I was wondering what people's thoughts are on the these two remotes as far as customizability. I'm not really talking about remapping buttons (the remote isn't intuitive if the button does something other than what it is labelled for). I want a remote that can duplicate all the functions of the originals remotes. I have narrowed my search for a suitable remote control to the MX-700 and the Harmony SST-659. Both look like great remotes and have certain advantages. I have already wieghed most of the differences, but I want to make sure the remote I buy is able to store as many codes as possible so I can include commands that are not used very often, but are useful, so I don't ever have to go searching for the original remotes. I would like access to commands such as level adjustments for the different speakers, surround modes, changing subtitles, changing audio tracks, shuffle, etc, etc. Basically I think I should be able to reproduce practially every button on a new learning remote, hence the LCD screens are what I am expecting to make that possible.

I am just trying to figure out if the substantial price difference between the two remotes (especially when converted to canadin dollars) is justified when looking at the MX-700 or if the SST-659 can do all I want.????
Anyone with experience with both remotes out there?
thanks

I haven't used the MX-700 but I had a SST-659 for a couple of weeks before returning it in disgust and getting an MX-500 which does way more, is much more customizable and which does everything I need for 1/2 the price of the 659. Although after I also bought the IR-Clone so I could program and back it up on my PC, the price came up to about the same.

With the 659 I still had to use my TIVO remote but with the MX-500 my 8 remotes have been fully retired. It also took forever to program the 659 and it was very hit and miss if it was going to work or not.

Every time you do an update on the 659 you have to wait about 10 minutes while it downloads before you can test it, which is very frustrating when the change you made doesn't work, as is often the case. With the MX-500 the download is more like 15-20 seconds.

I also didn't like not being able to put the most-used functions in the LCD in the places I wanted (although Harmony recently said they were going to fix that in an update). Having the transport buttons at the bottom of the remote was also unusable for me, especially since other key TIVO transport functions had to be at the other end of the remote.

I sent Harmony a long list of disappointments with the 659 but the above are some of the ones that I remember. I did like that each key lit up when I pressed it, though. That's the only advantage that the 659 had over the MX-500 for me. Also the MX-500 has great macro capability which the 659 doesn't.

This message was edited by trockman on 11/16/03 21:20.

Mr. Smith,

I don't know much about the Harmony remotes other then I hear you have to program their remotes online. I consider this a disadvantage because you can't save your configuration files to your local PC. Nor can you program your remote from your local PC.

The MX-700 gives you the ability to do all the prgraming right from your PC. This makes it very quick and easy to program. You can download the MX-700 software from here or from HTM's site to check it out before you buy.

You can also go to http://www.surfremotecontrol.com/ where Mike has a link to Harmony's site so you can take a test drive on how the Harmony remotes work.

Hope that helps.