Too bad that they weren’t that honest with you from the get go!
I believe that all the HTM RF remotes use a similar RF system. They all seem to use 418Mhz.
I wonder if your installer has any experience with RF or he just heard somewhere that it may be a problem so why bother, the customer won't know.

tchen9316,
You are more forgiving then I would be.

Ok -- after a little bit of a pep talk the installer came and the RF works!! Everything seems to be operating smoothly except for one small glitch. The Menu button that controls the HD TIVO (HR10-250) needs to be pressed repeatedly before it shows up. I'm willing to live with this minor issue that I'm sure someone on this board will eventually help solve.

Thanks to everyone for their thoughts.

tchen93816, congratulations on your system working which is all we really wanted for you. I'm sure you'll get that last bit done. I actually picked up an MX3000 for evaluation for one way control. It may be an economical Crestron replacement for appropriate systems.

Hey Dundas. My response to the original post was thought out and the proof is in the pudding, the installer did the right thing. Of course you don't know anything about me so labeling my response as a "knee jerk" response seems like a....."knee jerk response". I've been doing this for 20 years and I evaluate before responding and I new someone would come out flaming but theres a few in every bunch so what the heck. Insulting the installer was also indicative of how you handle things. But its cool, I understand you're not forgiving but I am. I forgive you.

Shoe,
Thought out? Sorry but I can’t let that one pass unchallenged.
You got his original post wrong as I said.

tchen93816 said: “I'm pretty up to speed on Home Theatre equipment and technology but given my time constraints, I decided to hire a professional installer”

You said to tchen93816: “What struck me about your post is that you are second guessing your installer yet you felt you needed his expertise to get the job done.”

If he hadn’t second guessed his installer, who belatedly admitted to his inexperience, he wouldn’t have RF now.

I stand by my comments, knee jerk or otherwise. I am not forgiving of someone who charges for a product or service and does not deliver as they should. You, however, do not charge for the services that you render here so all is forgiven as well.

Details details details. Being knowledgable about HT equipment is not the same as doing several dozen or hundred remote controls and or systems. Experience installing many way surpasses doing 2 or three. If an experienced customer wants to help me install I usually double my labor rates. :-) A professional installer has the experience necessary to make evaluations and suggest a course of action. I tend to take customers self apraisal with a large grain of salt. The original post spoke of expectations but the second post did reveal the fact that the RF installation was part of the deal and should have been installed. The installer had misgivings and who are you to judge his brains, attitude or the amount of thought I put into an answer. I said things as gently as I could. You'll probably never pay my way because your response was to buy it on the internet which is fine but tchen wanted the work done by a local and appropriately purchased the remote from him. The remote in question has only been out a month or two so who really has that much experience with it. In the end it got done. Custom installation is a process that doesn't always go smoothly. "That s why they call it custom" an old boss of mine used to say. The key is to serve the customer and make it right. Name calling never helps. Getting everyone on the same team (customer, saleman, installer, programmer, all trades involved) is the key to success in this business. A conversation goes a lot further than a confrontation in most cases. When I do charge, the customer gets what they pay for and then some. I wouldn't be satisfied if any button wasn't working. Anyway I have a few installs to do this week and I've spent enough time here. Goodnight All.

tchen - did you get the tivo to work properly? i have found that some components seems to dislike the strong ir sent by the mxf200. you could try moving the emmitter around. i have had components that the emmiter needed to be an inch or two away from the ir receiver. it could also be picking up stray ir from other emmitters/blaster causing it to receive multiple commands. Let us know how you like it

I did get everything to work thanks to help from this forum.

I do have a "stuck" menu key for the HD TIVO which I'm still trying to de-bug. Not a big deal though.

Thanks again.