I am a URC MX880 user who wants to upgrade to a new Remote. One absolute criterion for me is to be able to program the Remote myself (I have been programming since 1966).
The initial purpose of the Remote 3 will be to replace the URC MX880 which controls my Home Theatre. And of course there are a lot of possibilities down the road, including viewing outside cameras, lighting Control,… To be fair, the MX880, which I’ve owned for 17 years now, is a superb IR Remote, but I am no longer able to connect with my Desktop to program in my new Sony TV, and the MX990 replacement must be “professionally programmed”. So bye bye URC.
Okay enough rambling. Questions:
Can the R3 replace my URC MX880 - power ON/OFF devices, select inputs, support macros, etc. ?
Can the R3 learn IR codes ?
Will I be able to program in ‘Punch Thru’ commands like Volume ?
Will I be able to program in Delays to allow for component start up times ?
And finally, last but not least - the R3 looks intriguing, and will no doubt be my next Remote. The BIG question is WHEN will it be available to me ?
3: I don’t know what the URC could do but the UC Remotes (and also other remotes like the Logitech Harmony) are working with activites which have a start and stop sequence/macro and once started all buttons can be mapped to any command from a devices that is included in this activty.
On the UC Remote some functions like the volume can also be controlled outside of these activites but these buttons are hard coded/ autmatically detected based on the devced included in that activity and they only work if the activty is currently running. Mpping custom buttons outside of activites is not possible.
4: Yes
5: The first R3s should be shipped from march where people on the remote 2 waiting list, which exists since the end of 2021, are shipped first. If you backed the remote on Kickstarter you should got a number with your position in the shipping queue. You can still order the remote on Kickstarter.