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Universal Remote Control MX-850 & MRF-250

Manufacturer: Universal Remote Control, Inc.

By Floyd Pierce
SPot Senior Editor

Model number:  MX-850

2005-11-21 - " The MX-850 is an evoloutionary improvement on the MX-700 with two big changes; The addition of a seperate select key, and the addition of RF capability. "

Review:

The MX-850 and MRF-250 combination allow you to use radio frequency control from the remote to the base station. The base station then fires infrared commands to your equipment via flashers or the blaster on the front of the unit. The beauty of this setup is that you can eliminate problems with macros that fail because the user of the remote waves it around, or someone walks in front during execution. This remote system can also allow you to hide equipment from view in cabinetry or closets and still have full control. By using multiple remotes and MRF base stations, you can enable video distribution setups to be operated cleanly and reliably.

Approach

I received the MX-850 and MRF-250 for review and immediately started planning the best way to tackle these two beauties. I suppose the obvious conclusion would be to put the two to work in my main theater room, but after giving it some thought, I decided that they would be perfect to solve some problems in my bedroom theater setup.

My setup in the master bedroom is in an entertainment center with a lower and upper set of cabinet doors. The stack contains (top to bottom):
Kenwood 403 disk changer
Toshiba 30HF84 TV
Direct TV TiVo
Yamaha RX-V2200 Receiver
Hughes DirectTV Receiver (only used for off air HDTV)

The problems are:

The Toshiba TV is extremely picky about the angle of the remote, too far left or right of the TV and it won’t respond.

An 11 month old. She loves to push buttons and pull wires, so the open cabinet is way too tempting for her.

Before and after photos:



Setup



So that’s the background. Now to the URC remote and Radio Frequency (RF) base station. The 850’s software is very similar to the MX-700’s that I had been using for a number of years. In fact you can directly read the files, so upgrading is a snap. The only addition to the software is the capability to address the RF base stations, and to select whether a device’s commands will be routed via RF, Infrared (IR), or both. In addition, you have the ability to send commands to all of the 6 (included in the package) IR flashers or selectively to an individual flasher. The MRF-250 also has a front blaster that be used if you don’t wish to route flashers to each device.

The software setup was straightforward. You should always test your setup vi IR from the remote, before moving on to using RF commands to make any problem debugging simpler.

One step that should not be overlooked is to set the RF ID on the MRF-250 to a code other than 0 (zero). The zero setting is used only to check for RF interference. The system will most likely have problems if you skip this process. Addressable IR blasters do not work with the RF ID set to 0 and the unit is much more likely to be affected by interference.

The RF ID switch is under a plate at the base of the MRF (the image below is from an MRF-300 but the process is the same).



The IR flashers are routed to each device that you wish to control, but do not just attach them over the IR receiver on the device and expect all to be well. The IR flashers will overload some devices if attached directly over the receiver. In the case of Direct TV receivers and TiVo’s the problem is very pronounced. In my case I ended up placing the flasher several inches away from the TiVo, stuck face down on the shelf. Others have placed resistors in line with the flasher to reduce it’s output. In any event, you should plan to spend some time adjusting the flashers to produce the most reliable operation.

One other problem may rear it’s head. Because the RF receiver’s range is quite long (up to 100’) you can run into an issue with the remote being too close to the receiver. If your setup has your viewing position less than 6 or 7 feet back from the unit, the RF receiver can overload and fail to operate reliably. Placing the MRF-250 deeper into the cabinetry, or shielded by equipment can help with this problem. I’ve also heard that some installers remove the antenna from the base unit when this is a problem.

All this is to say that you should have some patience at hand in the install process. You can achieve near perfect reliability, but it may take a bit of tweaking to get there.

The Remote

The remote physically is the exact duplicate of an MX-700 with the exception of color, the laser-etched style buttons, and (rejoice!) a separate select button in the center of the thumbpad.



The remote has a good feel, and great ergonomics as we’ve come to expect from the Universal Electronics hard button remotes. The separate select button is something that resolves the only quibble that most users have had with the MX line of remotes. This remote is the near pinnacle of form and feel for the “don’t look” crowd of remote users.

Performance

What can I say? It just works, time after time, without fail. Complex, long running macros are no longer a problem for the “other” users of your remote. You know them; they wave the remote around or press a button and immediately drop the remote down into the cushions of the couch.

This combo has tamed my two problems with ease. I now have a nice clean cabinet that doesn’t entice the 11 month old to push buttons, turn knobs or rip out wires. Now if I could just get her to leave the tweeters alone on my B&W’s in the home theater. The picky IR receiver on the Toshiba is now a complete non-issue, having the flasher right on the front of the set means that you can operate it from anywhere in the room, or for that matter, anywhere in the house.

Conclusion

This combo is just about perfect. The only quibbles I have are with the tendency of the IR flashers to overload some equipment and the problem with the MRF-250 overloading if the remote is too close to the receiver. These problems have been dealt with in the form of the MRF-300 which has adjustable IR output for each emitter, and includes the MRF-100 RF sensor which can be mounted away from the main base station it also uses 3.5mm jacks for the flashers as opposed to the non-standard 2.5mm jacks on the MRF-250.

I can happily recommend this setup to those that have a need for something a bit more than just an MX-500 or 700. And hey, now I can operate my video system from the lawnmower.

Features:

  • LCD Screen Size: 1.4" x 2.1"
  • Range: RF - Up to 100 feet when used with MRF-250 or MRF-300 RF Base stations
  • Range: IR (line of sight) - Up to 60 feet with fresh batteries
  • Batteries: 4 AAA alkaline (included)
  • Dimensions: MX-850 - 9.0" x 3.0" x 1.3" (L x W x H)
  • Weight: MX-850 - 8oz (with batteries)
  • Warranty: 1 year parts & labor when purchased from an authorized dealer
  • MSRP: MX-850 - $400, MRF-250 $100
Rating:

Functionality:

Setup:

Value:

Overall:
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