Should I upgrade my OFA 8811?

[ncoig]

the LCD eliminated the need for shifts, which after all were needed to provide more buttons for additional functions. The LCD provides this as well as labels or icons to indicate the function, no memorizing or cheat sheets required.

Yes and no. One of the great things about shifted keys and global macros is quick access to things you'd need the remote to do at any time. My particular instance is that I want to be able to press a key and pull up certain security cams in seconds, not drill down ten keys or paging through softkeys to get where I need. On my 6540, a LKP on the color keys runs a macro (keypresses are required for three devices) that selects the right input and output, keys in the camera number and in about 4 seconds, I've got a visual, and from any device WITHOUT losing the native functionality of the key. This is impossible with the C2.

Further - I see no way to nest macros; this is sad. How valuable it is to be able to write routines that are called by several macros and authored such that if you replace a device or move components from room to room (such as a TV) I can make one change in the subroutines I create versus finding the 10-15 macros where I use the same two key presses for discrete power and input selection.

So close to being ideal. Shame they discontinued these so no work will likely be done toward expanding the functionality of these vis-a-vis RMIR...

You can make any macro global by simply assigning it to a button on every device. No need to duplicate the macro, just assign it.

This is a good point, and one not readily ascertainable as that is buried in the device settings, and off to the right and selected with a radio button IIRC. Good point, nonetheless.

These things do eat batteries, but turning down the brightness, shortening the off delay and using rechargeables helps a lot.

I'll give these first two a whirl; I already use rechargeables in all my remotes!

-N

[mdavej]

I wish Xsight/Nevo had every extender feature too. But I still think you can get pretty close.

Think of your page fwd/back buttons as shifts/xshifts. That gives you 12 functions within two button presses (same as shift) at any time. Since you can add any device's functions to any other device, just put your cam functions on the first, second or last page of your frequently used devices, putting them just one or two button presses away.

The lack of nested macros does require more work. But the vast majority of my nested macros on extended remotes are for long activity macros or key group mapping, both of which are solved by activities and unlimited length macros on Nevo.

As for discrete power and input functions, Nevo is liberating. You no longer have to use xshift-phantom4 for HDMI 4, just use "HDMI 4", "Discrete On", etc. Then you can quickly and easily add to as many macros as you need.

Unlike my old extended remotes, anyone in the family, even guests, can operate my Nevos with practically no training. A 6 year old could access every function of every device, whereas nobody would ever figure out that "listen to Pandora" was on AUD xshift-6, nor would I even remember that if I didn't use it every day.

In any case, I realize it's a difficult adjustment and frustrating at times. I was in the same boat. But taking advantage of Nevo's built in funcitionality can get you pretty close. And other Nevo features are vast improvements over older JP1 remotes.

[ncoig]

I wish Xsight/Nevo had every extender feature too. But I still think you can get pretty close.

Think of your page fwd/back buttons as shifts/xshifts. That gives you 12 functions within two button presses (same as shift) at any time. Since you can add any device's functions to any other device, just put your cam functions on the first, second or last page of your frequently used devices, putting them just one or two button presses away.

The lack of nested macros does require more work. But the vast majority of my nested macros on extended remotes are for long activity macros or key group mapping, both of which are solved by activities and unlimited length macros on Nevo.

As for discrete power and input functions, Nevo is liberating. You no longer have to use xshift-phantom4 for HDMI 4, just use "HDMI 4", "Discrete On", etc. Then you can quickly and easily add to as many macros as you need.

Unlike my old extended remotes, anyone in the family, even guests, can operate my Nevos with practically no training. A 6 year old could access every function of every device, whereas nobody would ever figure out that "listen to Pandora" was on AUD xshift-6, nor would I even remember that if I didn't use it every day.

In any case, I realize it's a difficult adjustment and frustrating at times. I was in the same boat. But taking advantage of Nevo's built in funcitionality can get you pretty close. And other Nevo features are vast improvements over older JP1 remotes.

I don't disagree -- however, my setup at home is somewhat unique in that every room has access to common components, the only thing that is variable is the display. Having nested macros would enable subroutines for only the display, whereas with the Nevo, I'm stuck -- I have to program each and every remote (I have nine displays) if there is a change to, let's say, a TiVo.

As to the quickly needed items, I came up with a solution that might work - I created a dummy device called "Macros" and assigned a bunch of macros to the soft keys of the device. I have my first activity set as an Activity called "Quick Access" and so with a press of Activities, then Quick access, I now have in view the first and most used cameras' macros there. So, three button presses instead of one, but on the plus side, I can see 6-12 camera macros instead of the four. First world problems, eh?

Time will tell how that compares with the 6540.

-N

[pH7_jp1]

I pretty much love my Nevo C2, and don't miss most of the extender features. I have one showstopper that prevents me from using it in 1 of the 3 locations that I support. That is the lack of TOADTOG. I think it is odd that these remotes don't have such a feature built in. I assume, based on the original marketing and price point, that these were meant to compete with Harmony and the Harmony has a TOADTOG like feature.

I have no reasonable workaround for the power toggle for a low end LG TV - see my rant here. All 3 locations share some users from time to time and I would like to upgrade all to Nevos, but this one thing is preventing me from doing that.

[ncoig]

I pretty much love my Nevo C2, and don't miss most of the extender features. I have one showstopper that prevents me from using it in 1 of the 3 locations that I support. That is the lack of TOADTOG. I think it is odd that these remotes don't have such a feature built in. I assume, based on the original marketing and price point, that these were meant to compete with Harmony and the Harmony has a TOADTOG like feature.

I have no reasonable workaround for the power toggle for a low end LG TV - see my rant here. All 3 locations share some users from time to time and I would like to upgrade all to Nevos, but this one thing is preventing me from doing that.

I presume the "Assist" window is unacceptable to you, then?

I'm sure that I would find that annoying as well, but since I have but one ancient LCD panel without discrete commands (yes, even my new-ish Toshiba has them) I just deal with it - fortunately, it isn't a very "needy" location, so lots of source changes, etc are not needed, so the power state is not that big a deal to contend with. Still, understandable. But even Toadtog has it's weaknesses and is only a stopgap attempt at solution. Have your wife or mother-in-law aim the thing the wrong way once, and now you're no better off, lol.

-N

[pH7_jp1]

I presume the "Assist" window is unacceptable to you, then?

It isn't a solution to my problem. Every time a user chose an activity that needed the TV, (and the TV was previously off) then they would have to go through a 3 step process to turn it on. Every time a user chose an activity that didn't need the TV, (and the TV was previously on) then they would have to go through a 3 step process to turn it on. That isn't acceptable at all. TOADTOG at least worked almost all the time and using "Assist" to correct things when they get out of sync is fine.

[ncoig]

I presume the "Assist" window is unacceptable to you, then?

It isn't a solution to my problem. Every time a user chose an activity that needed the TV, (and the TV was previously off) then they would have to go through a 3 step process to turn it on. Every time a user chose an activity that didn't need the TV, (and the TV was previously on) then they would have to go through a 3 step process to turn it on. That isn't acceptable at all. TOADTOG at least worked almost all the time and using "Assist" to correct things when they get out of sync is fine.

Yeah, in my TOAD's, I have broken out the power button before, such that there is a "Setup macro" to power on the display, then remaining macros that perform the balance of commands. My "shut down" macro could remain, however, as one assumes most of the time the device is on when you'll press that anyhow.

But still, not ideal.

Has there been a "perfect" JP1 remote with a good LCD? (Not counting the Producers and their ilk, whose LCD was largely useless)

-N