Hello all!

Always come to AVS Forum everytime I need a solution for my Home Theater System...This time I need a remote...

I just moved to a 2-story house. Gameroom with HT equipment is upstairs, but we spend most of our time downstairs...

What would be a good remote to be able to control everything upstairs from the first floor? The idea is not me having to go upstairs everytime I want to increase volume on the receiver, change the source, change the xm channel, or whatever...

There is a couple of walls in the way...would this be a problem?
Bugdet is no more than $350...

Thanks!

You just need an RF remote. Harmony 890 would work within your budget and you could also get a few different URC remote and RF base combos for about that much money.

mx450 and mrf260 falls right in there there, great products

Sorry for the ignorance guys...but, say I get a Harmony 890...Is that all I need to control my upstairs equipment from downstairs??

I'm not familiar with remote control technology...

890s aren't the ideal remotes for doing zone 2, atleast in my opinion. If you want to watch the main room and use zone 2, the harmony wants to shut off one zone to use the other zone. Theres ways around that but its not always the prettiest of programming, ESPECIALLY if your a newbie. Harmonys don't always have the best of RF range either. I prefer the URCs much more for what your talking about. I've owned both companies and I gave up Harmony to go URC.

mx450 and mrf260 falls right in there there, great products

what do you know about those remotes?

890s aren't the ideal remotes for doing zone 2, atleast in my opinion. If you want to watch the main room and use zone 2, the harmony wants to shut off one zone to use the other zone. Theres ways around that but its not always the prettiest of programming, ESPECIALLY if your a newbie. Harmonys don't always have the best of RF range either. I prefer the URCs much more for what your talking about. I've owned both companies and I gave up Harmony to go URC.

The way I read it was that he wasn't doing two zones. It sounds like all of his equipment is upstairs and he only needs to have a remote control the music and volume from downstairs. Thus any RF remote would work in his case since he just needs it to work through the walls.

either way, to minimize the chance of out of range signal, use the URCs

So do we have a concensus?

Harmony or URC?
Would I need RF extenders?

Ive actually had much better luck with the harmony RF extender than the URC. I assume it was RF interefernce but the URC 250 was very spotty, the harmony RF works perfect every time. I do agree however the URC is a much more programmable remote, you can get very detailed with your programming options with URC, not so much with Harmony. If your setup is relatively simple then it would be a tough choice, if your setup is very sophistacted or detailed then i would definitely lean towards URC.

Another question is who will be doing the programming for the remote?

You don't think you really need an RF remote. I do the same thing you are trying to do with one of these:

http://www.x10.com/automation/pm5900_s.html

Been working fine for 15 years.

You don't think you really need an RF remote. I do the same thing you are trying to do with one of these:

http://www.x10.com/automation/pm5900_s.html

Been working fine for 15 years.

But with those you will have to point the remote at a target, the transitter. If you were to add an URC RF remote, it will communicate directly with receiver portion of the extender set, no more pointing.

So do we have a concensus?

Harmony or URC?
Would I need RF extenders?

Either would work. Figure out what is out there within your budget.

Yes, you would need an RF extender or you would be back to where you started. The Harmony 890 ships with the RF extender in the box. With the URC you need to purchase one separately.

But with those you will have to point the remote at a target, the transitter. If you were to add an URC RF remote, it will communicate directly with receiver portion of the extender set, no more pointing.

I don't have to point mine directly at the target, being in the same room is enough. I have sound in two rooms of the house, and the garage. I have one reciever in the room with the equipment, one transmitter in the other room, and one transmitter in the garage. Total cost was about $40.

As I said above, I have been using this setup for years, long before Harmony existed. I've never had any reason to change it, it works perfectly.