JP1 Remotes

Results of more experiments here.

The Pi is the only CEC-enabled device I have connected to the TV. Rather than try to figure out how to disable that from within OSMC, I simply unplugged the HDMI connection to the TV. Upon doing that, I can report that my wife's remote, which uses the original macros I created, fails to turn the TV off. So, I conclude from that that my problem is not CEC-related.

The "new" macros I created for my remote, with the TV commands at the "top" and the discrete HDMI1 select deleted from the Power-off macro, have worked "most" of the time over the last couple days. The power-off macro did fail to turn the TV off once and the power-on macro fails to turn the TV on if it hasn't been in an "off" state for very long. Individual commands fired at the TV from outside a macro always work as expected.

For the case of the power-off macro, moving the TV commands to the "top" did not work when the discrete HDMI1 select was included immediately before the discrete power-off, so I removed it. When I add it back, the macro fails to power off the TV. I verified that today. I conclude that the two commands fired in rapid succession from within a macro cause the TV to do something unexpected; perhaps the new software causes the TV to "wait" before it powers off. If it receives another command in that wait state, then it becomes confused on what to do, and in my case, it ends up turning itself back on in HDMI1 mode. I really have no idea if this makes technical sense, but I placed a .5 second pause between the discrete HDMI1 select and discrete power off command in my original, TV at the bottom macro, and guess what happened? The TV shuts down as it should!

For the case of the power-on macro, I can't work out why it doesn't turn the TV on unless some small amount of time has elapsed from powering off. FYI, my original system power-on macro, in which the TV commands were at the bottom, placed the power on command for my Onkyo receiver right before I switch to the TV device in the macro. Again, heady with success from the power-off macro, I placed a .5 second pause between the TV device selection and the shift-power for the TV. Well, now the TV will come on regardless of how long it was off! This makes no sense to me. The original macro fails unless the TV is off for, probably 2-3 minutes, but if I put a .5 second pause between the TV device select and the shift-power, it comes on regardless of how long it was off.

By the way, I've found someone on AVSForum who seems to be having the same problem with this TV. He has a Harmony remote running the Harmony analog to our macro. His power-off doesn't work unless he fires a power-off outside the "macro".

I've opened a ticket with TCL and they have not responded. That seems unusual so I might have another go at them.

I'm concluding that something has changed in how this TV handles power-on and power-off commands. I'm going to "fix" my wife's remote by adding pauses as indicated, and keep mine using the "move up the TV commands and remove the HDMI1 select approach". We'll see which one fails first, or most often.

I'm all ears if any of you experts can figure this out.

Thanks for for any help.

My 2 cents:

It is not unusual for firmware updates to break macros. It has happened to me many times.

Some devices can become temporarily blind to your remote following certain functions. And this blindness can change in firmware updates. As you found, the solution is often to reorder the commands and/or insert pauses, or sometimes you have to slow the entire macro down.

I have also seen strange problems when HDMI-connected components are turned on in quick succession. I guessed that HDMI handshake signals were interfering somehow, and adjusted my macros to allow more time in between.

Also, some TVs go into a "standby" mode when turned off, then truly power off a few minutes later. It might respond to your macro differently in these two modes.

Thank you for your post, Lurker. I had no idea firmware updates often cause macros to break.

It sounds like the discrete HDMI1 command I issue in my power off macro is blinding the remote to the power off command temporarily, and that's why it wouldn't work. It didn't matter that I moved the TV functions to the top of the macro. As long as the HDMI1 select function was fired immediately before the power off, the TV didn't power off. Either removing the HDMI1 select or adding the pause apparently fixes that problem.

For the power on macro, the TV commands occurred right after my receiver is turned on. The receiver is connected to the TV via HDMI, so the handshake problem you mention could be responsible for it not working. If that's right, either moving the TV commands to the top or adding the pause should work effectively.

We'll see what happens. Thanks again for your insight.

phb1342 wrote:Still not done, but here might be some useful info.

See my post #1 for the TV and remote I'm using.

See mdavej post, above, (Tues, Aug 29 4:22 pm, file 14655, "TCL Roku TV), for an excellent file that works all the basics. I used this to start and in my search for some additional info, came up with my 'favorites' for the A,B,C & D color keys for streams, plus a few others.

Not done yet, see below for my lame excuse.
-----------------------------------------------------
EFC Function
019 Fandango
017 Sling
146 Vudu
110 Roku Media Player
156 Amazon
211 Amazon
096 Netflix
097 You Tube
090 CBS News
098 CBS News
099 Google Play
189 rdio
161 HBO Now
157 Show Time
093 Pandora
222 Sling
255 YUPP TV
110 Antenna TV
094 Input Selection Panel
238 Input 1
240 Input 2
236 Input 3
231 AV Input
254 Options
092 Home

----------------------------------------------------
As I said, still working on this, but previously scheduled home renovations are intervening on this, more important stuff. More later, I hope.

Can't get the columns to align, above, sorry.

Have found that in some cases,there is more than one EFC that works. In trying a few traditional ROKU (non-tv) EFCs, I don't think that I found one that works, at least using the RCA remote to blast an EFC....??? And, you'll note that there are a lot of other streams that I have not found yet, or that once found, don't see to work reliably & I don't know why. Fingers aren't so nimble, any more>?

Good hunting, if you try for more.....

Using tv 14398, I found the following:

00120 Pluto Tv
00121 Roku ch
00124 CBS All Access
00125 Boomerang
00126 Fubo Tv
00127 Tune In
00151 Hulu
00212 Spotify
00213 Starz
00215 PS Vue
00218 crackle

This is interesting because RM calculates OBCs over 127 for all of these (except Fubo TV, which uses the same OBC as the existing Roku Channel button), but the OBC range for this protocol is only supposed to go up to 127.

mdavej, any thoughts?

Could be a bug in RM for the Roku Official protocol (02 1A)? But seems to be harmless. OBCs over 127 are recognized by the device but perform the same function as 128 minus the OBC.

My TCL ROKU tv was updated to 9.2, did a search only came up with Disney + 00139 and 00147. And what was place for Walmart Video 00101, which now greyed out, ch not available, but it still says walmart video at the top.

After roku tv update 9.4 I came up with two new ones, Apple tv 00053 or 00061. And Zoom tv for kids 00135.

New search came up with 00039 or 00047- Discovery+ and 00041- vix-cine.tv.gratis

Roku tv's now respond to direct entry numerals 0-9. This is used on antenna and Live tv tile. So, the efc's are:

00181- #1
00185- #2
00183- #3
00187- #4
00180- #5
00184- #6
00182- #7
00186- #8
00053- #9
00057- #0

Ed, did you mean to post those in the TCL Roku thread, or should they really go in the main Roku thread:

https://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=14040

The main Roku thread is dealing with stand alone Roku's like ultra, premiere and express. This thread is dealing with Roku tvs, which use a different setup codes and efc's then the other thread. The above 0-9 is useless on anything but Roku tvs. I think it should stay separate from each kind of Roku.

But don't each brand of Roku TV use different codes? I compared the new codes you listed to the existing codes and some of the new ones overlap with existing working codes. This thread is for TCL brand Roku TVs, which brand of Roku TV did you test these on? My Insignia Roku TV uses completely different codes.

No, there are two codes sets used by all Roku tv brands. TCL, Insignia, Philips, Haier, Hitachi, Element,Magnavox, Westinghouse, Sanyo, Jvc, and Onn Roku tv brands all use the same code. Which mostly match the old Admiral code 10463. Hisense and Sharp Roku tvs use Goldstar or LG code 10178. Actually Hisense and Sharp respond to both.

The only efc's that were the same for Roku and Roku tvs were the now gone 1, 2, and 3 keys which held voice search prompt, they no longer work because of upgrade to the Roku's.

Rob did you read the PM I sent about the 15-1994 button repair insert on Ebay?


https://www.ebay.com/itm/264289033065?s ... 1438.l2649

I bought one for a mx-900 remote which i never needed and still have. They get great feedbacks on these inserts. Back when I purchased it, they only had it for mx-900, bose remotes and some cordless phones.