I want to purchase a universal remote for my theater room and was wondering if any of them will work with X10. I currently own the very first pronto unit and love it. Unfortunaley it doesn't do X10. I want to do some lighting scenes and was wondering if any of the prontos have discrete codes for the X10 lighting? For example like if I wanted to press pause and have the riser lights and the main theatre lights come on to 50 percent or so. Just an example. I know you can do this with the software and the module that you can get through X10, but I would have to integrate this into my computer or a laptop and still would have too many buttons to push. I would like one remote that could control and set up macros from that would do one command like watch a movie, lights would dim and play the movie. Do any of these universal remotes have functions to control and learn X10 codes? And if so How would I make this work? All of my automation in my theatre room is set up with X10.

There is no universal remote that can control X-10 directly. They can only do it via an IR543 (or IR543AH) IR-to-X10 converter. That will only give you limited control however.

I have heard of this module which converts the X10 into IR. Can you explain what functions are limited? Maybe an example?

The IR543 only has On/Off and Bright/Dim controls for multiple modules. No scene control, so to get a 50% level you'd have to ramp up (or down) the Bright/Dim control.

What Mike said, plus, with the MX-850 you can use device codes to 16 when using IR543. With X-10's own remote control you can only use up to 9. To over come the limited control I use a X-10 computer controlled module CM11A (http://www.x10.com/products/x10_ck11a.htm). This device allows macro programing, one button push can turn on or off lights, dim them to desired levels, turn on lawn lights at sun-set, off at sunrise or a prescribed time, etc. You can download the software (http://www.x10.com/automation/x10_ck11a_sw.htm) to see what it is like.

I have an MX-850 and an IR543.

How should I program the MX-850 to control the IR543?

I have an MX-850 and an IR543.

How should I program the MX-850 to control the IR543?For the MX-850, select Main then chose an existing button or add a new one. Select that button, click IR Database, under IR Data from: select Light, then select X-10 in the left pane and [X-10 2] in the right pane, Save, Apply and Close. Make sure IR is selected for the X-10 under 9. RF Control, Download to your remote. All done.

The above is defaulted for House Code A so make sure the IR543 is set to A!

Thanks