In case this is news to others like it was to me

The lated shipment of RTI remotes sufferes from bad ir windows, and the result is a range of about 5 feet.

I posted this in my other thread on JVC commands, but I figured Id post here to save someone some grief like I suffered.

You LITERALLY have to be within about 5 feet of the equipment, and had to be pointing RIGHT at the components. Im used to RTI FLOODING ir, so I called tech suppr to see if I could adjust the ir output. IN CASE IM THE FIRST TO LEARN THIS, LISTEN UP. THEY SAID THE LATEST SHIPMENT OF T1'S HAS IR WINDOWS THAT WERE MADE BY A DIFFERENT SUPPLIER, AND THEY ARE BAD! They didnt really have an answer (fix) other than that they ARE aware of the problem (as of last week) and they are scramblng to get a solution. Getting a replacement from A#@D would do no good, as they wuld have the same issues.

For all you URC fans, URC still sucks! :-)

RTI answered within minutes, admitted the problem, and apologized profusely. Earlier today when /i called URC on my 950 RF issues, they took about 25 mins to answer, I was told I need to move the power supply for thr mrf300 to another room/outlet, (HOw in the hell are you supposed to do this? Arent the components typically in the same room as the MRF300? Hewr answer was to use cat 5 for the flashers. So you want me to run multiple runs of cat5 and relocate the 300 to another room that has nothing to do with equipment becasue YOUR RF sucks? No thanks) I was told I had to order the XRF250 at AVAD even though they dont have any yet, and was basically "helped" by someone who was no "help" at all. After that call, I am SO glad I dont do URC anymore!

Okay, let's see if I've got this right.

URC sucks (your words), RTI has a problem that they're scrambling to fix.....


Maybe sell Harmony now Frank?


Sorry, I couldn't resist.....

Great thanks for the heads up. I believe in RTI so much I would have blamed every other manufacturer first.

How are they handling the returns? Is the T1 the only affected unit? Scrambling sounds like no time line for a resupply of new units was given.

i guess I better test our instock units for defects.

Funny thing is I knew something was fishy about 3-4 weeks ago, when I was selling a customer a new T2+ to replace the old T2. Open mouth insert foot, basically I had to sell him new batteries for his old remote which still works fantastic. Since 99% of our remotes are RF, I figured that we had one bad remote only.

I also (seems like always) told the counter guy at ASS&$d about this problem last thursday and how RTI knows about this and that you should be getting many returns. He had no clue...you would have thought that RTI would have got the info. to the foot soldiers on the front lines of their many lines of distribution. Wait, what was I thinking, they only have one distributor for their products.

Yep.
"RTI answered within minutes, admitted the problem, and apologized profusely. Earlier today when /i called URC on my 950 RF issues, they took about 25 mins to answer, I was told I need to move the power supply for thr mrf300 to another room/outlet, I was told I had to order the XRF250 at AVAD even though they dont have any yet, and was basically "helped" by someone who was no "help" at all. After that call, I am SO glad I dont do URC anymore!"

At least RTI knows WHAT the problem is, and I see a fix in the very near future as soon as they get the supplier issues handled. so Im guessing it wil be a VERY short time they are with issues.

HOW long has URC had issues now? YEARS? And even with the new 250 antennam, I still get what appear to be newbies telling me to try this, try that etc. THAT is no FIX, its a "We cant guarentee anything, we know URC has RF issues, we want to keep selling remotes with no real fix, there is no "time frame" (UNLIKE RTI) and basically your fooked!"

Not sure if its units other than the T1's or not.

No time line, but with a known good unit prior to this, I woukd think they (if nothing else) could go back to that suplier. I dont know what the reason for departure was, so I may be speaking with ignorance here. (wouldnt be the first time)

OInly used the T1 once. Don't really want to use T1s if you know what I mean...

Has anyone else had issues where the T3 is slow to wake up?
I have several on one job that take seconds to wake up and when they do it is to the RTI logo screen then blank then RTI logo then finaly the menu.

Is this only with the t1s? do they work fine rf?

No issues w the T3's for me.

Havent tried the T1's w RF yet, so Im not sure. But I would assume its ir only that is an issue.

Love the T1's with crestron.
Great bedroom remote.
Have several homes where I added T1's to the TP's in bedrooms now the TP'
s dont get used.

I used 4 for simple rooms that were all taking a modulated input from the basement. I used the RP-6 with several antennas about the house to control teh cable box. Worked great.

Problem is with T1, T2+ and T3's, Ir window is more opaque than what RTI originally designed. Their foreign supplier changed the plastic without letting RTI know.

I have only used RTI with IR only, once. That being said, a few weeks ago, I was setting up a system with a new LG model. I found out my previous codes didn't work, so I started diging around in a panic since I didn't have an internet connection to check here. I started digging into other models that I was sure I would find some discrete that would work. Now, when you use rf, there is one more piece to download to, after checking 10 or so models, I started to use the IR stand alone mode to save time. 1 hour later after checking all of the codes I had available, I started looking for work arounds on the oem remote, found a few and learned them. I tried probibly 3 times before I figured out that the IR was not working. Switching back to RF, and downloading to the RP1 and the T1 I found out that I had at least 4 different discrete codes that worked. Even though I kicked myself pretty good and lost an extra hour pushing me till midnight and hour away from home, for being the worst experience I have had with RTI to date, it was still light years better than the troubles and lost time I have had with URC. So to the people reading this that are on the fence regarding RTI, don't let this sway you. Yes it is a big problem (especially for those who rely on IR) but as Frank said, they don't duck and run. It still is the best remote on the market below Crestron and AMX.

Although it isn't the primary reason for the update, the 1.2 firmware update may take care of this...
The instructions on how to DL the 1.2 firmware into the remote are on the dealer section of their site.