The 700 is not difficult to set up at all; it's a dream to work with. What you will need to do is download the Programming Manual and the MX-Editor software from the Files section of Remote Control for the MX-700. The manual is an easy read and you can actually perform programming in the MX-Editor without having the 700 in hand. I did my programming while the 700 was in transit to me and then donwloaded the file I set up .
The MX-500 is a good remote. I had one before I upgraded (there's that word again
) to the 700. The 500 has only 10 devices vs. 20 for the 700 and the 700's macro capability is more powerful.
Most notably, the 500 only works on a PC with the IRclone software. It is a SW package that a couple of gentleman have develoed as a small cottage industry. Great guys, very helpful and most users give it pretty good marks. The MX-Editor SW is much more powerful and user friendly. I'd recommend the 700 on the strength of MX-Editor alone.
The difference in cost between the 500 and 700 became a non-issue for me as soon as I started to use the 700. No-brainer upgrade. The other thing to keep in mind is that the cost of the MX-500 plus the IRClone SW is not much cheaper than the MX-700, which includes the MX-Editor SW.
Another major consideration. There are 219 MX-500 device files available at Remote Central. For the MX-700 , there are 713 MX-700 specific files and another 7,048 (!!!) "Philips Pronto and Pronto Pro" files.
