These days it is pretty easy to spend a good deal of money and end up with a product that is a piece of crap. This website is a great forum for doing research on remote controls, and without ever visiting a store or picking up a remote control, I was able to select one that meets my needs, the URC MX-980. I found all the information I needed here to compare features and overall quality. For me, touchscreens are fine, but at the end of the day, most devices use the same core set of buttons and I prefer having them as hard buttons.

That narrowed the decision down to a small number of remotes, and the final competitor was the RTI T2C. I ended up selecting the URC for two reasons. First, getting a copy of the RTI programming software was quite a challenge, and second, I have a couple OEM remotes for which codes are not widely available, and I was not excited about buying a separate RTI code reader just to set up their remote (think useless paperweight).

I applaud URC for designing a remote that is easy to use, and a software program that is easy to configure. I don't have any special training in this area and I was able to program all the buttons I needed and set up some macros for frequent tasks and it took a bit of patience but most steps were well thought out and I have no major complaints about the software. The user manual is well laid out and informative.

So, thanks URC for a great product, and thanks to the forum members who provided me with tips and suggestions along the way.

I concur. Love the software for it's efficiency, efficiency in that it allows me to get a "rhythm" going in programming lots of units. They (URC) really seems to strive for helping us keep projects moving along. Sure, there are curve balls along the way, but you get that from any company. Hardware wise everything is very rugged for the price, especially now that the 850 and it's fragile RF board are gone.

A water pad sure would be nice though....RTI has that. URC does not. What a pity!