MX-780 is now shipping. Just picked up a few from supplier. Pretty nice remote at a great price point. Can't see the 900's or 850's surviving with this option.

Vincent

i'm not a fan of the feel of the buttons compared to the other remotes.  it isn't easy to memorize the button positions by touch since they aren't raised high enough off the face of the remote.

How does it feel, comfort-wise? I like the red/green/blue/yellow hard buttons and this could be a good option for single room control for us where we are typically using mx-980's with URC and Crestron.

Like a TRC-780 only heavier. Also similar to an MX-450.

I tend to agree with Vincent, particularly with respect to the MX-900. The 850 still has its followers, no matter what.

Mike

Yeah, I know a guy who refuses to give up his 850. Heck, I know a guy who buys 700s when he can find them so he'll always have a supply of parts to keep his going...a bit more work than I'm willing to do.

My MX-810 is on it's way out and I was going to get an 880 but I think I'll hold off until I see the MX-780.

Mike

Agreed Mike! Those 850's are cultish :).

I was excited to program my first 850 a couple weeks ago....until I realized that it didn't have the capability to use variables.  

John, shame on you at your age to never have programmed an MX-850 :) Just kidding!

Seriously John, didn't your rep tell you about that variable-not thing, and the one-jump rule?

jk...

How's life at the shore these days?

There are so many reasons I hate the 850, i wouldn't know where to begin.

For starters, the inability to use the IR DB navigator and drag commands over to a button is a big demerit.

I could go on, and I wish it would die.

Any body who is a 850 fan probably also likes 300+ lb fat ladies.

Life at the shore is pretty good.  Been kinda bored though lately cuz Vince hasn't been keeping me busy on the weekends.   :p


I can't blame my rep for this one though.   I had a used MX850 dropped off at my desk one morning and was told it was from the customer's last boat, and that I needed to program it for the new one.

I was excited because I always liked the feel of these remotes when we used them on Crestron projects (ML600)

Luckly it was a fairly simple system, but the lack of variables for tracking the TV power status annoyed me.  In the end I just used the TV on delay in each activity macro to make sure the remote always did what the user expected it to do.  I could have used the On button to turn all devices on, then have the user press an activity button, but I don't like requiring more than one button press to get into an activity.

His old boat was all direct line of sight through a niles ir repeater system.  We installed an MRF350 onto the new boat and he couldn't be happier with the remote's performance.

This experience did teach me never to sell one of these remotes though :)

Nice to hear your customers are buying new boats (and they ain't cheap!).

I also don't see what the craze is with these MX-850s either. I am going to have to assume the love is based on looks and feel, and NOT power in programming, because this remote is so annoying to me I would never use it:

- Clumsy alias interface
- Serial to USB is annoying and SLOW
- No variables
- NO IR database manager
- Fields are way too short and I am a terrible abbreviator.

I don't sell alot of these remotes, but I work with them alot and come across them all the time. URC should re-release it with USB and a new interface if it's doing well in sales, but I don't know if it is. Everyone around here seems to like it.

I have the distinct pleasure of working with John (Duct Tape) from time to time on weekends and I have been working less on weekends. But to be fair, going forward I will take 50% of the blame since John invested in the football TV package which put the kibosh on Sundays...

oh man, he gets off on a technicality...

touché

You assume correctly. You have to remember that many MX-850 owners were weaned on the MX-500, then 600, 700 and 800, all with the same shape and layout. When the MX-900 first came out, I had a hard time adapting to it both in the button layout and the squared-off feel. Of course, the programming power of it and subsequent remotes easily kicked the 850 to the curb, but for a lot of people, the form factor rules.

Mike