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Acoustic Research XSight Remote - Page 3

post #61 of 672
9/28/09 at 10:36am
Can you add channel logos/icons to the touch screen?
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post #62 of 672
9/28/09 at 11:16am
It has a predefined set of icons. I see no way for a user to add his own to that set. Any additional channels would have text only.

The way it works is you make a master favorites list of up to 72 channels. You have about a hundred to chose from. Most of those have icons, some don't. If you need to add a channel that's not in your list of choices, you just use pick any existing one from the list and change the text description. Then you can make as many subsets of your master favorites as you like.
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post #63 of 672
9/28/09 at 7:34pm
Thanks for your insights will definitely be steering clear!
I've decided to give the whole UR thing the boot for a while.

I have an old Axim x50v & an Ultramote CF IR booster.
I'm also hoping to find a Wifi to IR bridge that I can use with some decent remote software.

Wifi to IR bridges are proving tricky to find so I may have to make do with an IR transceiver.

Quote:
Originally Posted by mdavej View Post

One of the strangest things on the remote is volume lock. Although this is totally customizable in activities, for some reason several soft buttons and config screens on the remote are dedicated to some global volume lock that operates outside of activities. This totally unnecessary holdover from other one-for-alls makes no sense on this remote. It gets overridden by activities anyway. Go figure.

Programming and learning takes lots of planning:
- If you learn a button on a particular page, it's on that page forever.
- You can't create another page until all the previous pages are full.
- All soft buttons are created last to first. So you have to work backwards to avoid moving buttons around. This is especially frustrating when making favorites lists.
- If you don't upload before downloading, your learns are wiped out. And you have to exit the software completely and start again to even see the option to upload.
- You can move soft buttons around on a page, but to move them to another page, you have to delete them add them back. Each of these movements takes a LONG time. And if you edit the button text too fast, it crashes and you lose all your edits.
- If you don't have discrete on/off for all your devices you're out of luck. This remote does no device state tracking.

On the plus side, they actually do a few things better than harmony:
- You control exactly what goes on in your activities, not what the wizard thinks should go on.
- You have customizable delays for each step in a macro and can have more than 5
steps.
- The Help (Assistant) function presents you with a list of all the steps in your activity so you can choose which step to repeat.
- The software actually shows a picture of the remote so you can see the buttons and click the ones you want to edit.
- You can mostly bypass the setup wizard when you want to make changes.

If you come from harmony there are some things you have to do differently:
- If you leave an activity screen, the only way to get back is to run the activity again. I find myself blocking the IR with my hand a lot to avoid problems.
- Learns have to be initiated on the remote, not the software, and you have to remember to upload them when you're done.

The problem with harmony and xsight is the stupid web based software. Give me drag and drop, and a few menus on a real, standalone application that runs fast. (I know harmony has standalone, but it runs as slow as the web config). Don't make me wait 15 seconds every time I click a button and require several confirmation clicks for one simple operation. My guess is the worst guy on the harmony software team probably got fired, and one-for-all hired him to design their software. In any case, whoever designed it has no earthly idea how a remote is used or is supposed to work. I wish harmony and one-for-all would hire developers who have at least seen and used a remote before.

Bottom line is if you have a simple setup and don't do much customizing, you may actually like this remote. Otherwise, harmony is a much more functional, better designed and mature product over all.

For now, I'll stick with harmony. If anyone wants a really good deal on an xsight color, PM me. My loss is your gain.
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post #64 of 672
10/4/09 at 3:21pm
Damn,

Wish I found this thread before I bought this thing.(Well it is on its way)
It will have to go back on ebay. (Yes, I got it on ebay)
I have been using H890 for over a year, but it quit on me so I thought it is time for something new and I really like the idea of the touch screen and color buttons on the remote.
Now, I need to decide if I am going to open it first or not. Oh hell who am I kidding, I will have to play with it at least.
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post #65 of 672
12/23/09 at 4:54pm
Terrible remote, imo.

Right out of the box after charging, the screen didn't display the functions, it was simply a a half dozen empty graphics blocks. I pulled the battery and put it back in and it started up properly. OK, I'm thinking hopefully that was just a minor hickup.

I go to install the software interface and for some reason, the way it's designed, it defaults to the IE (I use primarily Firefox) browser. I can see it wouldn't be a major ordeal changing the script to go to Firefox as the default browser (it's basically just an url link desktop icon) but I carry on and let IE go to the website. Problem is, it hangs forever trying to load.

So I try typing in the url into Firefox's browser. Great, the site's registration page comes up. I go to register my e-mail address and it says it's already in their database. Hmm, dunno when I did that so I try another one of my e-mail addresses. That one's registered as well. Of course, none of my standard website passwords I use work so I'm stuck going nowhere on the registration page. I re-try using IE simply pasting the url into the browser window and the page loads this time and I successfully register. However, when I hook up the remote to my pc via the USB cable, my pc (using Win Vista) can't regognize the remote due to driver issues (I've never had a USB driver issue with any number of dozens of devices in the past on this pc).

Thus, I went with Plan B which was to carefully box everything back up and return it to Best Buy. There's no reason for this kind of product to be so buggy right outta the box. *BIG* thumbs down from me.

T.B.
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post #66 of 672
12/23/09 at 5:40pm
It definitely does not work with Firefox. It requires the use of IE.
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post #67 of 672
12/28/09 at 6:46am
My wife bought me this remote for Christmas after not being able to find a Harmony 700 in the stores.

This is my first UR that does more than your basic cheap UR.

I had asked for a Harmony One but my wife didn't want to spend that much on "just a remote" for me. So she proceeded to look for a Harmony 700. Mind you she waited until the last week before Christmas to start shopping.

Well, Christmas morning rolled around and I opened the box fully expecting to find a 700 and instead found the ARRX15G. She said the stores were all out of the Harmony 700 and that this one was recommended by a sales person as a viable alternative.

I waited a few days before I opened it because I was trying to find reviews online but they all seemed extreme either for or against the remote. Having never used a higher end universal remote I figured what the heck I'd give it a shot. Worse case I'd just return it.

After installing the software and going through the initial device install. I was pleasantly surprised at the flexibility of this remote. I use it to control 4 different devices - a Sony KDFE42A10 television, an Onkyo TXSR606 reciever, a Sony BDP350 bluray player, and an older Sony DVD Player.

I like the button layout and find that I was able to memorize the layout rather quickly.

A day later I decided that I wanted to add a couple of Activities and change some of the color buttons for functions that I use most often. Although, this took some time, about 30 minutes, it was very easy to follow the software and to make the changes I wanted to.

My wife paid $80 for this remote and I am rather satisfied with it. with the money she saved over getting the Harmony 700 she bought me a few blu-rays.

Again, I have never used a Harmony remote so I can't compare the two but for my uses, as simple as they may be, this remote works very well. It's nice not having to juggle 4 remotes on my side table just to watch a movie.
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post #68 of 672
12/28/09 at 3:12pm
I've heard that the price of these remotes have been dropped by $100.00. With this, and all the issues they've been having, I wonder if that means they're discontinuing them?
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post #69 of 672
12/28/09 at 3:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheRatPatrol View Post

I've heard that the price of these remotes have been dropped by $100.00. With this, and all the issues they've been having, I wonder if that means they're discontinuing them?

Has the price been dropped or are they just on-sale?
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post #70 of 672
12/28/09 at 5:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheRatPatrol View Post

I've heard that the price of these remotes have been dropped by $100.00. With this, and all the issues they've been having, I wonder if that means they're discontinuing them?

I see no evidence of a price drop. What "issues" have they been having exactly? I owned an xsight for a while and didn't experience any issues. The software is clunky and frustrating to be sure (not unlike harmony software), but I don't know of any hardware defects.
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post #71 of 672
12/28/09 at 6:13pm
you still prefer the harmony's over this though don't you?
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post #72 of 672
12/28/09 at 6:40pm
^^^^

Yes I do. But if logitech keeps removing essential features like sequences from their top-end remotes, I won't. I'd like to see xsight and others continue cutting into the 900's sales in a big way until logitech comes to their senses. A few simple software changes could make harmony untouchable. But instead, they're going backwards. A few simple software changes could also make xsight much better. If either company would hire someone who's actually used a remote before, both would have much better products.

That being said, Xsight is still a perfectly good solution for many users. And healthy competition makes everybody's products better (hopefully).
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post #73 of 672
12/28/09 at 7:21pm
What's all the more remarkable,
is that despite the obvious outcry (petitions etc) about their actions, they seem to have played totally deaf & dumb!

Ignore your customers at your peril Logitech, grrrr...
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post #74 of 672
12/30/09 at 8:00pm
I just bought this remote and it works well with my equipment. The online programming using the web does hang the remote at times which requires removal of battery to reboot the remote.
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post #75 of 672
12/30/09 at 9:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mdavej View Post

A few simple software changes could make harmony untouchable. But instead, they're going backwards. A few simple software changes could also make xsight much better.

After having used both I actually think it would be easier to turn the Xsight software into something that it would the Harmony. The Harmony software has so much legacy to deal with and so much bizarre stuff that they would feel the need to not move around because of confusing existing users.

The Xsight software is pretty well laid out but it has some gaps that need to be filled. Also, most of the Xsight problems are pure software issues.
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post #76 of 672
1/3/10 at 9:06am
I've heard that the price of the harmony 900 has been dropped by $100.00. With this, and all the issues they've been having, I wonder if that means they're discontinuing them?
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post #77 of 672
1/3/10 at 9:10am
geez I hope l.tech has learnt something from it all and is coming out with a h900 v2 that's far better...
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post #78 of 672
1/3/10 at 9:20am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jalyst View Post

geez I hope l.tech has learnt something from it all and is coming out with a h900 v2 that's far better...

Do you have a source or any other information about this? Thanks
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post #79 of 672
1/3/10 at 9:24am
no I was just concurring with mdavej sentiments in his prior post, I was not making any claims.
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post #80 of 672
1/4/10 at 8:33am
Bizarre (small things amuse me)....
I just noticed that this post of yours is almost exactly the same as TheRatPatrol's @ #68

Quote:
Originally Posted by TheRatPatrol View Post

I've heard that the price of these remotes have been dropped by $100.00. With this, and all the issues they've been having, I wonder if that means they're discontinuing them?

Quote:
Originally Posted by mdavej View Post

I've heard that the price of the harmony 900 has been dropped by $100.00. With this, and all the issues they've been having, I wonder if that means they're discontinuing them?
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post #81 of 672
1/4/10 at 8:39am
Finally, somebody got my joke

I saw the 900 $100 off at best buy and couldn't resist (making a joke that is, not buying a 900).
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post #82 of 672
1/4/10 at 8:42am
LOL, you're a very, very, bad man (said in Indian voice)
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post #83 of 672
1/4/10 at 7:24pm
SO.. after reading this thread im not sure where most people stand.

If you dont like it what do you use?

If you do like it what did you come from and would you buy it all over again.

I am just looking for the basics. Im coming from a Harmony 1000 with RF extender. I dont need touch screen, customizations or fancy icons. I just need simple macros to turn everything on in order and to the correct inputs everytime.
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post #84 of 672
1/5/10 at 3:23am
Quote:
Originally Posted by rxtrom View Post

If you dont like it what do you use?

I was just about to ask the same question!

I have a Harmony 525 thats frustratingly slow compared to my original Mediacenter remote and this seems to be the case for all Harmony remotes. I also have a simple and fast remote that came with my receiver but it doesn't support macros and can only learn 60 buttons...

I've tried the Philips Prestigo SRT9320 and while it looked gorgeous on paper in reality the firmware was unbelievably buggy and the more you configured the remote the more problems it developed. When I returned it to the store it had gotten so bad that it was rebooting once a minute...
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post #85 of 672
1/5/10 at 7:11am
Quote:
Originally Posted by rxtrom View Post

SO.. after reading this thread im not sure where most people stand.

If you dont like it what do you use?

If you do like it what did you come from and would you buy it all over again.

I am just looking for the basics. Im coming from a Harmony 1000 with RF extender. I dont need touch screen, customizations or fancy icons. I just need simple macros to turn everything on in order and to the correct inputs everytime.

I can only speak for myself, having used many remotes in my time. I still find JP1 remotes far cheaper and more flexible than anything else I've ever used. Since xsight had the potential to be JP1-able, I tried it. It worked fine over-all. The software was quirky and tedious just like harmony, but it did work. Since it wasn't as flexible as JP1, I sold it. I guess if I never heard of JP1 and found an xsight cheaper than a similar harmony, I'd go for an xsight.

From what I gather, harmony users tend to hate it because they expect it to work like harmony, which it doesn't. It's not strictly activity based. It just runs macros, which is perfectly fine with me. Everyone else rather likes it. You have complete control over what's in your macros. But that's a two edged sword, since you need to understand how to write macros, unlike harmony. They do have a wizard based setup which does a lot of the work for you.

My family uses harmony. The soft buttons on the LCD make it easier for them to use than my JP1 remotes, although my JP1 remotes are faster and more configurable.

URC also makes some great remotes, although I haven't used them much. There's a great deal on the R50 right now for around $80, which is about half price. Many people have no problem dropping $400 on a remote, but even $80 is hard for me to swallow when I'm used to spending $8 on a typical JP1 remote. All the other $392 buys me are a few pretty pictures on an LCD and a bunch of configuration headaches (i.e., how am I gonna cram my 15 step macro into a 5 step harmony sequence).

My 2 cents.
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post #86 of 672
1/5/10 at 7:25am
But URC MX-980 and similar class remotes are just a flexible/configurable as JP1 right?
It's just that the only extra thing you're getting over JP1 remotes is a 'prettier remote' & a much more empty wallet, which is fine by me
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post #87 of 672
1/5/10 at 7:34am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jalyst View Post

But URC MX-980 and similar class remotes are just a flexible/configurable as JP1 right?
It's just that the only extra thing you're getting over JP1 remotes is a 'prettier remote' & a much more empty wallet, which is fine by me

No doubt. There are whole classes of remotes out there like URC and Philips just to name a few which are much more configurable. I wouldn't even try to compare the likes of those to JP1. They have much more memory, variables, programming flexibility, etc. than JP1 ever dreamed of. I'm just partial to JP1 because it's cheap and does everything I need it to do. Harmony is expensive and almost does everything I need. URC is expensive and does way more than I need
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post #88 of 672
1/5/10 at 7:38am
some good points, thanks.
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post #89 of 672
1/5/10 at 8:16am
Well I will toss in my 2 cents on the ARRX18G. I just purchased this on Sunday from Best Buy with the RF module. This is replacing a Logitech 890 with RF.
My Equipment: Samsung 46 LCD, Onkyo HT640, Motorola DCT6416 III (Everything using RF)

Equipment Support:
Logitech 890 wins - The equipment list is far more extensive, even though AR had a Motorola 6416 cable box in their list it did not work, I had to learn all the buttons from my Comcast remote. But on the positive side the button learning was very easy.

Software:
Logitech's software is very good it has way more options for customization of buttons, equipment etc.
Button delay was something missing from the AR software but luckily found out that it was not necessary for the AR remote.
I wish the software was standalone and did not require a internet connection but neither of em have this.

Remote Usage:
The ARRX18G wins hands down! Here are the points of why (this is in my opinion)
RF is more responsive.
The screen actually turns on when I pick up the remote, the Logitech (both of mine) hardly ever came on unless I shook it.
Touch screen works well.
Another thing is the PVR functions with pause, play, FF, RW. I always thought my Motorola box was the sole problem with hitting play, pause, etc and nothing happening. The AR remote seems to have minimized a lot of these problems.
Button layout is far superior.

ARRX18G Positives
Cost - $260.00 with RF out the door.
Button Layout!!
Responsiveness of RF
Touch Screen
IR Learning from another remote


ARRX18G Negatives
Software is clumsy and not meant for the novice user (IMO)
Equipment Supported
On the Logitech it was smart enough to realize when a piece of equipment was turned on or off so when you switched between functions it would not switch off equipment that should stay on. With the AR remote I had to create a Turn On and Turn Off function.

Final Comments:
I have not spent a lot of time with advanced functions of the remote, one thing I would like to figure out is how to go to the Favorites screen after pressing Watch TV.
Also my wife also likes this remote better since she had tons of issues with the Logitech not turning on equipment and locking up (battery removal).
Overall I would recommend this remote over the logitech remote only if the person was tech savvy.
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post #90 of 672
1/5/10 at 8:37am
Hmm, I'm now seriously considering this over the MX-980....
Even though I can get it for $250 + CCP (2nd hand, 4mth old), I'd still have to fork-out a fortune to add the RF transceiver later.
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