any owner comments? i was about to purchase an 890 when i saw this:

www.x10iconremote.com

Can it be any good fer only 80 bucks?

The Harmony 550 will give you most of the functions of the 890 for $80, but it is IR only, not RF, so depending on your setup, this may be a problem (RF goes behind cabinet doors and through walls without an IR blaster or IR extender).

- The 550 has only 4 activity buttons, not 8.
- The 550 has a monochrome black on blue LCD, not color.
- The 550 uses 4xAAA batteries, not a rechargeable battery on a base.
- Very different button layout to the 890.

Otherwise, in between the two there is the Harmony 720 for $150 including S+H from Costco.com.

- It has a color screen like the 890.
- 6 activity buttons, not 8.
- Rechargeable with a base (no batteries to replace).
- Very different styling and button layout (similar to the 550).

The 880 is essentially the same as the 890, but without RF, so cheaper, if you do not need this.

x10icon users will have to tell you what they think about that remote, but I would expect it to be very different than the Harmony remotes.

The Harmony 550 will give you most of the functions of the 890 for $80, but it is IR only, not RF, so depending on your setup, this may be a problem (RF goes behind cabinet doors and through walls without an IR blaster or IR extender).If you are assuming that the iconremote is capable of sending X10-RF signals, I don't think this is the case. If you look at the following page, they say that in order for the Icon to be able to dim the lights, you would need an IR543 box.

http://www.x10iconremote.com/icon-remote-home-theater-pack.htm

Thanks for the clarification Robman, but no, I was just saying that the 550, 720 and 880 are all IR Harmony models. The 890 is a RF Harmony. The x10icon is, of course IR only too. I do not know of any RF remotes under $100 except for the Universal Remote (URC) "consumer" range (but there may be others). These URC remotes have other issues that prospective buyers would have to research before deciding.

Earlier cheap X10 universal remotes were capable of sending both regular IR signals and X10-RF signals, so it would be understandable if people were to assume that this new expensive X10 remote would have the same ability, but for some strange reason it doesn't.

I got the X10 a couple weeks ago. I think it is great. I replaced 5 remotes. It is not programmable, but is very easy to set up. It is a learning remote and has micros. My wife likes it. The screen is super bright.

I think you need to ask yourself 3 questions:

How sophisticated is your system? Are there a lot of details you use in each part of your system, or do you watch TV from several different sources, DVD's, VCR's, PVR, etc.

How much effort do you want to spend in setting up the remote? Are you willing to program it on the computer and download the software, or just point and click and use your old remotes to transfer specific commands.

How much are you willing to spend? If money is no object, hire a professional.

I was able to get mine for $65. I signed up for their newsletter and they sent me a coupon for a $15 discount. I don't know if that is still available, or not.

I had an X10 iconRemote for a review that I did and to sum it all up here's a few key points:
- The easiest remote I have ever set-up
- Favorite channel wizard is AWESOME and makes for easy use
- Programming macros is not as logical but if you take the time you can eventually get it to do everything you would with the Harmony
- Larger buttons and clear color screen make it easier to use than the Harmony however... I still use the Harmony 688 in my system because I find it easier to program and access my AV receiver controls simply because more of them were pre-programmed from the initial set-up

My advice... If you're going from the 5 or 6 remotes that came with your devices to the iconRemote you are going to be ecstatic! You'll get it set up fast and love that you have all the functions you need. If you prefer to put the time into the web programming and you want a more logical system that controls your "activities" then Harmony may be a good bet. ex... if you're constantly switching from "Watch TV" to "Watch DVD" and you need to change TV inputs, receiver modes, etc. the Harmony remotes will figure out this logic automatically as opposed to you programming the macro yourself.

hey gang. I too am looking t the x10. I have 3 remotes basically, my Sammy plasma, phillips cheapy htib and my sci atl cable box. I just want something that works and to keep from having 3 remotes. sounds like this may be the ticket!

Looks like this Philips SRU8010:

http://www.consumer.philips.com/consumer/en/us/consumer/cc/_language_us/_productid_SRU8010_37_US_CONSUMER

Got the Philips order. Should be here in the next day or so. $64.99 online.

Pilips SRU6110 coming out in the next month or two:

http://www.ces.philips.com/factsheet_sru6110.html

Pretty slick.

I like the Harmonies but I have had bad luck.

I had a 880 and had problems with the charger. The remote would not want to charge in the base station.

Also have the XBox 360 Harmony and the lower half of the LCD screen is messed up. Very hard to read the lower half.

Also have a 720 and the damn LCD screen stays on all the time. Tried to reset and everything to no avail. Of course, these problems crept up after the warranty periods.

0-3 on the Harmonies. I like the programming and functionality. Damn QC is kind of crap IMO.

they look identical

X10 Icon

http://www.x10.com/images22/remote_winner.gif

Phillips SRU8010

http://www.consumer.philips.com/catalog/SR/SRU8010_37_webImage370.jpg

I was looking at this myself but kinda set back about it. Basically I want to get one for myself to control a HK receiver, dvd player, and satellite cable box. Now I'll need one for my dad to control his Onkyo, Blu-ray player, and cable box. Will this remote control all of those items, I really need it to be able to switch inputs on my receivers.

Well they're on sale for $50 and free shipping so I bought one just to see if it worth a sh*t. I should get it friday so i'll post how well it works once i get it up and running

Well I spent last night setting it up and the only problems i had were setting it to my sony blu ray and getting it to shut my receiver off. Otherwise for the price you can't beat it.

If you are assuming that the iconremote is capable of sending X10-RF signals, I don't think this is the case. If you look at the following page, they say that in order for the Icon to be able to dim the lights, you would need an IR543 box.

http://www.x10iconremote.com/icon-remote-home-theater-pack.htm

that's kind of strange I own a rca X-10 remote and it works IR-RF without the IR-543. I have about 14 X-10 modules and they work RF while my tv was using RF. I can't believe how bad X-10 remotes are for everything beside X-10 operations. I just bought the harmony 890 RF, the IR-543 and the nyko BluWave ps3 IR remote and I'm gonna return the 890 for the MX-980 my system is way to complex for an X-10 remote. even the harmony did'nt served me well. for some people this will just work just fine but I can't rely on X-10 for the remotes.

I ordered this today, I hope its awesome..but let me tell you...the company is a little sketchy as far as I am concerned...they sent me an email saying it was at a blow out price of 79.99. I was gonna buy it at that price...thenI decided to seek some reviews for it and I found a link that said it was 69.99, I clicked it and it took me to the X10 website. I went thru the icon resu;ts some more and I found a price for 59.99 FROM THEIR WEBSITE which I did buy at . Then, X10 has a consumer forum where someone said he was mad because after he bought his it was on sale for 49.99. I checked that and it was TRUE.. so in all I found 4 different links..ALL TO THE X10 website with 4 different prices...79.99, 69.99, 59.99 and 49.99.I couldn't find ANYTHING cheaper than that and I seriously LOOKED! I called the X10 people and complained..I told the girl I just ordered and then I found a link to their own website that showed the same thing for 10 bucks less. The girl tells me " What do you want me to do about it?" WTF????? Who says this to a customer??? So I told her that I want the 10 bucks off my sale and she did that for me. But the company OBVIOUSLY sells the remotes at a DIRT CHEAP 49.99 and they hide that..so depending on what link you are lucky enough to click on determines the price you pay. I think thats rotten and unethical, but what can you do?

So if you are gonna buy one of these CALL them and order over the phone and say you want to pay 49.99, or order it online and then call up and yell like I did and say you want it for 49.99. They didn't even flinch, they didn't even question where I found the link...they must be used to these phone calls and just switch the price without any arguments. Oh and BTW..the Phillips is the exact same remote as the X10 Icon, they bought the technology I was told. I didn't research the prices too hard on that model because I didn't see it for cheaper than 49.99, but if you can then God bless ya!

The SKU is IR10A-PS-PPT-4999-V2 for the $49.99 price and I found it at one point on their website but now that I'm going back, I can't. But I did order it for that price through their website and it includes free shipping.

Steve

I have had three of the Icon Remotes IR 10A.

I really do want to like this remote, if this really worked, I think it is a very nice remote for the money.

I had the same problem on THREE REMOTES now, they freeze up when programming the learn and adding macros, this happens when adding one or more learn functions, then adding one or more macros, and add a label, then when you press done, the remote goes to the “Saving Settings” screen it NEVER STOPS unless you remove the batteries. When you remove the battery it DELETES ALL LEARNED AND MACROS and you have to reprogram everything again.

For me this is a big deal … I have 10 Devices and as many as 75 learn and macro keys it takes up 3 hours to get them all programmed again.

It does not seem to be related to any device because I have had this happen when programming a Toshiba TV, a Sony DVD and a SA Cable Box.

I called X10 Support and they told me they never heard of this problem, I found it strange that I have the only Three remotes in the world that have this problem. (Of course I now see others also have it, and I suspect this will be a very big problem as soon as many others experience this).

Questions:
When it freezes is there any other way to clear it, other than take the batteries out and lose all the Programmed Data?

Do you think it is possible I got THREE DUD REMOTES in a row?

Has anyone found a solution to this?

In all fairness I have call support again and am now waiting for a call from a Level 2 Tech. I will post the end results after talking to them.

This happened to me the first day that I used the remote. I was not sure if I just did not wait long enough for the remote to respond, but I did pull the batteries and the thing did lose all of its memory.

It has not happened to me again since and I have been using (and programming) the remote pretty heavily for two weeks. I have heard others talk about the freezing issue and I worry (just a little) every time I add a new learned key or macro that it will get stuck in that mode. Fortunately, it has only happened to me that first time.

I have also wondered how much memory this remote has. Perhaps the memory gets full and then freezes? There is just no way of knowing when your memory is full until it happens.

One nice feature for future releases of the remote would be to add back in the USB port (my remote is the new model which does not have this port anymore) so you can "download" your devices, learned keys, and macros for backup purposes. Then, if you got into this freeze state you could just pop out the batteries, do a master reset, and then download all of your stored data.

Originally Posted by Supie: I had the same problem on THREE REMOTES now, they freeze up when programming the learn and adding macros, this happens when adding one or more learn functions, then adding one or more macros, and add a label, then when you press done, the remote goes to the “Saving Settings” screen it NEVER STOPS unless you remove the batteries. When you remove the battery it DELETES ALL LEARNED AND MACROS and you have to reprogram everything again.


This happened to me the first day that I used the remote. I was not sure if I just did not wait long enough for the remote to respond, but I did pull the batteries and the thing did lose all of its memory.

I have also wondered how much memory this remote has. Perhaps the memory gets full and then freezes? There is just no way of knowing when your memory is full until it happens.



All 3 remotes Locked Up and lost all Macros and Learn programming with only one or two devices partially programmed, so am sure it is not problem with using all of the memory.

Also, It does not seem to be related to any device because I have had this happen when programming a Toshiba TV, a Sony DVD and a SA Cable Box.

Hi, I am new here and found this thread. I am a total noob to universal remotes. I got this set up with no probs for living room viewing of LCD and sat and DVD player. I would, however, like to use this in my movie room with a pj, onkyo receiver and oppo dvd. I have no clue as to how to start building macros for turning everything on and off in order, etc... If anyone can point me in the direction of a simple tutorial I would be grateful. thanx in advance, cheers

I have no clue as to how to start building macros for turning everything on and off in order, etc... If anyone can point me in the direction of a simple tutorial I would be grateful. thanx in advance, cheers


The Icon Remote is fairly intutive on most of the programming, but to build a macro you need to start with a LEARN KEY then ADD THE MARCO STEPS as needed.

The manual that came with it and these forums are the biggest help. Also there is the X10 forum (http://www.x10community.com/forums/index.php?board=96.0) and Tech Support seems to be able to walk you through if you get stuck.

The Icon Remote is fairly intutive on most of the programming, but to build a macro you need to start with a LEARN KEY then ADD THE MARCO STEPS as needed.

The manual that came with it and these forums are the biggest help. Also there is the X10 forum (http://www.x10community.com/forums/index.php?board=96.0) and Tech Support seems to be able to walk you through if you get stuck.

Thanx so much, I will check those out. I learn way more from these forums than I could from the manuals alone. cheers

Hi, I am new here and found this thread. I am a total noob to universal remotes. I got this set up with no probs for living room viewing of LCD and sat and DVD player. I would, however, like to use this in my movie room with a pj, onkyo receiver and oppo dvd. I have no clue as to how to start building macros for turning everything on and off in order, etc... If anyone can point me in the direction of a simple tutorial I would be grateful. thanx in advance, cheers

Last week I bought the Phillips SRU8010, which is ths same remote. I set up the macros to tun everything on and off in the DVD, SAT,and DVR modes. I also customized several buttons to do taksks.

The key is to add sufficient delay going between devices. I started with the SAT mode. First I go to the learn mode, picked a side button to learn. Then when I was ready, I clicked the OK button, the key was ready to learn.


grabbed the AMP remote. Pointed the front of this remote to the rear of the 8010 and pressed the POWER on the AMP remote
after the 8010 displayed SUCCESS, I pressed add steps to the key. I then pressed add delay and added 2 seconds
Press OK and the 8010 was ready to learn. I now pressed Key 2 on my AMP remote to switch to TV/SAT on my amp
SUCCESS.. Pressed add steps to key..Added 5 second delay
Pressed OK. 8010 ready to learn. (still learning on the same key). Grabbed the TV remote pointed to the bottom of 8010 and pressed power
added 5 seconds delay. Pressed OK on 8010. Grabbed the SAT remote and pressed POWER while pointing to the rear of the 8010
Pressed the option to rename and renamed the key to ALL
pressed save
pressed MODE and the 8010 saved all the steps.


Went to the living room and tested.. VOILA...

I did not provide sufficient delay in my first few attempts and the devices would not turn on. So, make sure you have 5 seconds delay.

I repeated the same steps for DVR, DVD, of course with the necessary changes.

While in SAT mode, I programmed the CC key to go through all the steps in my Dish reciever to get to the closed caption menu (menu, 8,8,8,1). Now when I press CC I can turn the closed captioning on/off

I purchased it today for under 50 bucks. Hopefully this link will work.

http://www.x10.com/products4/google/icon_universal_remote_ps_lp1023.html