I am still looking at this investment and wonder, how many of you have the RF or know you will add it fairly soon, as opposed to those who have the remote only and are satisfied with that.
Is this a $650 project or $1,000?

Rick

If you are not going to go to RF, you might as well buy another remote. But you are given up a lot of good features.

All depends on how you want it to work for you. I first used the T2 without RF, and it operated everything fine. But you DO have to make sure that you execute all commands in line-of-sight, like any other IR remote. This can make the execution of macros a little less reliable, as it is quite possible that halfway executing a macro you tilt the remote just so..and miss a few commands.

I switched to RF a few weeks ago, and really like the no-worry operation. Plus, if you do happen to sit in a seat that has an ostructed line-of-sight to the equipment, you don't need to lift te remote above your head anymore :-) Now it really IS remote control.

Yes, I would look forward to that for sure. I am not sure as to how important the on-off sensing aspect is if you can just program smart. Maybe, you can minimize the problems of non discrete availability this way or, just upgrade the pieces that dont have it. Am I missing the point?

You got the point. You can use the sensing add-ons to determine if equipment is in ON or OFF state. That way, if you do not have discrete OFF and OFF IR commands, you can still determine when a macro should or should not send a POWER command. Also, on some equipment you may be able to determine which input is active (I think?), to get around a lack of discrete input commands.

I have a fairly decent Xantech setup on my home theater because I had it installed before there was a T2 and because I play with a lot of remotes. It works very well for the most part, but I still have to aim the remote towards my equipment. This is fine but when you are executing a fairly elaborate macro you sometimes forget to keep the remote pointed. My point being, I wish I had the time to put in the IRF. There is something to be said about the push it at any angle or at any distance that is a nice feature, I think most people that opted for this upgrade would agree.

Bill
www.homeautomationnet.com

I'm waiting for the delivery of my RF stuff today. What nudged me over the line is a peculiar problem I have: I have a Pioneer DVD jukebox that responds to exactly the same IR codes as my Pioneer DVD/LD player. My theory is that if I feed the codes directly to the individual devices through the little emitters I can avoid having one device spring into action from commands intended for the other. (If you think this sounds like an excessive response to a trivial problem, I can only agree.)

Dan,

You may need to place shielding over the IR emitters when on the windows. I think you may get enough bleed through that you may not accomplish your goal. I have some copper or aluminum tape that I can send you that may help.

Bill
www.homeautomationnet.com

I am using my T2 without the RF add-on's and I still love the remote. It is comforting to know that I can upgrade at some point in the future, but the RF was not the feature that made the T2 appeal to me.

I wanted control over the remote's layout, the ability to program many macro's, and clear accurate labeling of what my buttons actually do. I like touch screen for the labeling features, but I really need hard buttons for navigation and a few other common tasks.

The T2 is the remote that had the combonation of hard and LCD buttons that works best for me. This makes the remote near perfect for me even though I did not choose to go with RF. I like the ability to expand to that later and I appreciate not having to fork out the cash for a feature that does not help me much. My equipment is all easily hitable with IR at this time. :)

Will