I am looking for an RF universal remote. My house is about 3000sq ft with my home theater area in the lower level. I installed a rack in the mechanical room (also downstairs) and put vcr and dvd on it which I use a Home Theater RF remote that only works "fair" and I have a Bose Lifestyle 50. I purchased it it because of the awesome rf remote, it really does work all around the house as well as on the deck with outdoor speakers I installed. Howerver, what I would prefer would be to purchase separate components for all a/v and keep it on the rack in the lower level but be able to have a remote I can walk around the house with and control everything including TIVO. I looked at the Marantz remotes but I found them difficult to program and I am not confident of its range. I know I may be asking for a lot, but, any help would greatly be appreciated!

IMO, RF remotes are at best incredibly unpredictable. A better solution would be to install hard wired IR sensors. If you don't have wires pulled, maybe use something along the lines of a Xantech Xtra Link, which transmits IR over coax.

I've spent many an hour fussing with RF remotes and 9 out of 10 times, I'm dissapointed in their performance.

JST, Check out the RTI T2+ with the RP-6 RF reciever. I use this combination in almost every job, and I have not been disappointed. The RF range is stellar even with just one antenna, however you can daisy chain several for diversity.

With the old T2 it was fussing 9 out of 10 with the RF, now it is zero since I can add antennas anywhere I need them. Programming is very intuitive, you just have to find a supplier to sell you the product and the software, they now have "custom installer" policy to at least try to keep distribution to "qualified" persons. Hope this will start the comparison process.

www.rticorp.com

RTI T2+ is currently the best way to go RF. Very powerful and easy to work with.

Coming out sometime around February-is the RTI T3 [Link: rticorp.com]
And the in wall K4 [Link: rticorp.com] both of which utilize the same programming software.