Universal Remote's MX-810 gets previewed

Universal Remote's company name leaves little unsaid about what its core competencies truly are, and its latest professional-series remote recently got a bit of hands-on time with the crowd at Electronic House. The MX-810 Pro Wizard was purportedly designed to work with setups ranging from a single room to an entire home, and sports a color LCD, 44 hard buttons, RF / infrared compatibility, rechargeable Li-ion, and hot keys for powering up select groups of components. Interestingly, this unit also includes 32MB of built-in memory to store commands that control "up to 24 activities for each of 24 different devices programmed into eight LCD pages." Of course, this also means that you'll need at least a week of vacation to actually program this $399 gizmo once it hits your doorstep in July.

[Photo courtesy of Tony Scarpetta]

[Tom @ Jun 15th 2007 11:58AM]

Universal Remote makes some awesome, er... universal remotes. I can't wait to try this one out.

[murray @ Jun 15th 2007 12:42PM]

"Professional series." That's amusing. What do you do? Oh, I'm a professional couch potato.

[Ryan Posner @ Jun 19th 2007 8:20AM]

Good joke.

But really, I think they are referring to the fact that it's geared towards professional installers with RF, etc. Or it might just mean that it's the higher-end version of the R70.

[harpreet @ Jun 15th 2007 12:55PM]

So is it one of those remotes which i can find in "bed bath and beyond" to control my life???

[StudioCity.mobi @ Jun 15th 2007 1:04PM]

"So is it one of those remotes which i can find in "bed bath and beyond" to control my life???"

Haha. It's in the beyond section. great movie, this remote rocks!


- http://StudioCity.mobi

[SuperChuck @ Jun 15th 2007 1:19PM]

$399 seems a LITTLE steep.

A lithium ion battery would be nice and the color screen is cute, but I don't think it's worth a $300 price jump...

[Rick Lyon @ Jun 15th 2007 1:47PM]

BAD history of screwing customers AND lack of mac support leaves this off my list. Price doesn't help either.

[RJ @ Jun 15th 2007 3:52PM]

Just buy the Harmony 890 the best universal remote for the price

[Veritas @ Jun 15th 2007 8:18PM]

URC's remotes are fully custom programmable (not limited to what Logitech has pre-programmed), will control multiple rooms, use discreet codes, are better built, don't have issues with RF, etc unlike the Harmony's. The Harmony's are great remotes for the price but they are certainly flawed.

[DAK @ Aug 24th 2007 10:08AM]

UCR's strongest suit is its programming software, which is available to registered professionals. It's "professional" because UCR is aimed at the professional home theater installer, not the dufus homeowner who will call UCR everyday whining that his remote can't read his mind.

I have two UCR MX-850's and an MX-800. They are hands down the best remotes I have ever used. Computer based programming, downloadable device codes, learning ability, IR and RF relay connectivity, 20-device control, complex macros, 40 user-defined LCD labels per device and much more.

I am constantly "tuning" the three remotes as I add or remove equipment or capabilities to my home theater. Being computer based, I can save different profiles so if I mess up, I can always reload the last profile that worked. The best part is that I can load the same profile to all three remotes. They are always the same so no matter which one I pick up anywhere in the house and they always work.

Three things would improve the MX-850. Two are on the 810: motion activated back light and built-in rechargeable battery, although a charging cradle would be better than a plug in. The third is the price: too high. At $400, they cost more than many amps and TVs!