Bryan Levy's Post #8 very accurately describes my own nightmarish experience with the MX-810 software. I've been a professional A/V remote programmer for 15 years and COULD NOT complete a successful MX-810 program in my 8 hour marathon attempt. If "DEVICE" was selected, all the codes worked perfectly. If ACTIVITY was selected the codes seemed to work each assigned device but they were totally scrambled. The power on and power off macros did not work at all. When I assigned discrete ON / OFF codes to a device, the remote would not save that information. I encountered many communication problems between the remote and my PC. Once, the remote locked up during download and the only way I could fix it was to remove the remote's battery for a second to reboot it. Ah... brings back Pronto nightmares.
This is such a huge disappointment because the remote's physical design is "The Best Ergonomic Design" I've seen to date. We could sell hundreds of these remotes if the programming software was the normal, advanced URC programming we all love.
The white letters on black buttons are the easiest to see. Fantastic!
The silver outlines around the control groups make operation easy to understand.
Using the word ACTIVITIES rather than WATCH is brilliant. I have always wondered what the "engineers" were thinking that gave us the LISTEN and WATCH buttons. Am I supposed to LISTEN or WATCH my lights dim or my blinds go up an down? By the way, according to the photo of the upcoming MX-980 at this address...
[Link: cepro.com]our soon to be released "dream remote" has the (ouch) LISTEN and WATCH buttons!
Back to the MX-810...
The perfectly placed and very large skip - and skip + buttons are excellent for skipping commercials with the Dish DVR. These are probably the most important buttons on the remote control. SUGGESTION: print Skip - and Skip + on the buttons and put a hard DVR button between the two skip buttons so we can easily get to our recorded programs.
The "easily replaceable" Lithium Ion rechargeable battery is fantastic (Pronto TSU9600 designers...did you read the last line?)
SIDELINE... In case you have not heard, your customers (or you) have to send their TSU9600s back to Phillips every time their Li battery needs to be replaced. Brilliant! Perhaps Phillips owns stock in UPS :) What a nightmare for us.
Thank you, URC, for giving us an easily replaceable Li battery.
The battery is also rugged (no hanging wires to break off (MX3000)) and easy to handle.
MX-810 again...
The fact that the MX-810 can run indefinitely because the power supply cord plugs directly into the remote is a HUGE BONUS because it will make our non-stop TV-watching addicts very happy. If plugged in, their remote will never "die".
The fantastic color display puts this remote at the very top of the "easy to see" list.
The remote is very light weight which is another huge plus.
The hard button "soft click" feedback is classy and not at all annoying.
The audible beeps are very clean sounding... not your typical, horrible, cheep screech.
Adjustable beep volume = excellent.
Adjustable color screen brightness = excellent
Tilt switch on/off button = excellent
URC managers have been telling us in these forums that the upcoming MX-980 is "The Remote" that will satisfy the highly skilled programmers among us. Perhaps it will, in terms of software, but I personally feel, as a past Human Factors Engineer for Northrop Grumman, that the physical design of the MX-810 is FAR SUPERIOR to the upcoming MX-980 design.
In fact, I love the physical design of the MX-810 so much that I am going to keep it, even though I cannot get it to work anything. I just love looking at it, holding it in my hand and dreaming about how great life would be if I could one day program it successfully.
URC, we love you. My advice is to scrap the outdated looking, poorly laid out MX-980 and put it's software into the magnificent MX-810. If you do, you won't be able to supply the World with enough of them. I Guarantee it.
