Recently I came to realize about the existence of pro-remotes. My Harmony One died and looking for a replacement on amazon.com lead me to URC R40 and searching on URC remotes lead me to this place. Then I found about URC's pro MX line and several other pro brands like RTI and Philips Pronto TSUxxx and others.
My immediate needs have been met by getting another Harmony One, which I had been perfectly happy with, but wanted an upgrade interms of more tweakability/customizations, a better screen, and a generally better built remote.
I live in Hong Kong and I looked into the dealers in for URC and RTI and found that the custom installers weren't interested in dealing with me unless I was buying a whole setup from them. The distinct feeling I got was that, unless I was buying a McIntosh/Classe/Krell based system, they didn't even properly acknowledge the remote programming issue and so I had to give up that line.
I have gone a bit over board. Having 3 independent TV/Audio systems at home I also bought a URC R40 and started looking into the MX line. The first thing that I noticed was that all the Pro brands are fiercely protective of their dealers and have strict policies regarding distribution of the tools to end users.
Being a computer programmers woke up the inner geek in me. More on this later. So to find out what is possible I was able to get the URC CCP software. After I got over the initial intimidation factor I started creating my system and then realized the remote that had everything I wanted was an MX1200 and I have to say programming it, had been a thoroughly enjoyable experience.
I concluded on the MX1200 (which I have since bought) because I wanted a completely customization touchscreen (not hard buttons like with the mx 980). The MX5000 looks interesting and I my buy that one later and give it a go.
I couldn't easily get a hold of RTI remotes or s/w and for Pronto, the tools are there, but couldn't find the remotes themselves.
I do understand the reason for guarding the tools. They don't want the end user to deal with the s/w which is clearly designed for professionals who programs remotes for a living.
FYI, I program user interfaces for complex trading systems. To give an idea of how complex the systems were, I have myself written UIs far more complex than the URC CCP tool in .net and Java (over a million lines of code).
To me this is a hobby--something to tinker with :)
So on to my question for the PROs--what are the major difference is programming effort? Quality? Are any brands more DIY'er friendly? Other than pronto s/w from this site, are there (legal) ways to get pro remotes & software anywhere?
