I currently own a Harmony 520 operating a Marantz SR8001 receiver; Epson 6500UB proj, A2 HD-DVD player, PS3 (other than the on/off)

If have 1 major problem, 1 medium, and 1 minor issue.
Major Problem - If addition to the 6500UB I have a small LCD monitor (HDMI) connected to the receiver. So in order to switch outputs (from HDMI1 to HDMI2) I need to go into the receiver setup screen. I setup a macro on the Harmony to do this (approx. 15 key strokes) however the "OK" command on the Harmony does nothing. I also tried the learning feature to program the harmony - but still nada - Everything else seems to work. Any idea?
Medium Having to hold the remote pointed at the receiver, etc, which it goes though all of the commands kinda defeats the purpose of having a macro (i.e. I can't do anything else while maintaining a line of site) - so I'd like an RF remote (also this way I'd close off my equipment rack, hiding all those wires, etc, and ambient light from the equip).
Minor Issue Not a biggie here, but anyway, how come the pause button is so hard to find. i.e. in my experience I do 3 things with my remote (a) macros to turn things on/off (b) hit pause when summonsed upstairs (c) change volume (and occasional move arrows around menu items.
Point is the button which would make the most sense to be the largest is the pause and volume buttons - so that when you have to stop things immediately you're not fumbling trying to find the little pause button.- Just a rant, but have a remote with a big pause - would help.

Anyway, I'd like to find something < $100
Options , that I see
(1) Keep Harmony 520 (if someone can find a fix for the "OK" problem) & $20 generic remote to IR extender ([Link: x10.com]) = cost = $20
(2) Buy Cheap RF remote: Here's one I found, any ideas, or other suggestions: [Link: shop2.frys.com] can be had on ebay for around $75
or find (if lucky) a Harmony 890 for $100 on ebay

Any ideas, suggestions?

Yeah, stay away from Harmony and up your budget. Marantz has discrete codes that can take straight to a particular output, but you won't find them on the cheaper remotes. Look into URC.

Anyhomeneeds is right: cheaper remotes are not allowed to have discrete codes in their database. Also, they are not allowed to have big pause buttons. Stretch your budget to, say, $1,000 and you can get a remote jam-packed with discrete codes, plus a massive pause button.

cgott42,

I don't really understand what you mean when you say that the "OK" command does not work. With the Harmony, you can set any button to run any code in their database. One of the codes for the Marantz SR8001 receiver is "OkSelect". Because of its non-standard name, it is not automatically allocated by the configuration wizard to the OK button and so needs allocating manually.

Also, this thread - www.remotecentral.com/cgi-bin/mboard/rc-discrete/thread.cgi - seems to suggest that a firmware upgrade is sometuimes needed for all the discrete codes on your receiver to work properly.

You could spend around $300 and get a good URC that will fill your needs, no need to goto 1k.

Or spend $0 and solve the Harmony ok problem as per my suggestion.

Anyhomeneeds: why do you always suggest ways forward which are way beyond what the person wants to spend? For the situation as stated, a URC offers nothing extra over the Harmony that he has already got. They haven't even got bigger pause buttons.

Actually.. the 880's pause button is slightly larger than the 520 but IMO.. should be easier to feel-find the 520's pause button. :)