I understand the MX-980 has a fairly short usable battery life and needs to be recharged daily or at best every other day. How about the 880?

The 880 definitely holds its charge longer. I only plug my 880 in once every few days. My 980, on the other hand, lives on the charger.

If it has a charging base, what's the problem with it working fine for a whole day and putting it on the dock at night? The "980 battery problem" threads leave me scratching my head.

I agree. The MX-980's battery life is pretty much a non-issue for me.

When you have a wife and kids that may sometimes forget to put the remote on the charger, then it becomes an issue. 99% of people are not trained to charge a remote nightly.

At least if it lasted a few days I could see the battery losing capacity and make sure its charged. Sounds like the MX-980 won't give me a chance to react before I'll probably find it dead sitting on the coffee table.

No, it's not nearly as bad as that. I sometimes forget to put my 980 back on the charger, and it still has plenty of power the next day. It's just that it drains much more quickly than the 880.

When this thread came up, my first thought was that I usually get close to a week out of a charge with my mx-880. Knowing that I had given it a full charge on the 10th I figured I would keep track and sure enough, 7 days later its just now ready for a charge ( battery is at 20%)...

I watch a good amount of tv each week, and for me the trick to getting a week out of a charge as opposed to a couple days is to make sure that I don't keep the remote in the chair with me... If the remote is in the chair, the screen/buttons turn on every time I flinch and kill the battery.. Depending on where I am sitting, I make sure to leave it on the floor, the arm of the chair next to me, or a table and it easily doubles the time between charges

I am a recent purchaser of an MX-980 and I find the battery charge life to be ridiculously short. In fact, it is so short that I came back to this site to get a sense of the typical life of a charge, fearing that I had been sold a unit with a defective battery. But no, the battery is performing in line with its peers, which is about a day and a half to flatline. To put things in perspective, mine is probably in active use for about 1 minute at most during that period. It turns on the gear, and then it turns it off. What on earth is it doing the rest of the time that it is draining the battery? I mean, is it calling relatives in Japan while I am at work? Overall, I am a big fan of the remote, but can you imagine charging your cellphone, blackberry, garage door opener, and everything else that runs on batteries each and every day? There must be a better way.

Crud. Put the dock on the side table next to the couch. Put a sign next to it. Wait a few days.

Training complete.

You have more compliant family members than I do. My wife has already told me that if I buy a remote that requires daily charging then I better buy two and program them the same. She knows that when I'll really want it, it will be dead and then I'll be running back and forth to setup my equipment.

Thats not happening at the price of the MX-980. I think I'll live with the 880 and down the road when URC finds a low power CPU to accomplish what the 980 needs, I'll revisit it. Probably a couple years....

Blah, blah, blah.

Bad training on your part. Don't blame her.

Dude, chill. I'm not attacking you.

I didn't blame my wife for anything. She merely advised me that with all of us in the house, its likely going to be a problem. She's right. I don't need to train anyone, URC needs to come up with a more user suitable mousetrap! My father has two Crestron touch screen remotes in his house and he tells me that they will last 2-3 days between charges. And they have 4" or so diagonal screens on them. Sure they cost more, but they do a heck of a lot more and the battery lasts longer!

I know - just razzin' you a little!!

I've had an MX-980 for about 3 months now and I haven't found the battery life to be a problem at all. I was a bit concerned before getting it after reading some of the posts here but figured worst case I can pick up a spare battery and charger off of eBay for $20. After using it for a while I haven't bothered with the spare battery. I find the charge lasts 2-3 days so it's no big deal if I forget to put it in the base at the end of the night. Also, I find that it will charge up at least 10-20% after only a few minutes so if it's really low then I just put it in the charger after the system is on and I'm watching something. By the time I need it again it's got plenty of charge.

The only people I would really caution against getting the 980 would be porn addicts. Constantly hitting the fast forward button can really take a toll on the battery life. :)