The new Home Theater Master MX-600 should be available for purchase sometime around the first week of September. While its button alignment is identical to the MX-500, it will have a gold-tinged, silver faceplate instead of the dark blue of the MX-500. As reported previously, it will sell for $249.95.

Here is an actual picture of my beta-test model:



The MRF-100 base station is virtually identical to the MRF-200 base station that comes with the MX-800. The exception is that it is not independently assignable, nor are the individual IR emitters (since there's no RF programming ability in the MX-600's menu).

The MX-600 is clonable from an MX-500, as well as from IRClone.

Mike
www.SurfRemoteControl.com

do you mean addressable, or that there are that you cannot plug in some stick on emitters

So it sends IR and RF at the same time, all the time?

Yes, I meant addressable. With the 800, you can assign/address each component to a specific IR emitter. This makes it possible to have two identical components in the same rack. The 600 does not have this ability.

Yes, it sends both IR and RF all the time.

Think of the MX-600 as the MX-500 that emits RF all the time, as well as IR. The best part - you can clone directly from your MX-500! So I was setup in about 30 seconds!

The MX-600 already has a home in my upstairs bedroom, controlling the TiVo / DirecTV receiver on the main floor in the den. I previously used an X-10 IR transmitter setup, and the MX-600/MRF-100 is MUCH faster at transmitting the signals. The joy of never having to aim the remote is worth the cost of admission alone.

David
www.BlueDo.com

i don't get it. what is the purspose of being able to xmit RF? is this an x10 subject? i'm assuming that some equipment responds to RF not IR. someone educate me. thanks

It's to control equipment from another room, this is a IR only controlling RF remote.

Exactly. Put the RF Base Station (MRF-100) in the room with your satellite recevier, or your TiVo, or your X-10 controller (or all of the above ;), and use the MX-600 from the other side of your house and control them! We just added satellite to a bedroom upstairs, just by splitting the signal from a receiver in the den. Without two receivers, I'd have no way of changing the channels from the bedroom. Now, we do!

David
www.BlueDo.com

Unfortunately, I had a problem with my MRF-100 base station and had to send it back for evaluation a few weeks ago, so I'm using the 600 without the base station in the bedroom. It's still a lot nicer than my two year old MX-500. ;-)

I assume range is the same when used in IR


equium: also, even in the same room,

1) it means less interference for macros (i.e. someone/something passing between the remote and the equipment won't mean you will miss some steps)

2) omnidirectional, so no need to point to equipment (very useful for people with equipment behind them

3) useful for equipment stored in cabinet.

to anyone that has a test remote, what happens if you use the remote in such a way so that your equipment can receive IR directly and through the RF base? does it cause repeats

The device will receive IR from both the remote and the MRF-200 Base Station, just like if you had two remotes sending the same code. I would recommend using the MRF-200 only where IR isn't going to reach.

This message was edited by www.BlueDo.com on 08/21/03 12:00.

so the base station receives an RF signal from the remote, and re-transmits that signal in IR form to whatever the base station is pointed at? sounds like this remote has a super strong RF xmitter to get to the other side of a house. i have to wave my ceiling fan RF remote like i'm scolding the fan just to get it to turn on. :0)

No, I haven't experienced any repeats. It works the same as the MX-800 when it's set to "RF & IR". In fact, with certain devices that have a slow response (like my HD STB), using the "RF & IR" setting helps reliability.

equium,

You can either use the IR blaster on the front of the base station, pointed at your components, or use the six wired IR emitters if used in a tight space (like a cabinet).

I had a lot of questions before I used it, too. The remote ALWAYS sends IR and RF. This is a diagram we recreated from some mfr literature on the MX-600:



Hope that helps! Our MX-600 page is here

This message was edited by www.BlueDo.com on 08/21/03 13:04.