Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Remote Control for secondary area

Need advice. Thought I'd put it here since it is primarily an integration question.

I still love my MX-700 for the main home theatre area.

We recently had to replace our trusty Philips DirecTivo with a DirecTV R15 in the bedroom. I'm having some trouble getting the remote situation to "satisfactory" with the R15 remote for system control. I haven't quite given up yet, but it seems that I really need a different remote.

Components to integrate (I have original remotes for all)

• DirecTV R15
• Toshiba CRT SD Tube TV
• Onkyo 676 Receiver
• Pioneer DVD player (first generation)

It's fundamentally a macro and discrete on/off problem. I need to be able to turn on/off the first three components with one button press and the R15 just won't do it.

So, I'm shopping for a learning, macro-capable remote, but I don't want to spend more than ~$100. Looks kind of like a Harmony 659 at the moment, but I'd really rather not spend that much. I need backlighting. I don't want to deal with an MX-500 because I want to do the programming either via the web or PC, but not solely on the remote itself.

Your counsel is - as always - greatly appreciated.

I would recommend the Harmony, although I have had 2 go down with odd problems ie some buttons not working but I believe that to be the fault of my 2 young sons wrestling and not moving the remote out of the way. Other than that the remote has worked perfectly for me. I now own the 550 but I dislike the smaller buttons and no easy one touch color coded buttons across the top for my 4 year old to use. He now has to learn to read the LCD screen or memorize the 2 button sequence to turn on the TV. I am looking to get another 659 as I have no need for the more advanced models.

Not sure if this is one of your concerns but most TVs (and some other electronics) that don't have discreet codes can still be tricked into being turned off or on, every time, using a sequence of power presses in your macros. Many TVs ignore a quick second power signal once they have been turned off to help protect it from power slamming back on when it hasn't even turned off completely yet.

So
[pwr] [pwr] pause [pwr] always ends up with an On state
and
[pwr] [pwr] always end in an Off state.

I hope I got that right.

You have to experiment with the pause time. For my TV, 1.5 seconds works best. It's a bit freaky to hear your TV click a few times but is much faster than having to go through Harmonies help screens to correct incorrect states.

Thanks, gentlemen.

I think I'm going to try one of the URC (one4all) models. Not much risk at ~$25. And I really don't have complicated needs in this instance. I just can't get the R15 remote to do exactly what I need it to do when I'm sleepy.

Murph, that's a GOOD trick. THANKS!