Sorry... I can't comment on development for the MX-900 until I get some official word from the office.

Best regards,
Dale

I completely disagree. I think black will sell and sell well. If I'm putting this in a room with say a plasma I am going to try and match the bezel any way I can even if the keypad has nothing to do with the actual plasma. Black is waaaay better than silver in my opinion The only reason white will sell more is becuase of matching to moldings.

Personally, I like the black. I just don't see black passing the WAF in most households. White and almond match most wall mounted lighting switches/controls.

My wife loves the black KP-900. She stuck it on the side of the refrigerator right beside the stove and it hasn't moved since. (The side of our refrigerator is black.)

And incidentally... I do most of the cooking in our house!

Best regards,
Dale

Dale - You need to ask the developers to add a feature to the remote that enables you to control the wife! :) I wonder if that would go under 'AUX'?

I vote for both on equal ground. That is based on decor and taste (which by the way changes quickly). I used to like silver TV's better, now I only buy piano black. Also, there are some rooms in my house where white would be nice, and some where black would be a beter fit. I also like black better because I have a white iPod that is about 2 years old and it don't look white anymore :)

A cheaper alternative to the KP-900 is the TX-1000. I just bought one for this reason and it's huge touch screen. A little DIY to make a recessed wall mount and you've got the perfect zone controller that blows away the KP-900.

Blows it away? Well... feature-wise, I suppose so. But there's also the little matter of aesthetics. My wife would nail me to the the wall beside the TX-1000 if I stuck that particular piece in our wall.

But hey, we each have our tastes. I prefer the look of the KP-900 and the fact that it's easily removable from the bracket for everyday use. But that's not to say that a do-it yourself solution won't work if you like the looks of the TX-1000 as a wall controller.

Best regards,
Dale

How you could put that ugly piece on the wall is beyond me.

I like the look of the TX-1000. The KP-900 looks like a thermostat. Different strokes for different folks.... :)

Wow... where can I get a thermostat that looks like a KP-900? I've yet to see one that looked like anything other than a slightly smoothed off utility box.

You mean like this?



Sean

I might plead ignorance on this if someone slams it, but why didn't Universal put a numeric section on the keypad? I know you can program favorites into it, but with alot of people in my house and constantly changing tastes, reprogramming the favorites can get annoying.. um, i mean, time consuming. We use CH+ & CH- alot too, but the keypad seems to have the option of some blank keycaps you can program to your liking. Maybe we can program the blank keycaps for numeric with press and then press and hold for the rest of them. Anyway, the keypad seems like a quaint little trick to try out.
As for black, I believe the black appliance thing rings true. Also, if your hands on like I am, and bring this thing everywhere you go like I do with my MX900, the black would seem to show dirt, grime, smudges, and other related battle wounds less than the lighter colors would. Just my opinion, for what it's worth.

ps. the System Off (Yes/No - Confirm) Macro idea. . . BRILLIANT!!!

In simplest terms, the KP-900 lacks a numeric keypad because in-wall keypads generally don't have them.

As for why, that comes from what our dealers told us during development: TV is the least likely activity you'd want to control by walking up to a keypad. The numeric keypad is used regularly by few other activities (and in fact, many TV watchers in the digital age use the Guide instead of typing in channel numbers anyway). Keypads are most often used to control whole-house audio, with occasional uses for other activities.

We wanted the KP-900 to be attractive and simple. Twelve more buttons for a numeric keypad would have made it look far more complex, all for the sake of one activity that isn't likely to be controlled from the wall anyway. Between the Guide and favorite channel macros, the reasons for the numeric buttons are greatly reduced. (In fact, I use an MX-3000 in the same theater with my KP-900, and I used the touchscreen for over a year before I discovered that I had failed to program a jump to my numeric keypad page for DirecTV.)

Yes, some people still want to type in the digits. Whether that's true at the wall is up in the air. But we wanted the KP-900 to meet the broadest possible set of needs with the simplest, most elegant design. Through close interaction with our dealers, this is the feature set that came to the top. It won't be all things to all people, but reaction so far indicates that it's going to meet the broad spectrum of needs for which it was designed.

Best regards,
Dale

PS: KP-900 is now shipping, and the KP-900 Editor is now available for download at URC Control Room.

. . . and it has the latest IR database in it as well.

I think having the numeric keypad (and other missing hard keys from an MX-900) available, but hidden as it is, is a good idea as you can easily program favorites on the soft keys. I like this setup a lot. Now, if we could only add variables to the MX-900.

Mike

What is the MSRP?