having the programming set to IR/RF is bad juju...and why bother.

I would agree in the case of a real device, where you don't want to transmit the exact same command via both RF and IR on the same button press.

But URC remote are not in fact device nor activity specific. Their layouts are made of of generic pages which can be used for literally anything you want, limited only by your imagination and within the constraints of the options available within the CCP software.

So take for example a set of pages that one sets up as an activity where multiple devices are being controlled, some via RF and some via IR. You must declare that set of pages in the RF panel as being either IR or RF or both.

The problem of latency will be especially pronounced on devices that otherwise react especially quickly and where the reaction is immediately visible. For example something like a tuner/DVR where switching screens or jumping channels would otherwise be very quick. With the SagetTV setup I described originally (using RC5 codes), setting the MX-980 up for RF, whether it's transmitting the encoded IR strings or firing a simple trigger to the MSC-400, the latency is pretty much unbearable for navigation and transport controls. The default short skip on this device is 10 seconds, so when you introduce close to a half a second of latency per button press, this gets to be incredibly annoying. The same goes for navigating through its menus.

The other troublesome effect is that button repeating can be problematic via RF for some devices. I'm currently having some troubles with my DVDO Edge scaler, though I haven't spent any amount of time trying to diagnose/correct that particular issue yet.

The URC remote unfortunately have these latency issues plus other more basic IR issues such as the inability to dissect protocols, including repeats. It means a lot of fiddling with the setup.programming that should not have to be done.

For my TV/Media Wtaching activity, I'm currently using RF routing for all devices except the SageTV extender since the other devices don't reflect the latency in an appreciable manner. That includes TV, Pre-amp, scaler/switcher, roller motor and three separate sets of lights. The pre-amp is a combination of RF to RS-232 and IR while all the others are RF to IR.