# Universal remote



## dwj (Jun 18, 2006)

I've had a couple of universal remotes to control all my av stuff; a marantz and a pronto neo. Couldnt get either of them to operate my tivo. A couple of commands maybe after hours of painful learning proccess but the standby button for example is a definate no. Has anyone found a universal remote that will happilly learn from tivo remote?
Thanks for any help.


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## katman (Jun 4, 2002)

Learning from a Tivo remote should be no problem at all EXCEPT for the Standby button.

I am currently working on a project decoding all manner of IR signals and regenerating them. Tivo uses a variation of NEC IR codes which is one of the most common formats used.

The problem you are having with the Standby button is probably down to the fact that it also controls the TV so by default it is a MACRO button that sends two codes.

1. the code for the TV
2. the code for Tivo Standby

I have just looked at two Tivo remotes that I have which I havent programmed to control the TV and on both of them the Standby button gets recognised as an NEC code but NOT a Tivo one.

If you look at the LED on the Tivo you can see two bursts of activity when you press the Standby button.

I dont know where my Tivo manual is at the moment so I cant see if it is possible to program the remote NOT to control a TV so that it only sends the Tivo codes instead.

I believe that your learning remote is doing the same as my decoding program and just recognising the first device sent which unfortunately seems to be the TV.

Sorry I cant give you a solution but I hope that explains what I believe the problem to be.

Keith


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## cleudo (Apr 7, 2002)

I just bought a home theater master mx-500 after reading some of the opinions of it on this forum.

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=175119&highlight=universal

It's a good remote for the price - couldn't get it in this country, but got it for £65 inc postage from an American seller delivered in about a week.

(do a search for mx500 remote on eb*y)

The higher range models are excellent, but a big step-up in price....


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## cyril (Sep 5, 2001)

I use an Mx-950, having upgraded from a Mx-700 and a Mx-500 before that.

The Harmony remotes are popular here in the UK, but I prefer the Universal Remote Mx-series as I have a lot more than 15 devices.


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## iankb (Oct 9, 2000)

I seem to remember that you can clear the TV standby code by programming it twice, once with '0000' and once with '1000'. After learning from it, you can re-program it again with the right code.

I use an MX-500 with no problems, but I notice that FPSGamer are no longer selling it in the UK.


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## Fred1 (Dec 10, 2002)

Dont get a harmony - absolutely useless, as its incompatible with some TVs (eg my Panasonic). And the support line is no help either.


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## Anndra (Oct 12, 2004)

Their e-mail support is fine though. And I Lurrrve my Harmony!


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## rwtomkins (Jul 14, 2003)

If you're interested in the MX-500, I just got one from etronics in the US. They make it very easy because they will handle all international shipping, customs etc and quote you an overall price in sterling. (Hope I'm not breaking any rules here.) Haven't had a chance to try it yet, though, it's only just arrived.


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## poissony (Feb 20, 2002)

I'd recommend the Harmony remotes, best universal remote I've used and works flawlessly with TiVo.


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## RichardJH (Oct 7, 2002)

I have a Harmony 655 bought on a special at less than £30 and it works flawlessly with 10 bits of audio & TV kit including 2 Tivos. Not sure why Alan (Fred1) is so dissapointed with his.


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## threadkiller (Dec 12, 2002)

I've got an original Pronto, works a treat no problems with any of the TiVo IR codes


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## Nebulous (Nov 28, 2005)

My pronto works fine too  :up: 

You can have a copy of my ccf file if you like. Just ask and i'll attach it (if I can find it)


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## Fred1 (Dec 10, 2002)

RichardJH said:


> I have a Harmony 655 bought on a special at less than £30 and it works flawlessly with 10 bits of audio & TV kit including 2 Tivos. Not sure why Alan (Fred1) is so dissapointed with his.


Maybe I should give the email support a try.

My problem is that my TV autoswitches to the TiVo on Scart 2 when it sees a signal on that input. The Harmony seems insistent that when I want to turn anythign orn or change to the DVD input, it must first send a command to the TV to put it into "AV" (not tuner) mode. Problem is when Harmony does this, it toggles the TV into Tuner mode, and everything gets all out of synch.

TV is a 100Hz Panasonic Quintrix Tube (proper TV) - I forget the model number and am just packing for a business trip, so dont want to pull it out to look now;-)


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## HyperionX (Dec 30, 2002)

Fred1 said:


> Dont get a harmony - absolutely useless, as its incompatible with some TVs (eg my Panasonic). And the support line is no help either.


I have a Harmony (the 885) and I can recommend them (or at least the one I have...with a few caveats...

1. You must be "patient". You have to program the remote which can take a little time (about an hour for me to get it _exactly right_)but for what it's worth I found it to be very flexible.
2. Read the instruction before leaping in.
3. It's "expensive" - over a hundred quid - and so make sure you're prepared to spend the time configuring it and that you really need a universal remote.

With those caveats in mind, I recommend the Harmony 885 as a universal it currently controls my TiVo, my Pansonic plasma tv, Toshiba DVD player and Pace ntl STB. I even managed to get the famed TiVo 30 Second Skip to work with the Harmony. I never managed that with the TiVo original remote!!

I haven't had course to try the support yet but the online support and the various manuals are quite extensive.


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## Anndra (Oct 12, 2004)

_The Harmony seems insistent that when I want to turn anythign orn or change to the DVD input..._

That can be changed... I just can't remember how! (I'm not at home to look it up at the mo.) I remember I found the option by randomly clicking around on their webpage.


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## Fred1 (Dec 10, 2002)

thanks for the encouragement - believe me I have spent a lot of time in trying to get this to work, and some time on the phone to their tech support. I am extremely persistent at this sort of thing. Professionally I got the first 3G phones to work - no mean feat!

Will have another go with online support, but in the meantime if anyone can advise how to switch off the AV switching that would probably solve it.


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## iankb (Oct 9, 2000)

Just beware of Prontos. They are like Marmite. You either hate them or love them.

I hated mine because it had no tactile feedback, and you have to look at the screen first to find out which page of buttons it is set to, and where to press.

If you're used to the very-tactile TiVo peanut, and are trying to use a Pronto with a TiVo which has far heavier remote usage than any other device, it can be a very expensive shock.


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## cyril (Sep 5, 2001)

iankb said:


> Just beware of Prontos. They are like Marmite. You either hate them or love them.
> 
> I hated mine because it had no tactile feedback, and you have to look at the screen first to find out which page of buttons it is set to, and where to press.
> 
> If you're used to the very-tactile TiVo peanut, and are trying to use a Pronto with a TiVo which has far heavier remote usage than any other device, it can be a very expensive shock.


The mx-950 is the closest remote that I have found to have most of the advantages of a pronto and the tactile buttons of the TiVo remote.

Bit pricey though.


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## P63B (Oct 23, 2003)

I have a similar problem to Alan (Fred1) with my Harmony (685, from memory). It assumes that everything is switched off, whereas depending on what the TiVo and the Freeview box are doing at the time, my TV (JVC) may switch to one of the external sources when it is switched on. 

Adding a command to put the TV into tuner mode when it switches on would help. I could also ensure that the Freeview box (for live TV - I have another box to feed the TiVo) switches off when the TV does. But is there any way of getting the TiVo into a constant state (green light either on or off, doesn't matter which) with a single command (or set of commands), regardless of which state it was in initially?

Hope this makes sense.

Patrick


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## RichardJH (Oct 7, 2002)

When you programme your harmony you can select to have any item left on so both my Tivos are left on and because I route all my RGB inputs via a Quintro switchbox I just tell the Harmony to select what Quintro input is relevant and switch the TV to AV1


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## tivo-onion (Jan 9, 2004)

I have a Universal Remote - Home Theater Master - MX-700 (http://www.universalremote.com/products/index.php?item=mx700). I would absolutely swear by it. Very easy to program using the Windows software. Macros are very quick and easy to put together. I control a Panasonic 37 inch plasma monitor, the TiVo, a Slim Devices SLIMP3, a Panasonic DVD - XV10 Player, a Phillips DTR - 1500 Freeview Box, a Neuston Virtuoso MC-500 Media Server and Denon AVR - 2802 Reciever all from the same remote. It has "learnt" codes from all the seperate remotes for these devices. Very handy indeed and the wife loves it, so it must be reasonably simple to use!

cheers

Chris


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## katman (Jun 4, 2002)

threadkiller said:


> I've got an original Pronto, works a treat no problems with any of the TiVo IR codes


Thats because the Pronto is recording BOTH the TV standby code AND the Tivo standby code. This can be seen by studying the CCF data.


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## Ben Lovejoy (Mar 14, 2003)

Another original Pronto here - works perfectly. The point about tactile feedback is a fair one, but you'll be amazed how well muscle-memory works - even though I have very crowded Pronto screens with small buttons, my fingers know where they are without looking.


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## poissony (Feb 20, 2002)

Fred1 said:


> Maybe I should give the email support a try.
> 
> My problem is that my TV autoswitches to the TiVo on Scart 2 when it sees a signal on that input. The Harmony seems insistent that when I want to turn anythign orn or change to the DVD input, it must first send a command to the TV to put it into "AV" (not tuner) mode. Problem is when Harmony does this, it toggles the TV into Tuner mode, and everything gets all out of synch.
> 
> TV is a 100Hz Panasonic Quintrix Tube (proper TV) - I forget the model number and am just packing for a business trip, so dont want to pull it out to look now;-)


I don't entirely follow what the problem is but I found this at the avforums which seems to specifically address problems with Panasonic TV's and the Harmony.

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2084688&postcount=13


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## Fred1 (Dec 10, 2002)

poissony said:


> I don't entirely follow what the problem is but I found this at the avforums which seems to specifically address problems with Panasonic TV's and the Harmony.
> 
> http://www.avforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2084688&postcount=13


Thanks for this - just started a new job and life is a bit hectic, but it looks like the answer to my problem.


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