I sold my first MX-450 about 8 years ago. I just heard from that customer, and he said the remote is still working perfectly. Imagine that, a "piece of junk" remote that's still working perfectly after 8 years of use. You will be lucky to get 2 years of regular use out of a Harmony remote.

As far as the dimmers, you went to the bottom of the line fast. Enjoy your limited use dimmers.

What we hear time after time with the Harmony remotes is the client stating, "I have to keep pushing HELP for everything to go where it needs to." This doesn't happen with URC. 2nd zone? Harmony don't play that (not well at least). The questionable reliability of the Harmony is another matter.

Your flambasting may be happening just because people like myself that deal with these remotes everyday know of the issues with the Harmony remotes and that the URC products deliver a much more reliable system, every time.

I agree that the PC-programmed remotes are a nicer way to go. It costs more for a URC model with these functionality, but it's worth it for many to ensure that the system works the way it is supposed to EVERY time. If I was a consumer and knew what I do about URC vs. Harmony, I'd pony up the couple hundred bucks for the URC. The specs don't tell the tale of the differences between the remotes.

I have a Logitech Harmony One and a URC MX-950. I have had both for exactly the same amount of time, and both work great. The Logitech I use downstairs so my family can easily use the TV and XBOX.

Upstairs, in my home theatre, I have programmed the MX-950 to do exactly what I want with the more expensive components (the family doesn't even try to use this remote, so they don't go in there without me).

But now, I just built an HTPC for my home theatre, and wanted to add that component to my MX-950, so I can switch the AVR to that input with a button press (I have a bluetooth keyboard and mouse to control XBMC running on the HTPC).

Guess what? I can't do it. All I have on every computer I own is Windows 7, which no longer supports ActiveSync, so I cannot get my PC's to recognize the remote and so I can no longer program it (really?!?!?!). So, I either pay $350 to my installer to program it, something I could do it about 5 minutes, or I buy a crappy laptop for $300, and put an old copy of XP on it to program it. My components are in a beautiful rack inside a closet in the back of the room, and thus require RF. I have the MRF-250, which works perfectly. I have a 110" screen and project, so no, there is no cabinet I could put things on at the front of the room.

So, basically I am up the river without a paddle. Thanks URC! I think the Logitech 900 is a RF remote, but I am sure it won't be as nice a solution as I had with the MRF-250.

 have you tried windows mobile device center?  that is the replacement for active sync.

Yes, and that doesn't work. It is for Vista and not Windows 7. And even when I set the compatibility mode to Vista, it still won't recognize the remote via USB. So, I have an old laptop and I will have to get a copy of XP, and install that onto it, just to re-program the remote. Sigh. Very, very, very frustrating.

Sorry for the consecutive posts, but I did get this to work using Windoes Device Manager 6.1 (running under Vista compatibility) and a particular trick. Let me know if anyone else wants to know the trick.

BTW, Windows Mobile Device Center is used with Win 7 as well as Vista. Don't know if you can get it to work with the MX-950 via Win 7 though.

If you have Win7 pro you could have used XP mode on the same PC if you needed XP specifically.

so the MX-450 shows up in the Universal Remote site as a computer programmable remote. If not, what's the input port for under the battery cover?

It has software to backup the file and update the firmware and ir database. All programming is done on the remote itself. The software (mx450 archiver) was listed on the product page last I checked.