Hi,

I'm looking to pick up one of Univeral Remote Control's products (lower end), but I'm totally bewildered by the choice:

R5 [IR, 5 Device, No Screen]
R7 [IR, 7 Device, No Screen]
URC-100 [IR/RF, 8 Device, Tiny LCD]
URC-200 [IR/RF, 10 Device, 5 item LCD]
URC-300 [IR/RF, 15 Device, 8 item touch LCD]
MX-350 (Osiris) [IR/RF, 10 Device, 5 item LCD]
MX-500 [IR, 10 Device, 10 item LCD]
MX-600 [IR/RF, 10 Device, 10 item LCD]
MX-650 (Omega) [IR/RF, 20 Device, 10 item LCD]
MX-700 [IR, 20 Device, 10 item LCD, PC programmable]
MX-800 [IR/RF, 20 Device, 10 item LCD, PC programmable]
MX-850 (Aeros) [IR/RF, 20 Device, 10 item LCD, PC programmable]
MX-950 (Aurora) [IR/RF, 255 Device, 10 item LCD, PC programmable]
MX-1000 [IR, 12 Device, Touch LCD, PC programmable]
MX-3000 - Out of my league...

The MX-350/URC-200 seems to be very similar but price very differently...

Any thoughts would be appreciated as to the remotes of choice from this list, I'm leaning toward an IR/RF remote.

TIA

PJE

More details are needed as to what you are controlling and what you expect from the remote control.

All of our remote are designed to operate a home theater system with one touch macros and easy setup. We have one simple guideline as the consumer spends more money:

"The more money you spend on the remote control, the more the professional installer should be able to add value by using his/her experience, creativity and ingenuity to CUSTOMIZE the user interface to please you. A URC remote control is half the equation, the custom installer is the other half."

If you are intending to program yourself, your question becomes: "How much time am I willing to spend to customize the user interface for my system and my family?"

The R5 and R7 offer the chance to replace all the remotes in a few minutes by simply following along with a DVD tutorial.

The URC-100, 200, 300 with the MRF-100 RF Base Station give you No More Rules RF operation, far more flexibility for customization and oodles of macro power, but require you to remember your macro steps as you program, instead of clearly seeing on a PC screen what you've done.

The MX-350 and MX-650 with either the MRF-250 RF Base Station or the MRF-300 RF Base Station offer similar programming style and capabilities to the URC 100, 200 and 300 but also offer ADDRESSABLE RF, which enables you to deal with multiple RF remotes in one household, controlling identical components and to precisely meter the IR to each component via an MRF-300 base station.

The 700, 800 and 850 are all the same powerful PC programming platform enabling very fast Device or Activity based programming of the user interface. This would be my first choice for any do it yourselfer who wants to get it done over a weekend, and really isn't interested in a new hobby. The remote themselves are incredibly popular with families who include both casual and power users, since the hard button "find buttons by feel" is bonded to the LCD screen to custom label buttons with labels anyone can understand. However, any custom installer can program these remotes to dance to your tunes very reasonably. Consider simply hiring a pro!

The MX-950 offers superior customization capability (up to 11 characters per button), no limits in terms of the number of devices, users, rooms or zones. It allows you to customize your macros with an infinite number of macro steps, status messages on screen, variable tracking, sounds (and we are talking "speech" sounds or music) plus the option to display 4 color images (if you choose I personally prefer text). It can definitely grow into a "hobby", since your configuration can become more and more sophisticated over time, changing it's interface based on who is using the system, what room they are in and what they like to do.

The MX-3000 offers the ultimate in customization. This could be a lifelong hobby, with the end user spending hundreds of hours creating their own custom artwork, complete with animations, sounds, etc.

Hope that helps you sort out our offerings. Feel free to call our technical support department for more info!

1-800-901-0800

Best Regards,

-Eric

Eric Johnson
VP of Technology
Universal Remote Control, Inc.