On December 9, 2006 at 03:49, BigPapa said...
Well Rich, you've been running with this for a long time,
I see you have some issues with it. Let's analyze. Unless,
of course, you're just harping on $1000 MX850's to tweak
us because you know it's a rarity.
Is it a rarity? when I hear your comments it does not appear to be so rare in the CI world.
First of all, it's not $1000 bucks for an 850, it's $1000
for an 850, and MRF250, and programming. MSRP on both
products is about $500. That leaves a profit somewhere
in the neighborhood of $200 on both products.
Hmm, I paid $219 (actually an MX-800 with MRF-200) from an AD so that seems to put profit a little bit higher.
If the installer has installed the same exact setup many
times before and is merely rehashing the same design again,
then $500 to program may be an exhorbinant fee, I would
agree. But, you don't know that. You're assuming that,
because it already fits into your preconcieved opinion.
The reality is that I can see $500 being a fair price
to program a remote depending on components and installation
environments, as well as requirements stated by the client.
Then I guess it is not such a rarity, BP make up your mind.
Rich, you've been a hobbyist for 20 years, right? Do you
think all MX850's should be programmed in 2 or 3 hours?
You might be able to make a new program in that time catered
to a client's request, but to then test the program with
all the components for consistency? Add to that RF testing,
which can sometimes be frustrating and take a lot more
time. You've used RF before right?
I think the $100/$120 an hour rates I have heard for remote programming are ridiculous.
I understand RF seems to have caused many problems for many people, as I see the posts on it here. I have an MRF-200 used for my home theater system and an MRF-100 used only for my home lighting. Both have performed excellent and were no trouble at all to set-up, so maybe I was luckier with RF than many.
The fact is Rich that we don't know the full skinny on
the "$1000 MX850" urban legend. I'd be glad to parse it
with you, objectively, just for the adventure. It's quite
possible that a CI is jacking it up, but it's also at
the very least quite possible that it's a fair price too.
Fair in your opinion, definitely not mine.
Yes, BP I know you do other things as well, but we are only talking about remotes here and now. $100.00 an hour or more to program a home theater remote is in my opinion close to robbery. Obviously why people should consider doing it themselves.
