Menu Keys on Cable remotes

[vickyg2003]

Even though I love cable remotes (Atlas and Comcast) I haven't had much chance to use them on the actual boxes. Now that Jim has shown me how to get more divisions out of my extenders, I'd like to seperate the M(menu) keys and the O(other) keys.

What I'd like to know from actual users of Cable equipment is Which of the keys need to be grouped with the M, to make the most out of using menus on your cable box.

[jimdunn]

The Atlas extender I'm using - Atlas JP1.3 Extender V2.10.zip :

Code: Select all

3A333A33 (Atlas 5 Day URC-1055_11055 JP1.3 3033  extender V2.10).rdf

has this in the readme:

Code: Select all

KEY SETS:
=========

T  =  Rewind,Play,FastFWD,Stop,Pause,Record,Replay,Live
V  =  Vol+,Vol-,Mute
C  =  digits,Ch+,CH-,Enter,*,Last,Source,Fav  
M  =  List,Up,Down,Left,Right,OK,Settings,Menu, Page+,Page-,Day+,Day-,Guide,Info,Exit
P  =  PIP on/off, PIP swap, PIP move, PIP Ch+, PIP Ch-
O  =  A,B,C,D,TuneIn1-3,Phantom keys,DiscreteOn/Off,Power,Setup

I've found those to be pretty good sets of keys for my setup.

The "Pip" set is especially nice to use for "little" devices like AV switchers/ Air Conditioner/Fans etc that only need 4 or 5 keys because you can just "overlay" that keyset into all your device setups and always have control of the device whatever "mode" you are in - in a handy little block of keys at the bottom of the remote.

[mr_d_p_gumby]

It would be next to impossible to navigate the menus of recent cable boxes without the A, B, C, D buttons, so I'd consider moving them to the M keyset.

[xnappo]

It would be next to impossible to navigate the menus of recent cable boxes without the A, B, C, D buttons, so I'd consider moving them to the M keyset.

Setup is also an 'M' key for me.

xnappo

[pH7_jp1]

It would be next to impossible to navigate the menus of recent cable boxes without the A, B, C, D buttons, so I'd consider moving them to the M keyset.

This is true in some markets, but not all. Comcast in Michigan with the Motorola DVR I have no need of those buttons at all. Comcast in Florida uses a different DVR and it is absolutely necessary to use these buttons.

[The Robman]

But if they're needed in some markets, that's enough justification for including them in the Menu group.

[jimdunn]

But if they're needed in some markets, that's enough justification for including them in the Menu group.

Agreed - I have no requirement for A, B, C, D to be in the 'M' group with my setup (no US cable boxes where I am ) -
but that just means it makes no real difference to me if they are in 'M' or 'O' -
so therefore they should be in 'M' for the people to whom it does matter.

(and my Time Warner 1055s which I bought from Vicky way back don't even have a D key )

I'll possibly put macros on A,B,C to use them as "device keys" - so it won't matter to me which division they are in.

Of course - thinking about this (dangerous, I know) - I'm now not even totally sure Vicky is actually writing a new extender for my 1055s -
I'm thinking this is unclemiltie's extender I'm using, so I don't know how that fits in...

Confused, yet ?

[unclemiltie]

It's a trivial change to move keys around in the extender (fortunately since I built it so that I can have complete control of the key lists)

if the general opinion is that the "letters" should be in the M keyset, I can build a set of JP1.3 releases in a couple of days that would make that change.

[vickyg2003]

Thanks for the insight. Without ever using these cable remotes with the cable boxes its hard to tell how these should work, and PH7_JP1's info will be especially helpful to me with the FL-MI insight.