I currently have a Universal MX-500 which was installed and programmed by a home theater company when we added surround sound to our home. We don't like this remote. You go to power on the system and sometimes only audio will come on and not the TV, but sometimes everything comes on like it should. It is IR not RF, so will have these lines that are stuck on the outside front of each component that allow the IR to work.

Now my question, I would like to change remotes to one that is RF. We have the standard TV, Cable box, DVD, CD, AV receiver and an additional box? that powers up speakers on our porch so that we can listen to CDs or radio through the receiver.

Is the harmony really easy for me to program? Like others, I want to be able to select "watch tv" and all the appropriate components turn on/off by touching one button. I am computer literate but not so confident which programming these darn remotes.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Yes, it is, but not as functional as a URC. You go through online tutorials to program it. Hte Harmony 890 is the only RF one.

URC's MX-850 looks and feels similar to the 500, but does RF and is computer programmable. It's fairly easy to program but not as easy as the Harmony. You may want an installer's help if you don't feel confident.

I hope you got the MX-500 at least a few years ago. Nobody in their right minds would give a client one nowadays.

Yeah, we got the MX-500 2 years ago and it came highly recommended...but then again, I am not so sure we would have known any difference. I am leaning towards the harmony 890...my neighbor is getting a new LCD installed in a few days and having best buy program her new harmony 890...I think I'll investigate her remote after the dust settles....Thanks for the feedback.

The Harmony's a great remote for the application. I'm not too sure how much I'd trust BB to do it...wait and see how hers turns out.

You may be able to do it yourself too.

You could go with the mx-600, and just clone your current mx-500 to it. No need to program a new remote from scratch. Only thing the mx-600 has the ON & OFF keys switched from how the mx-500 has it.

Good idea edmund, it just seems that there's some problem with the programming because of the on/off problem.

Not really, if the remote is the same configuration as the old, they will be hitting the OFF key to turn on the components anyway, by habit.

When you clone a mx-500 to the mx-600, the commands on the MX-500 ON key will be cloned to the OFF key of the mx-600. And the OFF on the mx-500 to the ON mx-600.