Just got the one I ordered for testing.
I Was a little bumed that there was only 4 flasher outputs.

Do you guys have any Opinions yet?

It is a great idea. In most basic systems there is a tv, dvd and cable or sat box. This is a narrow-band reciever with 2 variable outputs and 2 fixed output with standard 3.5mm plugs. This is what alot of installers were asking for.

Guess you could use some dual emitters a la Xantech...

Installers did not ask for a 50% price increase and 2 less outs.
Moving to 3.55 mm plugs should have standardized things and saved costs in the long run.

Pros
Narrow RF
2 Variable Tuning
3.5MM

Cons
2 less IR
$50 increase or 50% increase

Aesthetics are a tossup.

I am ok w/ the cutting of the IR outs to keep it farther apart from the MRF350, but the $50 increase is weird.

The ir outputs are also addressable. That is a very great upgrade. I have no problem with the $50 increase for all the feature upgrades.OMO

What do you mean by addresable? Haven't all MRF's had this?

All the mrf's have been addressable on the unit codes but not all are ir addressable. If I want a ir code to only go out ir 3 it can do that. On the mrf-250 the ir when out all ir's at the same time. On alot of new and some older electronics(hr-20, denon reciever,etc) have problems when they see ir they won't work for a second of two after they see a ir that is not for them. So this solves alot of problems.

No it wasn't. If you had an MX-850 with an MRF-250, you could assign the IR outs just as you could with an MRF300 or MRF350.

Thats exactly what I thought. I thought maybe he was mistaken when he said "IR out" and meant to say "IR in". I have always thought it would be very useful in the custom world to be able to "aim" the IR input to only specific IR outputs. Especially helpful when you are adding a keypad to a home theater for house audio control. Hopefully someday this feature will be added.

True, the MRF-350 always had addressable IR ports, as well as its own address, just as the MRF-260 does.

[EDIT: As noted in the next post, I did in fact mean MRF-250 here. Sorry for the typo!]

One major difference with the MRF-260 is that two of the ports have adjustable IR output. So if you've got a cable box or DVR that gets easily overloaded, you can dial down the flasher to improve your results without always having to resort to moving the flasher.

I think Dale meant to say the MRF-250 above. Used with any MX remote from the MX-350 on up (except for the MX-600), the MRF-250 has individually addressable emitters. What it doesn't have is standard sized (3.5 mm) plugs/jacks, adjustable output level for any emitters or narrow band RF.

As far as only having 4 emitters is concerned, I just use some Speakercraft dual-headed emitters if I need more than 4.

So Mike based on your rec I should stock ~$5 worth of dual head emitters and hope they are long enough and know issues occur sometimes running 2 signals down the same path especially if I am forced to use a variable IR out.

Now I feel like I'm paying an extra $60+ depending on some troubleshooting.

I can't be the only one who sees this.

You can use one of the non-adjustable outputs for the dual-headed emitter. If you need more than five, wouldn't you just spec an MRF-350? Many CIs here haven't spec'd an MRF-250 in years, so this is actually a lower cost solution for them. I've used the dual-headed emitters in dozens of locations with an MRF-350 without a problem, so I don't anticipate a problem with the 260.

I could spec and MSC400 for each customer, but the price jump is what I keep pointing at. Why? Just because.

In addition, I had very few issues w/ the MRF250, but you are right I was selling lots of MRf300/350's too.

I guess they are going to start throwing in these devices a lot w/ remote in their promotions.

Basically they have just continued to raise the pricefloor.