Jack Hammer said:
What about the MX-600? Any experience?
The MX-600 is the same as the MX-500 but with the RF capability and I have had an MX-500. I now have an MX-350 (which is RF capable) and I like it slightly better. The big gripe about the MX-500/600 was the center 'select' button was built-in to the cursor pad and sometimes it was hard to press that without actually getting a left/right/up/down instead and the 'guide' and 'info' buttons were shared with the dvd 'prev track' and 'next track' buttons which meant you couldn't be in 'cable' mode and use the prev/next track buttons for on-demand and still retain the guide and info buttons. They fixed that with the newer versions which have an actual button in the center of the cursor pad for select/enter and dedicated guide and info buttons.
Universal Remote has a whole bunch of new remotes that are nearly identical now so it's harder to tell the difference without actually reading the manual for each of them. For example, the URC-200 mentioned above is similar to the MX-350 but the RF emitters are not assignable, which is only an issue if you have multiple components that respond to the same set of IR commands. The URC-200 is cheaper so if you don't need things like assignable RF emitters, save the money and get the URC-200 or one of the new R-20/30 remotes that look identical to me.
As mentioned above, the main difference is using your computer to program the remote vs manually learning commands from the original remotes (or entering pre-programmed setup codes). I personally don't mind manually learning commands as it gives you total control over what goes where and if you need to change something you can do it sitting in front of your equipment rather than connecting it to your computer and going to the Harmony website. I had to change my system on macro the other day and did it in 20 seconds sitting on the couch.
There are other subtle differences too numerous to mention, but one thing that I think is superior to Harmony is the LCD buttons on the URC remotes. For example, the MX-350 has 8 pages of 5 commands (for EACH mode). That's 40 buttons you can label anyway you want on the LCD screen. The MX-500/600 had 2 pages of 10 for a total of only 20. I think you can label certain LCD buttons on the Harmony too but I don't think you have as many or as much flexibility. That is important so you can mix commands from different devices in one mode - I have audio commands like late night and the surround modes in cable and dvd so I don't have to go back to audio mode to use them when watching cable or dvd.
Well enough for now. They are both good remotes but my preference is for the URC remotes.
