pad around it). The navigation pad is probably the biggest complaint with the MX-500/700 from my wife and other family members. (My first DVD player was a Panasonic A310, and after getting the hang of the joystick navigation control on its remote the 700's pad isn't a big deal to me.) The 800 and 850 use the same configuration program and data files as the 700, so there's an abundance of files available (including some for Outlaw gear ).

I got suckered into an impulse buy on the Harmony 880 today at Best Buy. 8-) It was remarkably easy to setup, though I haven't done anything fancy with it yet. The simple web setup had all the settings for every piece of gear (including the Outlaw 990), downloaded the new config to the remote via USB, and it seems to just plain work. It even passed the wife test. 8-)

I use the Harmony 880. Good WAF and has some decent abilities. Even my parents are able to use it while babysitting!

Ritz,
I don't know if 'suckered into' fits here. Sounds like someone at Best Buy gave you some good advise, and lucky for you, you took it! :-)
Enjoy!


Lonster

The only pertinent conversations you can really have at Best Buy are with the cashier. 8-) They had a pile of 880 remotes sitting there next to the all the theater gear. I was looking for sturdier wall mounts for my surround speakers. None of those passed the wife test so it looks like I'll be headed to HomeDepot to construct a totally overengineered bracket to convince her that even Bigfoot won't be able to tear this off the wall (long story).

Cheers,

I can't say much better for our local Good Guys which is inside Compusa. Just don't get it! Unless you know exactly what you want and need no info, I'd never buy there.

Ordered the mx-700 from newegg around Christmas. Couldn't be happier with its performance. Paid 155.?? shipped.

I ordered the MX-700 from Surf Remote, earlier in the week - supposed to arrive on Friday. I've seen alot of words about Surf Remote - ALL positive. The head guy is a regular (and I think a mod) at avsforum.com. I missed out on the $155 deal, but oh well. I paid $174.