Re: perfect vdr remote?

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On Wed, 27 Jul 2011 09:16:17 +1000, Torgeir Veimo wrote
> On 27 July 2011 01:49, VDR User <user.vdr@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > On Tue, Jul 26, 2011 at 7:39 AM, Torgeir Veimo <torgeir@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >> The Philips Prestigo SRT9320 seem to have a perfect key layout for
> >> VDR. Does anyone have any experience with this remote with VDR?

Yes, that's the one I use on my primary VDR at the moment. I'm very happy with
it and my wife is also glad that she doesn't have to deal with a remote with
tons of buttons she'd actually never use.

> I do agree that direct buttons are better for the most commonly used
> buttons, but I mostly use the menu/back, arrow keys/ok and the
> coloured buttons, almot none others. One the remote you liked to, the
> coloured buttons are far away from the arrow buttons, so it can't
> really be nice to handle?

That's the point. You really don't need too many buttons for your daily work
with VDR and on the SRT9320 all these buttons are close together. Maybe even
more important: You can easily distinguish these buttons due to their
different shape and position. No need to switch on the backlight in the dark,
no need to look at the remote at all. That's also why I'd never go for a
touchscreen-only remote.

What else can I say? The remote is not too large and not too heavy as it
includes a cell phone battery. Only need to recharge it every 3 months or so.
Still the SRT9320 is not perfect. Decide yourself if one of these things
matter to you:

* not programmable via PC, only via touchscreen. But usability is ok. Just
rearranging the buttons is a bit of a hassle.
* no way to enter custom remote codes. Codes which are not in the builtin
database can only be learned from an other remote. I had to ask someone with a
Logitech Harmony to get the discrete codes for the HDMI inputs of my Samsung
TV (even the original remote of the TV doesn't have these codes. The AV button
there opens a menu where you can select the input with up/down).
* devices with just a "toggle power" remote command are difficult to handle.
Note that some devices (like my Samsung TV) do have discrete codes for "power
on" and "power off", but the original remote doesn't feature them. The SRT9320
internal database did already know about the discrete on/off codes for my TV. 
* don't expect software updates from Philips. They once published an updated
firmware, but when I tried to update my remote the server was unreachable.
Philips support told me, the update server will be made available again when a
new update becomes available...
* activity concept instead of plain makro support. It's not possible to assign
makros to keys. All you get is "switch on" and "switch off" makros. The
concept is unusual, but in the meantime I'd even say its superior when
compared to simple makros. Let me explain:

The main touchscreen menu gives you two modes: Either select an individual
device (something I almost never use) or an activity. When you select an
activity, its "switch on" makro is executed. Power on the required devices,
switch AV inputs, do whatever you like in this makro. You can even enter
delays or configure how long an individual code has to be sent (some devices
need a long key press to power it on). Each activity is associated with its
own key and touchscreen layout. This is nice for multi-purpose devices as you
could even define different activities for the same device, but with different
sets of keys depending on what you are about to do. Just select all the keys
you need from the set of devices involved in this activity.

Hit the power key twice to execute the "switch off" makro (poweroff devices,
do whatever else needs to be done).

Hit the power key once and the touchscreen will give you a list of all your
devices with the possiblity to switch on the devices which are involved in
this activity and switch off the devices which are not involved (in case some
device didn't catch the power on/off command).

Changing from one activity to an other will send the "switch off" makro of the
current and the "switch on" makro of the next activity. This is where you'll
run into trouble with devices which support only "toggle power" as they will
be switched off and on again. Fortunately I don't have such a device any more,
but I guess you could work around it by either using different activities or
by not sending the power command in the "switch on/off" makros. Instead power
on/off manually (hit power key once and select device from list).

Regards,
Frank

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