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The following page was printed from RemoteCentral.com:
| User reviews for the Home Theater Master MX-500 from Universal Remote Control Inc. |
 | | Ratings | Reviews | MSRP (USD) |
Average: 4.80/5.00
Median: 5.00/5.00 | 157 | $149 |
The MX-500 is a 10-device all-buttoned remote control with an LCD screen for custom labels on 10 adjacent buttons. It includes full infrared learning capabilities, a preprogrammed database, 5-way joystick, macros and more.
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Navigation: [ < Previous|Next > ] Now viewing user reviews page 8 of 23 for
the Home Theater Master MX-500 remote.
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| Written by Chris Duncan from Toronto, CA. The reviewer has used this remote control for 1-3 months. |
| Review 106 made on Thursday March 6, 2003 at 11:00 PM. |
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| Review: | There are many excellent reviews on this product (no need to repeat them), I am in agreement that this is the best remote I have ever owned and certainly does everything more expensive remotes can do!
I have it configured to control my two SAT's, VCR, XBOX, DVD, stereo, TV, my lights (IR), and even my difficult to set up RCA receiver RT2300. This receiver requires hitting the power button twice, which this remote was able to handle with some additional configuration. (I had to learn the code from the original remote, but had to hide the first code and have the MX-500 learn the second press of the power button - properly timed).
This is an incredible device. Takes about 1/2 hour to learn how to use (small simply manual), and a few hours to set up as required. This includes labelling of all devices. This remote could not be made any easier for those not used to using complex config's (wife, guests, etc).
I was not able to find the remote in Canada. Reviews on this site, suggest using www.bluedo.com, I certainly back these. They are excellent. I ordered the product on a Saturday, received notice of the order right away, was given a tracking number and had the product delivered eight days later. All this for an excellent price.
I am very anal about configs and found that this remote can be set up completely - as desired. Simply put - this is "The Remote"! |
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| Written by Tim Leslie from Fort Worth,TX. The reviewer has used this remote control for 1-3 months. |
| Review 105 made on Thursday March 6, 2003 at 3:07 PM. |
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| Review: | But - the appearance weakness I described is more than made up for by the fact that this thing simply WORKS, and works well. I bought an RCA touchscreen last week, RCU1000B. It looked pretty - but just plain wouldn't learn one command on one remote that I have, and you couldn't re-label the buttons at all. I had buttons on remotes that I just couldn't find anything even close to, in the limited choices of button labels on that remote. Sorry for delving into my review of THAT remote - but it's pertinent to my review of this remote, in that the problems I had on that one, were resolved with this remote. I bought this one based upon the reviews and ratings on this site, and couldn't be happier. The button that couldn't be learned on that remote was easily learned on this one. I have incorporated 5 remotes into this one so far; I cheated and used the built-in codes for each one, then went back and "learned" unique commands that were missing for each, putting those up on top, where I could label the button just how I wanted (within the 5 character limitation), and never had any trouble learning any commands from any remote. I love how I can invoke the macro for switching everything for watching a DVD on the DVD device button itself - talk about easy to remember! (For the uninitiated - if you briefly press the DVD button, for example, it changes the controls for the remote for that device; but if you also assign a macro to that same button, as I did, then when you press and hold that DVD button, it will invoke the macro, which in my case switches my TV to another input, switches my Amplifier to another input, turns the DVD player on, and opens the DVD tray.) And the Favorites feature is way too cool - I can never remember what channel number corresponds to what name, and now I never will, because I don't have to - I just press the button for HDNet, and I'm there! This site, and the MX-500 rock! |
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| Written by evatar from Los Angeles, CA. The reviewer has used this remote control for 1-3 months. |
| Review 104 made on Sunday March 2, 2003 at 6:06 PM. |
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| Review: | After buying our first ever home theater sound system, we reached critical mass with eight remote controls on the coffee table. My wife and I were baffled over which remote was the correct one to use for each component and mode desired and in which order to use them. Blah, blah, blah... If you're reading this you're probably already there. So for the first time I found myself considering a universal remote. After a lot of internet reviews, especially here at remotecentral.com, I ordered the MX-500 from www.bludo.com (They're great. I recommend them.) When it arrived I prepared myself for a couple days of programming, as mentioned by a few posters here. Except... it didn't take a couple of days to program the MX-500. In fact, after clearing the remote of its pre-programmed codes--a solid half hour, the longest part of the job (They’re not kidding when they say it’s got up to 530 commands)--I pretty much had all the major codes learned from my old remotes in another half hour. Days later, after getting used to it and figuring out where I really wanted certain things, I reprogrammed a few buttons, fine-tuned a few macros and it's been running like a dream for the last three weeks. Unlike others here, I didn't find the manual that bad, and coupled with the step-by-step instructions online at bludo.com I didn't have any confusion programming the remote. Being able to hand label each page button allows you to really personalize the remote. BTW when I fine-tuned button placements I used the excel spreadsheet available here, as well as the MX-Editor for the MX-700 at the Home Theater Master Website; It doesn’t allow you to program the remote from your PC but you can use the layout functions to figure out where you want your codes to go. Very handy. I read complaints about discrete codes, but I learned all my codes from the original remotes and didn't have a problem at all. BTW whoever mentioned that using fresh batteries in your old remote during learning modes was dead right; it makes a HUGE difference.
What more can I say? When I was reading these reviews I saw where people had described it with "pride of ownership" and "high wife acceptance factor," and I feel as strongly. Not only does my wife love using it as well, she even commented that it was the first electronic device I'd bought that she hadn't heard me swearing at while I was getting it setup. Really, it is that great a piece of equipment. While it looks chunky, it actually feels pretty good in our hands. The LCD is clear and the backlight is very good. The Punch Through function—where, for example, no matter what component I’m commanding, the audio control will automatically adjust only the home theater volume--is fantastic. And yes, I know that sounds dumb. But I cannot communicate to you how utterly frustrated and stupid the both of us felt when we had eight remotes lying around; we were accidentally pushing the wrong button constantly. With this remote we no longer feel intimidated by our home theater system. And that, my friend, is worth each and every penny we spent on the MX-500.
Some minor quibbles: I've found some macro functions only let you enter a function once--i.e. To change video modes on my television to watch component out on my DVD player, I have to press a button 3 times to cycle through Video modes 1 thru 4--It won't let me do this. However, I could just be doing it wrong. Everything below the joystick is just a little hard to access with your thumb; although I have all my favorite channels programmed so I don't use them that much. Oh, and we've found that once you've programmed the System Power and System Off macros, you really need to keep pointing the remote at the telly until the entire sequence completes. Otherwise we've found it will sometimes miss the last one or two components. It's surprising given that the emitters are so strong that we frequently don't even point the thing in the direction of our audiovisual components. I mean, the thing will change channels underneath a blanket. Seriously.
Like I said, minor, minor criticisms. I love this thing. All of our other remotes are in a box under the television and we haven't gone back to them once since the MX-500 arrived. Now I look like an idiot trying to convince other people to buy one of these things, and to tell you the truth, I kind of felt like one for coughing up $112 for a television remote. But on the bright side I don’t feel like dumb ass whenever I try to use my home theater anymore. Thanks to everybody at remotecentral.com who wrote and reviewed this remote. It’s a terrific piece of equipment. |
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