I work for a custom installation company and we typically use the universal remote control MX-850 for our customers. Recently we tried out the Harmony 890 and have set it up on one system in our show room.

The setup of the Harmony 890 was painless with the software compared to what it takes to setup the MX-850. After setting up the Harmony 890 and creating some actions like watching a Blu-Ray DVD, watch HD-DVD, listen to radio, watch TV the remote was all set.

In order to program and setup the MX-850, it takes a bit more time and clicks compared to the Harmony, but many functions will automatically get mapped to the buttons.

But where the MX-850 excels is the ability to control all the buttons and labels through the programming software. The Harmony 890 becomes very difficult to program when you want to adjust and modify some of the buttons and labels.

With the MX-850, its very simple and easy to do with the software. I have not been able to completely customize every label on the display screen for the Harmony 890.

IMO, I feel the software for the universal remote control devices is more robust and easier to use when really customizing the remote and labels. It may be my experience with the Harmony 890 isn't that extensive, but I would think that you don't need to spend a lot of time to learn how to setup the remote.

If anyone can suggest how I can modify the labels on the Harmony 890, I'd be open for suggestions. I hope this helps.

If anyone can suggest how I can modify the labels on the Harmony 890, I'd be open for suggestions. I hope this helps.

Select "Customize" for the activity you want to modify buttons for, then "Change behaviour of buttons"

The first screen is for the hard button customization.

Select "Additional buttons" to get the screen to modify the LCD "soft" buttons.

You will probably find that as a CI you'll prefer the programming of the URC in that you can create setups for the devices you commonly install which cuts down on remote programming time.

The Harmonys are really for end users who want to program the remotes themselves. I would think continually having to program the Harmony from scratch for each client would become cumbersome.

Thanks for the info. I will try it out!

We are moving towards having some set packages that we'll sell to customers since we're located in a metropolitan area and there are a lot of condos/apartments in our area. So we do have a few programs for the URC MX-850s that we can just load onto the remote and we're good to go.