Hehe, wow. I had no idea my thread was going to get so much attention. Let me get a few things straight...

I posted this in Intermission because I wasn't talking about remotes as much as I was talking about a review.... and by talking I of course mean ranting.

Second, my statement about touch screens, looking back at it now, should have been more specific. Touch screens like those on the Prontos, where you can make all sorts of buttons and pretty much design the layout of the remote, I think are awesome. What I was trying to say was that the reviewer pointing out that the URC-300 having a touch screen was a one-up on the 880 was not really a one-up at all. The URC-300's touch screen is nothing like the Prontos or other more advanced touch screens.

The 300 TS is pretty much the same as the LCD on all the MX models except for the 1000 and 3000. They all just provide a line to type the name of the button, then on the side is the hard button associated with that name. I like that design because I can name the button anything I want but once I get used to where it is, I can find it in the dark. The URC-300 just takes off the hard buttons next to the LCD labels and makes it a TS. You cannot design/shape/move around the buttons or anything like that so I don't see any benefit. That is why I disagree with the reviewer when he said that the 300's touch screen is one of its redeeming features. I realize my statement about touch screens was written in a general way and could be applied to all remotes, but I was thinking about the URC-300 when I wrote it, and I did mention what remotes I was talking about when I created this thread.

Here is the URC-200 [Link: universalremote.com]) and URC-300 ([Link: universalremote.com]). The only difference in how the screen works is with one you can feel the buttons in the dark and with the other you cannot. I've always disliked this type of touch screen because it has no real benefit over hard buttons associated with LCD labels. The only "benefit" is the "ooh la la" of having a touch screen.

Anyway, the touch screen was really only a small part of my original post. I was just trying to say that matching up the URC-300 with the Harmony 880 was unfair. The remotes are in different classes, especialy since the Harmony can be programmed by the computer and the URC-300 cannot. That's why the prices are so different. The URC-300 was destined to lose in that match up, and being a URC fan, I felt Sound & Vision magazine could have put a little more thought into that.

I would think a better review would be of remotes with the same or very similar features which discussed which remotes used their features better. Or maybe a review of remotes of the same price which discussed which had more bang for the buck.

This message was edited by zytrex on 07/21/05 03:12 ET.