Bill thanks for your support,

As far as my take on the remotes, I am not a professional reviewer, I will leave that to Dan but here are my impressions on what I have used. First off I have and use a Crisp Solutions 515, 616, RTI T2, and a Pronto with my home theater, which consists of several different brands of components.

The T2 is definitely the Mercedes of the group. Not much it can’t do. But it is a bit expensive for the mass market. I like most everything about except I wish they would not have flared it as much as they did in the center. But overall it very balanced.

The Pronto is very nice, has great support (just look at the files you can get on this site) and is fully customizable I think it is one of the best buys on the market. , but to be honest I don't really like the way it feels of it in my hands, it's kind of wide. I like the narrow format for one-handed operation. The other thing all the touch screen have in common is that as you tilt them at your IR target your viewing angle gets steeper and you can't see the button labels, the pronto at least addresses this with some buttons. I see why its is so popular, but it would not be my first choice.

The UC515 is a bargain and a very nice entry-level touchscreen, I only wish the button labels were customizable. But at $99 it does a lot of things right, great with macros, fast scrolling and gets the job done at an unbeatable price. The same problem with the tilting screen limiting your view. I suggested to Uli at Crisp solutions that they put the IR emitter on a swivel so that you could look at the screen while pushing the buttons. One of these manufacturers is going to do this some day and wonder why they ever had it in a fixed position. The other strong point of the 515 is Uli, just look what he did when the X10 forum wanted to use this with the IR543, he immediately incorporated this into the remote as shipped, not many companies would respond like that. Just a great guy.

The UC616 is kind of a poor attempt at a cheap T2, I find it similar in a lot of respects. The layout is nice and the way the basic screens are laid out. The one I have an early production unit and let me tell you it is slow. Changing channels takes a button push for each advance, I would rather hold the button down and have it move out. The macros also have their own menu, which is not so hot, I like the ability to assign a macro to any button I want. This remote is coming out with new software later this month that may fix some of this, but I will wait and see.

Which leads to the HTM MX1000, I got to use on of these briefly and have not had the chance to program it, but from what I can tell this unit is real real nice. The feel and layout is just what I am looking for and the price is right in the spot that is affordable for most everyone looking for a high-end remote. My only reservation about this is its frequency range. I wish it had been a little broader so that it covered everything on the market I have some old pioneer elite that I am not sure it is going to work on. The only other problem I have with this unit is the manufacturer, I just don’t get the same helpful feel I get when I call them as I do with the other three manufacturers, it’s been kind of like go away your bugging me. Having said that I just can’t wait to get my hands on it.

Thanks
Bill
www.homeautomationnet.com