I just received an MX-810 yesterday and was so impressed with the software and hardware that I had to post a review. Aside from a couple of small bugs (that will be posted on a separate thread) I was able to program a home theater, bedroom and kitchen system in 4 hours. I saved hours and hours of the usual trial, error and tweaking.

BACKGROUND
I am a Home Theater enthusiast with a background in software product development so I have never been interested in paying someone to program my remote. Especially after sinking so much money into remotes and RF receivers.

MY URC experience is from my "non-narrowband" MX-3000 and MX-850 remotes. I have always had a love hate relationship with these remotes. They do the job most of the time, but the software was horrible. For someone who does not do this for a living, I had to deal with a learning curve every time I tried to add a new device to my system. Still I want the best there is and I am too cheap to pay someone to program my remote so I lived with it.

Recently my MX-3000 stopped working all together because RF interference in my equipment closet became out of hand. No matter where I moved the receiver it would fail - I had to upgrade. Since I am building a second home theater I am in the market for another remote. This became a perfect chance to see if there were some better products out there.

I stumbled upon the MX-810 when my home theater installer recommended it. I was surprised because I have seen absolutely no mention of it here or anywhere else for that matter. How could such a revolutionary remote (for URC at least) go so unnoticed? Talk about lack of buzz for a product. Well I am really glad I found it - I have a feeling that it won't be the last one I buy or recommend.

NEXT POST: FIRST IMPRESSIONS & SETUP

As for people that are used to programming the 850's and 900's, the 810 software is horrible, though. It takes, from what I've heard other people mention, at least twice as long to program a 810 as it does a 900 for the same system. The 810 wasn't designed for the hardcore 850/900 programmer, but more for someone like yourself.

URC decided they were missing out on some customers that were purchasing harmony remotes, so they decided to attack the market, basically.

Really? I have programmed an 850 and an 810 and I would never want to go back to the software for the 850. Picking devices is more intuitive, it sets up common activities for you automatically (you just need to tweak them). Maybe the people that you are referring to are able to move around the software quicker because the 810 software forces you through a linear wizard interface.

But like you said, this remote is made for a weekend warrior like me.

I picked up an MX-810 on Friday, and programmed it yesterday. I've never programmed an MX remote before, just a Harmony 668, so can't comment on ease compared to the regular MX editor.

I love the hardware, but the software (which is good for the most part) has some annoying bugs that in one case is bad enough that it wont turn off my projector without user intervention. I thought this forum was only for the truly consumer remotes, so didnt check here first and ended up posting my bug report in this thread on the other URC forum here:

[Link: remotecentral.com]

Cheers,
David.

Yes...the MX-810 discussion should really be in the Complete Control Forum.

I have been playing with the MX810 for a couple of weeks now. My set up is this:

Hitachi 42HDT79 hooked up to Time Warner direct to use the Qam Tuner features.

Denon DVD1740 hooked up to HDMI 1 on the Hitachi

Onkyo TXSR 504

I have spent over 5 hours trying to program this remote. No success. The problem is there is not a discreet code for the ANT input. The toggle programming for this input does not work. Switching between activities and having to go from ANT to an input is great, however trying to get back to ANT is impossible to program in the automation features.

The remote looks great. I love the layout. Unless your setup has the ability to select discreet inputs, this remote is too troublesome to work.

I would highly recommend this remote if you are able to use selectable/discreet inputs.

I've had the MX-810 for 2 days now.
This is a GREAT remote. I don't know why some CI are so hard on it.

The software is quirky and in some cases buggy, but everything else is wonderful.
FYI, I'm upgrading from an old Pronto TSU1000.

I had my initial setup working in less than 1 hour. Very simple to set up.
It took a call to Surf (thanks!) and another couple of hours of tweaking and
I couldn't be happier.

FYI, I was able to use the Universal Browser to import some commands directly
from my Pronto CCF. The browser even displays my pronto screen. Very cool.

As far as your ANT issue?
I had similar problems with inputs and I used both toggle and discreet.
This may or may not be the problem for your setup, but this is what I found:
Do not list ANT as an input for the TV device.
If, for example, you have ANT + 3 inputs, define the three inputs
"Vid 1", "Vid 2", and "Vid 3"

When you initially create your OTA activity it will not have a command to switch
to ANT, because it doesn't know about the ANT input.
You can then Tune the activity and add a step.
The last step to add is copied from the TV Device and is the "ANT" button.
Or you can add the step in the Browser.

Also, I have a bug with OTA HD channel commands say for channel "8.1"
First I had to teach the "dot" command to the 10+ button of the device.
Second, no matter what I did the digit after the "dot" was not transmitted
correctly by the remote. I have IR flashers, so I could see something was
sent for the last digit, but it WOULD NOT WORK.
So, I finally figured out a workaround by programming the number as "8.11"
This would correctly detect the final digit.

I was going to wait for the R70 because I don't need the RF, but I'm glad I didn't.

Jeff,

I agree it is a great remote. Unfortunately is is not if the TV does not have discrete codes for the ANT. There is no button or discrete code for the ANT. The Hitachi set allows me to skip all unnecessary inputs except photo and when you try to toggle up and down it will not skip photo. The other problem is if you switch to a non TV actvity and then back to watch TV it wants to toggle inputs when you do not want it to.

I love the remotes looks and graphics. It just needs to be used with equipment that you can control the inputs with.

I wonder why people expect a new model, with completely different software and a completely different layout, expect it to be programmed teh same, especially when URC has said that it doesn't program the same way. It's not horrible, it's just different. It has some quirks but it's not like Harmony, I'll tell you that. I wasted far too much time with their remotes (I'm WAYYYY too optimistic sometimes), lack of communication to the dealers (small guys), software/firmware BS and dropping a major feature (Z-Wave lighting control) that was emphasized when they rolled it out. The MX-810 is hardly difficult to program. They need to add a search bar to the help screen, but other than that and the fact that for some odd reason, I can't send the setup to the remote from my computer (but I can from Phil's laptop), I like it.

I Just got a system update.
Firmware is now 1.20.

The problem with HD channels requiring an extra digit "8.11" magically went away.
One problem solved. I guess they are listening.

Mark, I'm not familiar with your Hitachi. Have you tried the files section to see if
a CCF exists with some ANT IR codes that you could use? That's where I got
my Sony TV discrete codes.

Got the MX-810 yesterday and so far it is Great. I got it about 98% working. I know I am probably missing something obvious. I am stuck on the following:

1. I assume that when you finished watching or listing to one or more devices you simply press the Master Off button, but how do you automatically turn off the current device off, when exiting and going to another device?

2. I know you can use macros by creating an activity but can you build a Macro for a key (hard or soft)?

3. Can anyone direct me to a document, which will shed some light on how to use the Universal Browser?

4. I can make X10 lights work with IR543, the lights 1 – 10 work, but why don’t lights 11 – 16 work?

Thanks in advance