Setting Up Universal Remotes- Any Sites For Logical Layouts/Programming? (1 Viewer)

[James Edward]

I am a big fan of the HomeTheaterMaster MX-500 remote, and have set them up for a number of people, and they are all happy with one remote replacing many.

However, I'm not sure that my layout and use is the easiest and most practical. I think it is, but there is so much functionality that perhaps I am missing something... There are macro buttons, device macros, and 'device-based' vs 'activity-based' setups, yet I don't have a clear-cut understanding of why I should use one rather than another.

I'm looking for any sites or threads that guide someone through the logical process of setting up a universal remote for ease of use. I guess I'm looking for the 'why' of doing macros a certain way, and examples of a few.

Any advice does not have to be specific to my particular remote; I would imagine a lot of ideas would translate from one remote to another.

Thanks for any input...

 

[Stephen Tu]

On the MX-500, the way most people attack the problem is:
- decide what activities the user usually does. E.g. "watch DVD , watch VCR, watch TV, listen to CD".
- for each activity, decide which is the primary device used in the activity. E.g. DVD player for watching DVDs. So use the DVD player device setup as the basis for the activity. Then add in commands for other devices frequently used in the activity, e.g. punch through volume control from the receiver, add in commands to switch TV to the appropriate aspect ratio, switch inputs, closed captioning, etc. Voil&agrave, you have an activity. The idea is to use the LCD to get commonly used commands together so you don't have to switch to modes to access commands you need.

- For the device macro, have the macro fire off commands to power on appropriate devices (if discrete on code available), and switch inputs on receiver & TV as appropriate.

 

[Alf S]

REMOTE CENTRAL