What am I missing out on?

[sleung]

Hi,

I've been a JP1 devotee since the beginning of JP1, and have only owned Universal remotes that were JP1 compatible. These remotes have met my needs over the last few years of my evolving collection of home electronics.

But now, I'm starting to wonder. Having not owned any other brand of remote, what am I missing? What can those other guys do that the JP1's cannot? Are there features out there in other remotes that are worth sacrificing the flexibility and awesome support that I get with the JP1 remotes and the JP1 community? Why do other people want to
spend $100-$200 for their remotes when there is JP1?

And following up to that question: If there are other's that are
better, how do we get OFA to put that into future JP1 remotes
and make JP1 remotes better?

[jon_armstrong]

Having not owned any other brand of remote, what am I missing? What can those other guys do that the JP1's cannot?

IMO, nothing as far as IR commands. A JP1 remote can produce any IR command that any other universal remote can do, including Pronto's, MX-xxxx, etc.

Are there features out there in other remotes that are worth sacrificing the flexibility and awesome support that I get with the JP1 remotes and the JP1 community? Why do other people want to
spend $100-$200 for their remotes when there is JP1?

As far as features, yes. Some remotes (and their modules can do RF, RS-232, but RS-232 is probably over the price range). As to consumer behavior, it think it's a matter of taste.

And following up to that question: If there are other's that are
better, how do we get OFA to put that into future JP1 remotes
and make JP1 remotes better?

I suppose the question is, what can't they do? Maybe re-label buttons??

[The Robman]

There are still alot of people who say "wow, that JP1 looks too complicated for me", so they would rather pay for an expensive remote in the hopes that it will be easier to program. The really funny part is that some of these folks end up getting Prontos, which are WAY harder to program than a JP1 remote.

The big one though is that we can't relabel our buttons, and this is a deal-breaker for some people. These folks will most likely go for an MX-500, or one of it's big brothers, because they have an LCD panel where you can program the labels for 10 buttons, including the device buttons. Some people want to take it much further and totally hand hold their family members by buying a Pronto and programming screens with buttons like "Watch a DVD" which, when pressed, will run a macro that does absolutely everything that's needed to watch a DVD, then it will present a screen on the remote with controls for playing a DVD.

[sleung]

I agree about the relabeling of the buttons.
Handling the less often used keys is problematic, as
I can never remember where the 'Eject', or Audio/Language,
buttons are programmed. Or the logical groupings
of certain set of functions cannot be accomodated with
the key layout/labeling. Having something dynamic
would help.

If the JP1's can support that, then it will keep me happy for a while,
until the next generation of consumer electronics. I imagine
the input device for that next generation will be
more mouse like than hard wired functions of today's remotes.

Sherman

[gfb107]

I often find that with a bit of thought I can find buttons for these kinds of functions that are easily remembered.

Take, for example, the Eject function. There is no obvious button to use for that on my URC remote. However, I remembered that almost every VCR I ever owned, and many cassette players, had a combined Stop/Eject button. So I use shift-Stop for Eject. Not obvious at first, but once I tell somebody that's where I put it and why, it is easily remembered.

There certainly will be functions that won't work out that well. However, I find that the "everyday" functions usually do.

[The Robman]

I'm with Greg, with some careful thought you can usually come up with a button mapping that will work for you.

If the buttons are ones that you will use constantly, then you can use "positioning" as the highest factor because the location of the buttons will become etched in your memory, so the actual labels will be irrelevant. For example, for my ReplayTV I always use the buttons immediately above REWIND and FAST FWD for the "Instant Replay" and "Skip Forwards" functions, as I use these all the time.

For less often used functions, it does pay to find a well labelled button if possible, but failing that, try and find a button that you'll be able to figure out a year from now. For example, for a (non recording) DVD player you could program the "Open/Close" function to the RECORD button.

Another method is to list all the remaining functions that you want to program and list the remaining spare buttons, then see if (with a bit of twisted logic) any of the labels will work, or are there any that at least start with the right letter?

As most JP1 remotes have a PIP button, this is a good button to use for those "impossible to place" functions. For my ReplayTV, I use PIP for "Replay Zones".

[e34m5]

I printed out the "unsual" button assigments and taped to the back of the remote.

[Nils_Ekberg]

ITake, for example, the Eject function. There is no obvious button to use for that on my URC remote. However, I remembered that almost every VCR I ever owned, and many cassette players, had a combined Stop/Eject button. So I use shift-Stop for Eject. Not obvious at first, but once I tell somebody that's where I put it and why, it is easily remembered.

Great minds think alike I just set up a LKP making the short press the stop and long the eject.

The ones that gave me a hard time are the ones like A, B, and C on my DVR/cable remote. Had to actually use logic like C is the same as EXIT and A is the same as OK or Select. Funny that they put the A,B & C buttons on the remote with the same action as Exit and OK