I have an aging/broken 500 and looking to upgrade to 850, but I am not sure it can do what the 500 can in this respect.

I use the 3 bottom macro keys to switch the receiver to the common/only modes I use.
I use the top lcd keys only to make a component active, but not to switch to it via the receiver. This way I can keep the music from my MP3 player going while I flip through the channels.

However, since the 850 has no dedicated macro keys, how can I do this? The KEY here for me is I dont like to hold the buttons down to wait for the macro key to activate, I just want to press and go.

One more thing, I noticed the 850 is far cheaper on ebay than other places, is this a risky move though? Its about half!

Any key but FAVORITES can be a macro on the 850 so I believe you will have far more power at your disposal.

What some of us do is use the LCD for macros and jumps to the device.

Very few systems can't be managed with 5 activities; WATCH DVD, WATCH CABLE, WATCH VCR, HEAR MUSIC (can go straight to CD or to a secondary page to choose CD, cable/sat music, and so on), and like that. The WATCH button on the left side is the macro to take you to TV watching; the CABLE button on the right side takes you to that device.

Just another method. The 850 is a champ, plain and simple.

Buy from a dealer if you want a warranty; URC provides NO warranty coverage (zero, none, nada, don't ask) if bought on ebay and such sites.

I recently upgraded from a 500 to an 850 and I really, really like the 850. The computer programming makes my tweak-itis habit easier to deal with.

When I first got my 500, I thought I would really like the 3 macro buttons on it, but I really quickly grew to despise them because I was all the time accidentally hitting them and triggering unwanted macros. I ended up making those bottom 3 buttons dead buttons on my 500.

The good thing with the 850 is that you can put macros all over the place and they can be push and hold macros or you can set up instant ones also. I'm not sure I fully understand what your method is, but how would it work if you did macros for each device/activity, but left out receiver switching? Then in the receiver device you could program macros for your favorite 3 receiver activities. Or maybe you could put those 3 macros in FAV page 1.

I bought my 850 from an authorized dealer for not much more than what they sell for on Ebay. And I'm really glad I did because my first 850's backlight was excessively noisy, so I had to send it in for warranty repair. URC ended up sending me a brand new remote.

OK, so any key can be an instant macro then? That would work for me.

What dealer did you use....the 850 + rf receiver is only $250 on ebay.

Also, where do you position the rf receiver such that it points to the components? seems tricky. I am not sure about the reflective patches...wont that be a bunch of ugly wires running around?

Dosn't it bother you that the dealers on Ebay are intentionally breaking the manufacturers rules just to make about $10 on each remote? ANd screwing you out of a warrenty in the process? On a product that gets heavey use every time you use your system and that yu will likely need techincal support for to set up?

Please just suck it up and buy from a real dealer. You will get a fair price and good support.

I am curious, how are they breaking the rules? How do they get the remotes in the first place. I have not seen the 850 + rf module for less than about $500 from authorized...ebay is half. Thats a pretty steep difference just for some tech support I think. Any place to get both from an authorized dealer for a closer to ebay price?

Hozer, see this:
[Link: remotecentral.com]

Dont see anything about mx-850 and mrf-250 for open box though.

Call or email David at bluedo.com or Mike at surfremotecontrol.com. All "open box" specials are not always on web site.

I've bought a couple URC remotes from BlueDo.com and have been very impressed with their pricing and customer service. Email David there for more info.

Just to be clear...I can make a macro for say the 1,2,3 buttons that would be instant on right? I never use the number functionality anyway so I can override this.

Second, how effective has the rf been in general? Do the reflector patches have wires? I dont quite understand that part. Does this make it easier to work with x-10 products for controlling the lights?

You can place shortcuts on any of the hard buttons so you can execute macros that you have placed on LCD buttons.
RF is effective providing you don't have interference. Some components generate interference. The MRF-250 normally needs to be located close to components and can have interference problems. The MRF-300 has a separate antenna module that can be located some distance from the base to minimize interference.
The emitters have very thin 10 ft. wires that are easy to conceal. You have the option of using the RF base front blaster instead of the emitters but I prefer emitters since they are more reliable.
For X10 lighting I use the IR543 IR controller which is very reliable. YMMV

Hiker, this confuses me. I dont want a shortcut because I want the functionality fo the lcd buttons to be different than what I want my macros to do. I currently have the MX-500 and I use the lcd buttons only to make a component active, while I use the macro buttons to actually do the switching on the receiver.

How would i do this on the 850? Basically I want to sometimes switch components on the receiver, but also be able to control components without having talked to the receiver. This is to listen to music while still being able to flip through channels.

Keep in mind that with 850 you have 40 LCD functions for each of the 20 devices. Should be more than enough for whatever you want to do. Shortcuts can be made to LCD functions across devices and for LCD pages that are even hidden.

OK, I am really out of the loop. I think I will just get it and work on configuring it...just wanted to make sure I wasnt going to buy something and not be able to do what I used to.