JP1 Remotes

[hagmanti]

The following is fairly long, but that's just to make sure (I hope) that I give all the necessary information. Most of the questions below are just sanity checks. I'll be uploading this upgrade to the User Confs sections, so I want it to be done as "right" as is possible...

Okay. For reasons of backward and forward compatability, I'm trying to figure out a way to do the following:

Equipment: URC-6131M + extender + 2 TiVo units--DirecTiVo (DTV) + Standalone (SA), programmed to different unit codes. I need every button on the remote (for instance, I have 7 devices all of which need to be able to access the number buttons), and would prefer not to give up another global macro button. (For people that don't know, the DTV and SA TiVo use exactly the same setup codes, but can be configured to only listen to one "remote ID" or "unit code".)

Current behavior:

Using L/DKP, short press of the PVR button switches the remote to SA mode, long press turns on and sets up all devices to watch the SA and switches the remote to SA mode.

Desired behavior:

Exactly the same as above, exact that pressing some button (or buttons) (preferably only in PVR modes) toggles back and forth between the above behavior and the above behavior w/ every instance of "SA" replaced by "DTV". Probably will be adding another TiVo w/in a year, so future upgradability matters (but is not imperative). I'm basically trying to emulate the switch on the series 2 peanut.

My plan of attack:

Use the Device Multiplexor. Create two devices-- both exactly the same thing, except using different unit codes. Put appropriate keymoves on two keys (e.g., shift-1 for "SA" and shift-2 for "DTV").

For questions C) and E3) below-- I'm already tight on memory space w/ the protocols and upgrades I currently need, so I'd prefer not having to install both ToadTog _and_ a second upgrade.

My questions (finally!):

A) I have to give each unit code a different setup code-- right?

B) I only have to upload one copy of the protocol-- right?

C) Do I have to upload two copies of the upgrade, just for the different fixed data? I see that fixed data is tracked separately in IR 4.01; is it possible to modify just that w/o modifiying anything else? (If so, then the answer to A) is "no", right?)
C2) Does the device combiner help here? I think I still have to upload two copies of the upgrade and it might even slow things down a bit...

D) Since I have two separate setup codes, I have to upload two copies of each keymove-- right? (remember, I want every key (except the PVR button) to have exactly the same behavior, no matter which device is currently bound to the PVR button).

E) Is there any way to make the macro that's bound to the PVR button different depending on which device mode the remote is in? Or am I going to have to break down and give up another key so I can have one to select (and/or setup) SA mode, and another for DTV mode?
E2) I could just assign the SA macro to the PVR button, and the DTV macro to the shift-PVR button-- right? (The reason I'm trying to avoid this is two-fold-- most importantly because I'll eventually be adding a third TiVo, but also because it'll be kind of counter-intuitive...)
E3) I could use ToadTog to track which state the device is in (SA or DTV). In fact, my first cut at this problem does use that, but it's a hack, and it's slower than I'd like. However, it does take care of E) w/o giving up any global buttons, and it's exandable to a 3rd TiVo down the road. Using this method, the PVR Menu function toggles between SA & DTV, and shift-1 and shift-2 set the remote to SA & DTV mode respectively.

F) Just out of curiousity, what's the difference between the TiVo official and the TiVo advanced protocol? I've read several places that the advanced protocol is one byte, but I'm not exactly sure what that means (i.e., it must send out the same IR codes, but is it faster, or more conserving of memory space, or is it just that things like the device combiner only work w/ 1 byte protocols?)

Thanks in advance for your kind attention to this,


Me

[gfb107]

You should use the TiVo (Official) protocol, which is built into the URC-6131, and supports manual EFC entry. Since the protocol is builtin, you won't need to install a protocol upgrade.

You will have 2 separate setup codes, one for each remote address. Use the PVR device type, so that most of the keys are included in the keymap (the only ones not included are the PIP keys). You will also have 2 copies of any keymoves that are part of your upgrades.

You can use Device Specific Macros (DSMs) to get macros that are specific to the the bound device. The DSM protocol is included with the extender.

The extender also supports an optional 2nd shift key (called xShift), allowing you to have 3 "states" for the PVR key: normal, shifted and xShifted, which you could use to toggle between 3 setup codes for the PVR button. IF you set the "Shift Button Keyode" to 2 (the default), the "Alt Shift Button Keycode" to 130, then xShifting is accomplished by pressing the set button twice.

So PVR could be address 1, set+PVR could be address 2, and set+set+PVR could be address 3.

I don't understand the use of device combiner enough to comment on whether it could be used for this.
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