RC User Reviews: Complete Control MX-900 "Genesis" Remote Control (1)

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User reviews for the Complete Control MX-900 "Genesis" from Universal Remote Control Inc.

Ratings	Reviews	MSRP (USD)
Average: 3.31/5.00 Median: 3.50/5.00	18	$449

The MX-900 is an economical version of the powerful MX-950 that continues to offer many powerful features. It includes 1mb of flexible memory for almost any programming method you desire including device and activity-based concepts, an 8-line alphanumeric LCD display, full blue LED backlighting, USB-based computer programming, narrow-band RF technology, IR learning, a code database and MRF-400 compatibility.

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the Complete Control MX-900 "Genesis" remote.

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Written by TexasBigEars from Round Rock, TX.

The reviewer has used this remote control for under 1 month.

Review 18 made on Monday July 29, 2013 at 2:21 PM.

Also owned:

Logitech Harmony One

Strengths:

Makes lots of money for installers who have paid URC money.

Weaknesses:

Way too expensive for very little performance.

Review:

After buying this too expensive remote, you have to keep on paying to get it programmed the first time and pay again (with the inconvenience and delay involved) every time you change how you want it to work as you learn your preferences and pay again (with the inconvenience and delay involved) whenever you make any change in your system, etc.

Ain't work the $5.00 I paid for it.

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Written by videobruce from Buffalo.

The reviewer has used this remote control for more than two years.

Review 17 made on Sunday December 30, 2012 at 11:11 AM.

Also owned:

One For All URC-9910, One For All URC-10820, URC MX-350 "Osiris", MX-900 "Genesis"

Strengths:

Programmable thru a PC, not the Internet,
Two fwd & rev buttons for flexibility
Learning,
Macros,
Can use rechargeable AAA cells, no proprietary battery

Weaknesses:

Cost (if you can't get it from a distributor),
Obtaining the software (see above)
Buttons do not light automatically. You have to push a separate button to get them to light. MAJOR PROBLEM!
Eats batteries, they are only AAA's not AA's.
Learning curve for programming, but all of these have a learning curve.

Review:

I have two.
The only real continuous annoyance is the buttons do not light up automatically when you push any button like they do with just about every other remote.
Ability to work locally, without connecting to the Internet and have the settings stored on some server thousands of miles away id a HUGE plus AFAIC.
The availability of separate FF, Rew, Skip Fwd & Skip Rew butttons unlike many others that only provide as single Fwd & Rew button is a huge plus.

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Written by hokieman1970 from north carolina.

The reviewer has used this remote control for more than two years.

Review 16 made on Saturday September 24, 2011 at 8:19 PM.

Also owned:

Logitech Harmony

Strengths:

Works as promised

Weaknesses:

Difficult to understand programming sequences

Review:

I downloaded the software legitimately 4 years ago. It angers me greatly that they no longer provide this type of support. I will never buy from them again. However, I will be glad to share the download at no charge if you contact me. Good luck

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Written by bpatbeach from new jersey usa.

The reviewer has used this remote control for 1-2 years.

Review 15 made on Friday June 10, 2011 at 7:17 PM.

Strengths:

Great out of the gate with the exception of having to pay $250 to have it programmed not once but twice.

Weaknesses:

As I've read on several other entries, my remote is now failing after approximately 2 years. This particular remote is used only about 4 months out of the year as it's at our beach (vacation) house. I've changed the batteries 3 times yet the buttons are very sluggish and take 3-5 seconds to respond to a channel change or to bring the guide onscreen etc. I am not one to write reviews, generally speaking, but I'm so disappointed and angered by the shoddiness of this very expensive remote control that I felt compelled to share my view. I would absolutely NOT recommend this URC Genesis system to anyone. Unfortunately I have 3 of them throughout this house so now I'm just going to have to wait for the others to fail. Meanwhile, I'll be researching new systems to replace this piece of crap with.

Review:

Works great for 1-2 years BUT you have to pay exorbitant fees to have a "professional" program it. Then after spending $500+ the pice of crap fails to work after about 2 years of very light use. Find another system to buy!

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Written by Paula R. from Chicago.

The reviewer has used this remote control for 1-2 years.

Review 14 made on Sunday May 8, 2011 at 11:37 AM.

Strengths:

I don't like this remote.

Weaknesses:

This company's strategy is to help installers overcharge consumers for programming by preventing consumers from obtaining the programming software and codes. Consumers should not stand for that.

Review:

We installed a home theater system a few years ago and this is the remote that the company suggested. We have never liked it because our components don't respond to the remote reliably. We push the buttons over and over, and nothing happens. I like it even less now, because we modified some of our components (our DVR was obsolete) and did not want to pay several hundred dollars for the installer to come out and reprogram our remote. I downloaded the software, but the manufacturer does not make component remote control codes available, and I could not get my MX-900 to learn some of the codes from the components themselves. We broke down and hired a company to come look at it for us, but their technicians were way behind me on the learning curve (and I'm not very far along the curve myself).

I am very sorry we bought this remote and I will avoid all products made by Universal Remote Control in the future. And URC dealers beware -- I am also reluctant to do business with the company that sold me this thing in the first place.

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Written by Kaufman from Chicago.

The reviewer has used this remote control for more than two years.

Review 13 made on Monday August 9, 2010 at 12:08 AM.

Strengths:

Solid feel
"light" feature
Programming flexibility

Weaknesses:

Price
Lack of customer support

Review:

This remote was terrific when I first bought it. Yes it was expensive, especially given the professional installation costs. At the time, however, it seemed like the best combination of flexibility and ease of use.

After about a year and a half I noticed that the keys were quickly using their responsiveness. By two years the product was completely unusable, with most of the keys completely unresponsive. I found this quite surprising for a product this expensive, particuarly because it gets limited use as I travel 4 months of the year.

I took it to the dealer, but they said the only option was to buy another remote. They said it was a typical problem.

This is entirely unacceptable to me. How can a generic Comcast remote last for years, but a crazy-expensive custom remote can't last more than 18 months? What a shame -- it was a nice remote when it worked, but I'm certainly not going to spend $500+ on a remote an installation every 18 months. In short, absolutely terrible product quality.

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Written by aka23 from Carlsbad, CA.

The reviewer has used this remote control for under 1 month.

Review 12 made on Wednesday February 17, 2010 at 4:03 PM.

Also owned:

Harmony 670

Strengths:

Excellent features, design, and software

Weaknesses:

URC restricts software and removed consumer SW download link from website

Review:

I bought an MX-900 a couple weeks ago as an upgrade from a Harmony 670. I loved how Harmony remotes were PC programmable, had customizable buttons with mixed devices, and supported programmable macros (note that this feature has been dropped in Harmony's new, top-of-the-line models). However, I was frustrated by the bugs in Harmony's code, the weak processor, and various other limitations. The MX-900 solved these limitations and added much more.

Comparing to my Harmony, the hardware has a superior feel and design. I like how backlight button is on the side instead of grouped with the other buttons, on the Harmony. This makes it easier to find in the dark. The buttons have a superior/more solid feel, with a confirming sound with each press. The features are far superior to my Harmony. Macros are now virtually limitless and can include more complex operations. There can be separate macros for when the button is pressed once or held. I like using this to control speed of FF/RW. There is more more control of what the activity on/off buttons do. This is both a strength and a weakness. With the more control, you lose the simplicity of just pressing "Watch TV" or "Watch Movie" on a Harmony. Instead I now need to press two buttons -- "Watch", then the activity selection. However, if you wanted a 1-touch, there are ways to get around this with the MX-900 programming. While writing this review, I just came up with the idea of making the "listen" button like a Harmony activity button and using "watch" for my standard two-press other activities.

I consider the software editor to be both the MX-900's greatest strength and greatest weakness. The software is on a whole different level from Harmony. There are far, far fewer bugs than with Harmony. You no longer need to worry about getting your setup in a bad state and having do delete things (see the harmony support board). There are simple user-friendly ways to do things, like cut and paste buttons or have one button reference another. More user-friendlyness is apparent through the editor, including things like testing buttons or macros. Software downloads take a few seconds instead of a few minutes.

The HUGE downside to the software is URC restrictive software policies. When I bought my remote, I figured I'd just download the crippled software version offered on the URC website, as mentioned in some of the other reviews here. During the time between when I bought and when it arrived in the mail, URC made the downloads password protected, removing the ability to download for general consumer's like myself. URC's email support was not at all helpful to my situation. They essentially said they would not do anything. Instead I must depend on the dealer where I bought my product. And the email I did receive after from URC support several days of waiting had what appears to be an intentional undeliverable email reply header, so if you reply without changing the header the email is undeliverable. It sounds like they don't want to deal with consumer issues, like the ones I had. My dealer was not helpful at first. I was referred to an installer who charged $200+ to come out and setup the remote and did not allow me to keep the SW. So I'd need to pay $200+ each time I had to change my setup. This was unacceptable to me. I did not use the installer. They tried to justify it by saying that the remote programming was too difficult, and I needed a professional installer. I consider the SW to be easier to use than Harmony, as stated above. Anyone with a programming background (like myself) would find such claims to be a joke. I had the remote setup with creative macros using 6 devices + lighting in 20 minutes (leveraging off ideas from my Harmony setup). I eventually did get an old 2005 version of the software without live updates from my dealer. It doesn't have IR codes for newer stuff like blu-rays and HDMI inputs and some of the existing IR codes are bad such as the Lutron ones, but I can learn codes from my existing remotes and use Harmony's codebase, which is up-to-date and includes all the new stuff. In short, it works for me.

If you do buy this remote, don't do what I did and just assume you can get software on the URC website. I recommend contacting the dealer and confirming they will give software. And checking whether that software is a new version with "live updates."

Also note that this remote does not work with a 434MHz Next Generation Extender. NG tells me that their products don't mesh well with URC. I suspect that they would mesh without the NGE battery transmitter (using MX-900 RF), if I instead had a 418MHz NGE.

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