I just received my products and I guess from reading the post regarding the software problem, I should wait until Friday to load my software. I have never programed a remote before and to be honest this thing will probably intimidate me. I don't have a great deal of equipment, but it is located in another level of our house. I want to make this is simple as possible and I am looking for suggestions on where to start. Here is what I have and a basic idea of what I want.

Equipment owned.

Zenith 42" Plasma
Pioneer 1014 TX Receiver
Scientfic Atlanta 8300HD Cable box with DVR
Samsung HD841 DVD Player

I really just want some basic options like switching tv channels, the basic DVD options, and using the DVR. The only special request I might have is to be able to use all speaker sound when I am listening to a music station on Cable and to switch between THX or auto surround when watching cable TV or watching a DVD, but I guess auto surround might work as it should choose the best setup, but this is a guess. Possibly some favorite channels on cable.

I am very new to all this so please be patient as I am sure I will have many questions. I don't even know the difference between codes.

This message was edited by Bassmaster on 03/11/05 08:13 ET.

The favorite channels are a breeze since there is a dedicated button and pages just for that function.

You will want to use some macros (step by step functions that activate by one keypress) to turn on your system and set the inputs and sound type selection.

When you define your equipment all the buttons from the original remote will be duplicated for that device on your MX850 so that makes it easy. You may wish to move a few of them around which is easy in the editor.

Good luck and you are going to love this remote

I also have a question about the MRF 250. What works better to install the 250 in front of the equpment or to use the tabs that mount on the IR area of the equpment? In the instructions it mentioned using a flashlight to find the IR area, can someone give me a better explanation and how to determine the best placement.

Also I don't own a laptop that I can take infront of my equipment, how hard will this make my programming?

If you don't mind having the MRF-250 in plain view, it doesn't hurt to try it out in the blaster configuration. Make sure that the MRF-250 is on an address other than "0".
I prefer to hide the MRF and use the individual IR emitters for a cleaner installation. Find the IR receiving eye of each component (if it's not obvious, it will usually be shown in the manual) and temporarily place the emitter over that location (use a piece of removeable tape). Move the emitter around until you get reliable RF operation where the commands work every time. Then you can affix the emitter using the peel-and-stick pad. Also, see the instructions here.

Not having a laptop isn't a problem. Just choose the IR database codes or files from this site for your components, download them and try them out. Learn any commands if necessary. Once you have a reliable set of commands, you can program macros using them.

Mike
www.SurfRemoteControl.com

The best part of the software is that you can tweak it whenever you want. I usually move buttons around and redo macros when an idea comes to me and most of the time I don't even have the remote around. You can then download to the remote whenever you want and your good to go. I have 3 MX-500's I am going to replace with MX-700's and one MX-850 or 800 just because of the programming software. I also have a MX-800 that I love. I was using the front blaster of the base station, but when I got the Comcast 6412 DVR it caused too much interfearence with the base station so I am now using the flashers. I prefer the look of them better. I used clear packaging tape to secure them to the equipment by cutting thin strips and running it length wise over the wire. They were constantly coming loose with just the two sided tape that they came with. I also put one piece of tape over the end of the emitter unit once it was in place using the two sided tape it came with (put it on just like a bandaid).

Once you start using the remote write down the button sequences you use to do different things such as watch a DVD, watch CATV or adjust sound settings (I usually always start from the main screen when doing this). It will then be easy to create macros with the software to do those automatically. I set up macros for each of the device buttons on the main page that will do all the commands to either watch tv, dvd's, cd's, of whatever else you do. I set up the macro so if you hold the button down 1 second it runs the macro if you just press and release it just goes to the device page without running the macro. If you find you want to change it later it is very easy with the software.

Kris