Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Universal Remotes.....Part Deux

not wanting to hi-jack Mark's thread, I thought I'd toss my own questions in the ring on this subject. I've been looking at Universal remotes, and have it narrowed down to two (based on user opinions and reviews):
Home Theatre Master MX-500
The Harmony SST-659

The 2 most obvious differences are the price (the MX500 being much cheaper) and the ability of the Harmony to program using a PC. Does anyone else have any feelings on this topic that has used either of these remotes or looked into them????

thanks very much
happy holidays!

Different types of remotes. MX500 is button based, 659 is function based. Harmony does take a little getting used to, but once you do, it's more intuitive.

My father-in-law has the MX500 and I hate it. Could be the way it's programmed but it's too much button mashing for me.

The web programming of my Harmony 768 is quite powerful. Can be easy, but I've opted to do some XML programming to incorporate some macros. Very happy w/ it.

I have, and Love the MX-500. It took very little time to program all 5 of my remotes into one. All major functions are one "button" affairs. a remote could not be much easier than that...As for the PC program, I will bet that I was able to program the MX-500 without pre-reading the instructions befor the PC program was installed...IMHO

I have heard the Harmony website is pretty slow but that's about the only negative comment on the SST-659. I ran through the 'mock' installation and it was extremely easy. That alone has swayed my decision towards the Harmony, but it's still a lot more money than the MX-500. Does anybody else have any comments or critiques of these two remotes?

How much is the MX-500? I've seen the Harmony for $129

Mark

Mark,
I was able to find the MX-500 for $90 USD, so about $40 USD diff.

Where did you see the harmony for that price?

Here is a link to one for even less: http://www.thenerds.net/productpage.asp?un=181552&s=5

Try bluedo.com, they have an online discount. If you get the Harmony, I strongly recommend making sure that the warranty is valid.

http://www.bluedo.com/bluedocgi/product.cgi?model=SST-659

thanks for the link Mark, but thenerds unfortunately aren't an authorized dealer which worries me a bit. Oldskoolboarder, bluedo is where i've been checking most of my prices. They seem to be the best priced net retailer and they are authorized for both HTM and Harmony. That's where I'll be ordering from if I can't get my B&M store to come down a little more. Future Shop/Best Buy are the two locals and I think I'll pay them a visit today...maybe I'll have a new toy tonight.