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best universal remote questions


crustywon

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Harmony one or the urc mx-900
Trying to figure out which one to buy.

Never tried the mx-900 but I love the Harmony One. Funny thing is tho, since I bought my Onkyo I haven't taken the Harmony out of the charging cradle for months. The Onkyo also has an activities set up so just haven't used the H1 lately. Kind of thinking about selling it but undecided.

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Only remote I have ever owned is the HarmonyOne. Absolutely love it. It has codes for EVERY electronic device I have purchased (both new and used gear). Can customize the touch buttons as well as the actual hard buttons on the remote. The software is easy to use and setup. Highly recommend it. Only thing would make it better is If it had RF.

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We all have different uses and opinions but...I personally do not like Harmony remotes, just really a bad design to me. I am certainly in the minority, not sure why but everything about them is contrary to the way I use a remote.I have three, picked them up for cheap but only use them when the htm 500 or 600 is not close by. I would say try em local then decide but Harmony is a favorite almost everywhere. I really prefer Onkyos upper end remote, they work easy and quick.

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Harmony's are easy to set up,always seem to work,and have codes for almost everything that uses a remote(ceiling fan's,heater's etc.). I have 2 and I have really liked them. I don't have any experience with others so take my experience for what it's worth.

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Once you've had a good URC remote nothing else compares. The build quality of URC is far better than any other remote I've seen, the IR more powerful and the RF the most dependable. They are very comfortable in hand and have a very comfortable user interface, they can also be customized in more ways than most others. My URC remote is the first and only remote I have ever owned that has done everything I have wanted my remote to do with no limitations and this was after owning quite a few high end remotes.

Maybe URC remotes are difficult to program for some people but I found it very easy, it probably isn't the remote for beginners but for someone who knows what a good remote is capable of doing and has decent computer ability and is capable of using your average software they can be very simple to program. Best of all they are definitely the best to use and will outperform every remote it replaces and be the only remote you use.

Harmony makes a good remote, URC makes a much better remote.

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I have owned a couple URC MX-900s and now have on MX-900 in the basement and an MX-980 in the living room. I definitely prefer the MX-980 because it has 8 user programmable buttons at the top compared to the 6 on the MX-900. For my DVR, I use all 8 buttons all the time. I have to switch between 2 pages when I use the MX-900.

The customization of the URC remotes is much better than the Harmony.

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I used to have a Phillips Pronto. After replacing the

touch-screens twice at $100 a crack, because they simply stopped working, I

decided not to buy any more touch-screen remotes. I chose the URC MX-980. I use

it in both RF and IR mode simultaneously. It took a while to learn the

programming and there is still an issue with getting it to function properly

with my Pioneer Elite Blu-Ray, but it's fairly reliable most of the time. Occasionally,

the automated lighting system in our theater fails to answer commands, but that

is easily overcome at the wall control panel. The purchase of the MX-980 and

it's RF receiver make the remote fairly expensive. I've not tried the

HarmonyOne, so I cannot comment on it. But, I believe HarmonyOne relies on a

web-based programming interface and if you own a model that their company

decides to stop supporting, what then? Will you still be able to program that

remote? I really don't know. I have heard from others that they like them a lot. -Glenn

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But, I believe HarmonyOne relies on a
web-based programming interface and if you own a model that their company
decides to stop supporting, what then? Will you still be able to program that
remote?

Harmony is about to be put up for sale from Logitech, so no telling what it's new owners will be doing with the brand.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-57565558-92/logitech-to-unload-harmony-line-after-disappointing-quarter/

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I started with a harmony one and then ended up going harmony 900 with all the doodads and adapters to control ps3 and rf from other rooms. It's works great BUT you cannot creat macros. I have (2) rooms worth of equipment in on av rack since the rooms share a wall. Works great. But if I want to control.both rooms individually it turns into a pain. Say pandora in one room while TV in another. Gets old hitting that activity button constantly to switch back and worth and wait on the lag of the remote before you can switch sings or change channels. Don't get me wrong. I love the remote, but for my needs I've got it at its limits. Not to mention the only rf it controls is just its or extenders, cannot be used on any or my lighting.

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