For those of us that use VCR's and DVR's the three buttons that you will probably use most often on a remote control, other than for channel surfing and volume control, are the play, the fast forward search, and the fast reverse search buttons . The reason for this is the need to skip commercials on our recordings.

To accomplish this repeated task well one should have good reflexes as well as a remote control that is comfortable to use and that places these three buttons close together in a logical order. I feel that the MX-900 accomplishes this very well. The three buttons are on the same horizontal plane placed right next to each other making it very easy to find without looking at the remote.

Compare the above with the MX-850. It has the fast forward and fast reverse search buttons separated horizontally by a 4-way direction disk button and a selection button in the center. The play button is actually at the bottom of the 4-way directional disk button spaced relatively far from the other two search buttons. I do not feel that this is comfortable.

It seems that the people that program the units prefer the MX-850 while users prefer the MX-900. I think I understand why programmers prefer the MX-850 to the MX-900. The MX-850 has been around for awhile and they feel more comfortable with it.

Even if the MX-850 is easier to program than the MX-900 (which I do not believe is true), it is more important for the end user to be more concerned with which unit is more user friendly and not programmer friendly. The user will be spending a lot more time using the remote than programming it.