Direct input access? How can any TV today not have it??? (1 Viewer)

[Eric Thrall]

Sorry for my emotional title, but I bought one of the new Mitsubishi WD-57731 DLP TVs last night after reading a nice review of one and looking at it myself. However, today, after re-reading the review, something concerned me - it doesn't feature direct input access. When I read it, I figured that it meant that it wasn't a single button push to select an input, but instead was a multiple step process. No problem - I already have a macro to do that on my current TV, so I thought it would just require a new macro.

I went to a local store and used the remote, but sure enough, when you hit input, it brings up a menu for you to select your video input. It starts with your current input selected. Therefore, it appears that there's no way to have a fixed macro to always select the video mode you want. That means that my current one-step process of switching over to watch a DVD will become a 10-15 step process and that's simply not realists. I'm not going to put up with that.

I'm hoping someone here might know how this could be avoided - has anyone found a way to use this kind of TV with fixed macros? And what idiot out there decided to not supply a direct way to select them? It's on the verge of costing them a sale!

 

[Eric Thrall]

OK - I've now spent a LOT of time on the phone with various people at Mitsubishi and other places - they've assured me on the phone that there are discrete remote codes that can be used to switch directly between video modes, but they said I needed to speak to a technician to get them. They gave me several numbers to call but none of the people I contacted could help me out, so I guess I'm back to calling Mitsubishi back.

 

[Chris_JH]

Do a google search for "JP1 Remote". If you get a JP1 capable remote and the interface to connect it to your PC, you can upload a macro that allows you to run thru every "advanced code" that might work with the TV. Thats how I was able to find the discrete input codes on my Mits 65819.

The codes from a technician wont do you much good anyway unless you have a remote that you can upload them to. Thats where JP1 comes in......even some inexpensive remotes have it, and the software is quite mature by now. Also check out www.hifi-remote.com for more info.

Edit: here is a list of the discrete codes, I dont know if you have a Pronto-type remote but if you do you can load them straight in:
http://www.remotecentral.com/cgi-bin...v=rptelevision

-Chris

 

[Eric Thrall]

Thanks for the help - I don't have a Pronto remote, so I'd need to get one. My problem is that I don't want this TV unless I'm sure that it has the discrete codes necessary to access the inputs directly. I'm scheduled to have it delivered on Sunday, but I'm going to call up and delay the delivery. If I can find a remote that is capable of sending discrete codes, I can take it to Best Buy and test it out on the TV. I just don't want to go through receiving the TV, testing it and finding out it doesn't work, then having to return the TV and exchange it for another one.

Does Best Buy carry Pronto remotes? Or any other retailers? I don't really have time to order one online and wait for it. If I can find one, I can try the codes on the page you just sent me and confirm that the TV does or does not work with them.

 

[Chris_JH]

A BestBuy/Circuit City type place might not be willing to help, but maybe a Tweeter/HifiBuys sort of place might pull a Pronto out for you and try to program some codes. Not really sure.

Even if you broke down and got a JP1 remote (after you got the TV) they are so extendable even a semi-complex macro can run pretty quickly. For instance, I have a macro that sets everything up for watching a DVD (turns on TV, turns on receiver, turns on DVD player, sets TV to DVD input, sets receiver to DVD input, goes to main menu on DVD, sets volume punch thru to the receiver and sets transport/menu keys to DVD), and it runs in less than 1 second. The macro to turn everything off runs in about the same time.

Ive never even looked at the remotes that came with my TVs, nor did I really worry about discretes being available. Ive always been a stickler for picture quality over anything else. Remotes and things *external* to the TVs main purpose can always be fixed. Even if you were forced to buy a Pronto, Im almost positive the discretes found on the net would work. Worst case is you make a macro that pops up the input selection box and uses the cursor and select keys or a number to access the input.

-Chris

 

[Eric Thrall]

The problem is that if the discretes don't work, with the design of the TV, I don't think any macro will do what I want. If I bring up the input selection box, there's no way for the macro to know what input I'm currently using, so I can't know that, to get to the DVD player, I always go "right, right, enter" or something like that. At the store, I tried a trick that was suggested somewhere online... it said that with most TVs, if you press the TV's channel up button, it will change the TV to its tuner. Therefore, if I knew that I could always be at the ANT-1 position whenever I did that, then I would have no worries - I could write the macros to take advantage of that fact. Unfortunately, this TV does not act that way.

I was thinking of another possibility - my old TV had an option to either start up using a particular video input on power up or else to start up at whatever video input I was using when I turned the TV off. I always had it go to whatever video input I was using last, but if this TV has the same setting, I could write my macro to turn the TV off and then turn it back on. Since I know exactly which input I'll be starting on when I bring up the input menu, I can go from there.

 

[Eric Thrall]

I hate to keep replying to my own thread (at least I'm not just "bumping" it!), but I think my problem is solved. I just looked at the TV's specs again for the first time since discovering this issue (http://www.mitsubishi-tv.com/img/262190) and noticed on the second page in the right column underneath the remote control section they have a section called "customization features (via IR)" and it says that it supports direct input selection, direct format selection and independent power on/off. I believe that the "via IR" refers to the discrete codes. Please ket me know if I'm wrong about that, but if I'm right, this really does end my "crisis"... it might take a bit of time before the TV has been available long enough to learn all of the necessary discrete codes, but as long as I know I'll eventually be able to get them, I'm happy with that.