All due respect, I wouldnt go as far as say that just yet. I have had two jobs with teh MRF-350 and both are lousy. My odds are 0-2. I am a fan of URC because of it;s price pooints and it's A for effort, but at the end of the day I don't think it's good enough to compete. I wouldn't talk a customer out of buying it, but put it this way, when I do estimates, I go there and test for poor RF beforehand. Otherwise I am not wasting my time.

I was a big fan of URC until the last couple of jobs - when the friggin RF indicator light constantly flashes or stays lit and everything goes haywire- extremely aggravating - especially after it worked flawlessly so many times on previous jobs.

I actually thought it was something they changed in the components in the last few months until I read this thread....

All of this RF Hot Spot and RF interference, No one has brought up the RF nulls in a room. Has anyone encountered a RF null??

I think I had a job with one....Drove me crazy!!

my MRF-350 is 100% perfect with my 3000, except that when the 3000 is charging on its base the RF commands are not recognized at all or very rarely randomly, I have no interference whatsoever and the 250 shows reception but the 350 doesn't recognize the commands, I must have missed something about that, really strange

when the 3000 is not charging it is perfect, I have tried to get it to miss a code and it won't no matter what I try, I have some 40+ command macros and they work to perfection

-Gary

When you compare apples to apples, URC wireless and RTI wireless are about the same price. The RTI RP-6 retails for $600 and the RM-433 retails for $150, that’s $750. The equivalent URC product would be the MSC-400 with the RFX-150 which retails for $800. Both store trigger codes, have variable IR outputs, voltage and video sensing, relays and RS-232. URC is on 418MHz while RTI is on 433MHz, not too far apart in the 400MHz band. If there is interference on 418, it may cause problems for URC. If there is interference on 433, it may cause problems for RTI. If it is wide band interference it may cause problems for both.

The reason RTI seems more expensive is that they do NOT offer an RF receiver only. The RTI RP-1 stores trigger codes, has voltage sensing, CANNOT be expanded if you need more range and does NOT have IR routing or variable IR output, which is necessary to prevent IR overload on some devices. If you just want a receiver, you still have to pay for the memory for trigger codes and voltage sensing with RTI. The URC MRF-350 does NOT store trigger codes, does NOT have voltage sensing but it IS expandable if you need more range and it DOES have variable IR outputs.

You could take both companies’ receivers out to the site to see if either or both indicate interference. Use the one that works. I have heard that next year URC will have two frequencies available. If there is interference on one frequency, use the other.

I doubt that either URC or RTI will be perfect in all situations. The real question is what to do when neither will work. If a company had a bulletproof wireless system for $1,000 would you buy it? Could you sell it? Some dealers would sell it easily others can’t charge the extra $50 to $100 to step up from the MRF-250. If the manufacturer can’t sell enough to make it worth it to make the receiver, they won’t be made.

Keep in mind that usually, all we read about here are the problems, not the successes.

When I was a kid we had to GET UP AND WALK CLEAR ACROSS THE ROOM TO CHANGE THE CHANNEL OR ADJUST THE VOLUME!

Hey guys just seen this thread whilst experiencing problems with my MX700 & MRF200

I have issues with patchy response from the MRF200.
I believe there is no interference because when I look at the indicator on the MRF the status indicator does not flash on it's own intermittently.

The only consistent thing appears to be the closer I get to the MRF the less chance of it working !!!!??

When I use the remote the following happens:
1. status LED does not respond - the AV equipment does NOT respond
2. status LED does respond - 75% of the time the AV equipment does respond
3. status LED does respond - 25% of the time the AV equipment does NOT respond

The MRF is is on the default channel and so is the MX700
I have had this problem from the very first day and have changed power outlets.

So the only options I have as I see it are:

1. Contact URC (via email, I am in Australia - unless they have a support base here).
2. Change the channels on the MX and RF (HOW DO I DO THAT???)
3. Change to another URC RF (which one would work more reliably with my MX700)?
4. Go to a non URC solution (see below)

I may have tried number 2 above before and ended up with no response whatsoever (maybe I got the procedure wrong so would appreciate knowing what that is)

NON URC solution
-----------------
As I have line of sight I am now thinking of getting one of those IR receivers that send IR signals to multiple IR devices via the standard cables pasted to the front of the AV equipment

Any help would be appreciated

Alec

I would definitely go with IR if you can use it. If you're an installer, I would wonder why you went with the added expense and difficulty of RF if you had line of sight.

The one place where RF is the go-to solution is where your display mucks up the IR receiver. Plasmas almost always do, and LCDs do sometimes.


Simpler technology usually means less capability but less difficulty. For instance, although we have wireless access points for computers, we're just nuts if we don't run CAT5 wherever we can. Copper is more reliable (and faster) than wireless. IR is more reliable (and sometimes faster, for instance with Prontos) than RF.

alec

do you have ir turned off? if your sending both ir and rf to the same component AND the component recieves both it will drastically reduce accuracy.