Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater More MX-700 Questions from an ignorant remote user

Before I left for my Parents' house for Thanksgiving(I am there now), I spent five minutes to set the MX-700 up to control my bedroom TV and DirecTV receiver....and one macro.

Sweet!!

I'm glad you're pleased, Curtis. Have a happy Thanksturkey day.

Ray and Jack....after using the MX-700 for a couple of days, I want to thank you for the persuasion, and making my pocketbook a little lighter.....

It is a great remote. If I had a bigger house, and zones, I could see myself easily moving to the MX-800/850.

You just made my day, Curtis! After Ray and Tom beat me up with their recommendations for the MX-700, I skeptically took the plunge, and have been thrilled ever since.

We both know about the subjectivity of this hobby, when it comes to equipment. This causes me, most of the time, to be very reluctant to make recommendations. But, the MX-700 is the one piece of equipment I own that I virtually have NO qualms whatsoever about recommending.

Although the budget won't let me even think about it, I'm very curious as to what the 850 has to offer. Mustn't think about it. Must be strong. Lock up credit cards!

Jack...thanks again.

As for the 800/850, the only advantage I see, for me, is the RF functionality. Being able to control systems through walls and from other rooms would be great in a larger house with multiple zones.

Curtis, you are very welcome. I am delighted that YOU are delighted. Always happy to help other folks spend their money. The real fun will be as you begin to come up with new ideas and find that you can tweak the 700 in just a few pain-free minutes on the PC.

Jack, the new MX-850 ("Orion") combines/replaces the MX-700 and MX-800. If you want RF, you get the RF station(?) that is an option. The other big difference is the center wheel being replaced with, essentially, a button. There were some complaints about the center thumb pad on the current models, but I never understood why those few people complained.

OK, I looked at the software again tonight. I went into the IR database and I picked devices that looked like they should work for me. Is that it for that part? There is an LCD button editor that comes up after the devices is selected. Do I need to do anything here, or just apply and move onto the next device? I hoping that is it and you just move onto macros after picking this stuff, but if that is the case, what is the purpose of that screen?

The LCD Button Editor is for renaming or moving the command found on each button on either side of the LCD screen on the remote. You don't NEED to do anything on this screen if you don't want to.

You'll notice that there are 4 pages on the LCD Button Editor Screen. Some, or all 4, of the pages will have commands on them that are commands for the device you loaded from the IR database. If you wish you can rename any of these commands by double clicking on the command itself, and typing in whatever you wish. Note that on the toolbar at the top of the LCD Button Editor Screen there are symbols you can add to your commands should you want to.

Or, you can rearrange the order of the commands on the pages by simply dragging and dropping the commands wherever you wish. You'll need at least one open command box in order to drag and drop, so if there is a command in every box on every page, you'll have to delete one of the commands that you can do without. If you wish, when your done rearranging the commands you can add the deleted command, and teach the button the command from the remote that came with the device.

These commands will appear on the LCD screen, after you click the "Apply" button on the LCD Button Editor Screen, and then double click on the device button on the Main page of the LCD screen.

I recommend you just practice doing this. You'll make mistakes and have to start over, but when you get things the way you like, you can save that configuration and name it whatever you wish. I have files named HT1 and HT2, HT1 is the configuration I use on the MX-700, and HT2 is where I set things up. If I wanted to try something without messing up my current configuration (HT1), I just open HT2 and experiment there. When I know what I'm doing, I close HT2, and apply what I've learned to HT1. Or I can actually copy and paste an entire device from HT2 into HT1.

Just keep fooling with it, and don't hesitate to consult the manual if you have a question. The index is at the very end of the manual. Page 23 explains the LCD Button Editor more concisely, and accurately than I can.

Zarak...where did you download the software from.

I downloaded the copy I played with from SurfRemote, and then did a live update from the Help menu. This updates it with the latest devices.

When the remote arrived, I downloaded a company directly from Home Theater Master website....this version was up to date and did not require anything from the live update.

Just like Jack says...play with it...it is really easy. If you mess up...it is easy to fix.

I downloaded from the link at the beginning of this thread. It said everything was up to date when I tried live update.