I have both of the programmers you mention. I am now using the MELabs serial programmer (connected to a USB/Serial converter), and have no problems. In the past when I had an issue with my Epic, I called MELabs, and they made a suggestion that significantly improved programming success. It's been several years, but I don't remember what worked.
Any programmer will work with MCS.
No programmer works as well or as fast as a bootloader.
The K149 was no better or no worse than the MELabs programmers.
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