URC X002SQN1IN URC MX450 black (Open Box)

This is a great remote. Couple it with the MRF-260 base station (see my review) and it is the most affordable RF control system on the market. The only complaint I have what so ever about the remote is that you cannot learn commands for the hard buttons. I understand this is what sets apart the next model up but nothing goes without a critique. The instructions are not user friendly in the sense that all they say is these are the buttons put in the batteries and program remote then poof done! Here is a quick and dirty tutorial for anyone who wants to buy the remote but is afraid of programming. Go through basic setup. This entails telling the remote what brand of tv,reciever,cablebox, bluray etc you have and testing the code set. It is important that all the functions you will need work in that basic testing or more advanced macros will have nothing to work from. The most important functions to test on your tv are usually power,input,aspect ratio. On a receiver it's all inputs you are using regardless of naming convention and volume.Blu ray and dvd players are usually in the remote already. If you do need to learn a specific button do so in the Learn section of basic setup. There are instructions on screen describing the process. This is necessary if you find a code set that works power but not say input just teach it the input button from your original tv/receiver remote. Make sure to check that the button/function you are looking for isn't a soft button on the 2nd or 3rd page of the remote screen. When adding devices put the tv and receiver on the left hand side of the remote screen. Add all devices including game systems even if you don't have the adapter to actually control the device with the remote say an xbox or wii still add the device so you can program it as a macro button to say switch the tv or receiver to the proper input to play said device. I put my cable/sat top right of the screen then dvd/bluray then game systems. The reason behind putting the tv and receiver on the left is so that after we use them to program macros we can hide them since we don't actually ever choose to watch tv it's more like watch verizon or comcast cable box, Play Wii etc. When naming a device add either Watch or Play to the device name so that you can do an event like adding a comcast cablebox I would name it Watch Comcast as the device name. Copy and Paste volume. What this means is volume is always controlled either on the tv or at the receiver so when you are in Watch Cable or Play wii when you hit the volume it will control the proper device. The process is hit copy and paste from the menu select volume, all devices then FROM which ever you use TV speakers or av receiver. Advanced setup/Macros Master on/off for all devices from the Main Screen. Basically the first 2 macros to program is all the devices to the on and off hard buttons. They are located on the remote in the top left and right. Go to the macro menu and it will say start macro press done (located at bottom of screen) when complete. You will also notice a flashing red dot like the rec button at the top of the screen when you are in learn mode. Learning a macro is just the remote remembering the multiple steps you just took to complete a task and making it repeat upon a specific button press. Go to the Macro section and start recording by pressing the On hard button (located at top left of remote) now go through all the devices you added by selecting them one by one and hitting the on button once you are in the device menu then Main to get back to the main menu. Devices that should be added to this All On command are essential devices your ie. tv,projector,cable box,reciever. I usually leave bluray/dvd On command to the macro I make when I select to watch that device. Leaving your cablebox on won't hurt it but leaving a dvd player on and spinning a disc to keep it at the menu for hours and hours(while you watch cable) will kill it prematurely. Repeat the process for the Off button. The same exception applies to the dvd on the off macro I make the off command for the dvd inside the device menu when you hit Menu to go back to the main menu on the remote from watch dvd it shuts off the dvd player. Test and tune it so it turns all your essential devices on and off how you want. Now that we can press ON from the main menu and get say the tv, cablebox and receiver on we can move on to event macro programming. Setup for the macros is to go through your current routine to actually get say your cable or satellite box up on the screen. Write it down on a piece of paper and make sure to locate and test all buttons required for the proper code. Here is an example. Say we want to watch our Verizon Cablebox. Everything is on already so we can skip to making sure the tv is on it's proper input we'll say Input 3 we'll make sure our Denon a/v receiver is set to Input-Cable or what ever input you have it plugged into. So in the Macro section we'll start the recording by selecting the "Watch Verizon" button on the main screen then press Main to get back to the main menu then select the tv and push the corresponding button for Input 3 then hit Main then select the Denon receiver and hit the Cable input button then hit Main and hit the "Watch Verizon" button again then hit Done. This makes it so upon pressing the "Watch Verizon" button from the main menu everything will switch to the proper input and the remote will stop on the Verizon code set which will have all the features the original Verizon remote had such as Guide,Cursor funtions and Page+/Page- etc. Repeat this process for all devices. After setting up and testing that when you hit "watch..." it goes to all proper inputs and stops on that devices original code set. The reason we don't program everything on and off independent is that if you are switching between say "Play PS3" and "Watch Verizon" everything would have to shut off wait a sec then turn back on. After you are satisfied with the macros go to the Hide/Add pages section. We want to hide the tv and the receiver from the Main Menu since people unfamiliar may choose these and get confused. "I'm pushing TV but nothing is happening" that's because this just goes to the TV's code set where as the "Watch Verizon" is what they should be pressing to watch television. Add Aspect Ratio control to events by selecting to Learn a button inside a device. Learn the aspect ratio/size button from your tv remote to all your devices. This way if you were watching standard definition television and you had the aspect stretched so it filled the screen (ie. no black bars on the sides)then switched to something in HD you would have the Aspect/size button right there on all devices.This isn't necessary on some tv's that auto stretch automatically. Operation is easy. With everything off pick up the remote and press On(top left) everything should turn on (tv,receiver,cablebox etc). You will be at the Main menu on the remote. Press the corresponding button for the event you would like to do like "Watch Verizon". When you are done and want to shut the system off press Main to get to the main menu and hit Off (top right). As long as this routine is followed every time you can come into the room to watch tv and the remote should be at the main screen and the ON macro will turn everything on. If a device get's left on but everything else turns off or vice versa. Set everything to one state either on or off then just choose that event/device from the main screen and when you are at that device menu hit power on or off pending on the state of the rest of the equipment. This is a basic example to get you started and thinking in a macro sort of way.There are websites that talk about other more advanced practices to sort stuff into locations and zones. The difference between Hard and Soft buttons is that hard buttons are fixed some examples are guide, exit, menu. Their name is printed right on them and they are considered hard buttons. Soft buttons are on the remote's screen and can be edited so they are known as soft buttons.