Modified 6131 - Advanced Codes and Extender Help Needed

[chriso]

I used to consider myself pretty technical. I officially stand corrected - this stuff is confusing me to no end.

I purchased a modified 6131 several months ago and used built in codes and keymovers to do 90% of what I wanted. I have (3) small children so I've had a hard time finding time to do the other 10%. So I started this weekend. I think I've learned alot by reading and reading and reading, but I still seem pretty clueless.

Before I tried programming with JP1, I made very easy changes to my remote. I used the built-in "keymover" to map the "tv/vid" button to all devices. And I "keymoved" the aud device volume control to my DVD player. Pretty simple and everybody especially, my wife was happy. We only need (1) remote 99% of the time.

As a quick aside, we use the remote to control a Sony TV, a replay DVR, a pioneer DVD and an Integra reciever.

I thought it would be neat to have the tv device button switch the TV to the correct input. And the pvr device button to the other correct TV input and the dvd device button to the other correct TV input. Easy enough right?

I think I got step (1) right by figuring out the correct advanced codes for controlling my discrete inputs.

First I tried non-extender solutions.
I used IR to assign three separate keys in TV mode to the discete input advanced codes. Then I created (3) shift-device macros that first selected TV mode, then the key assigned to the specific TV advanced code and then the specific device (i.e. for the PVR - the macro is TV,PVR Menu,PVR). None of this worked because I don't think the advanced codes were transferred from IR to the remote correctly.

I found that out when I manually assigned the advanced discrete codes using the remotes "set 994" feature. I downloaded to the remote and the codes were different than I had originally entered through IR (the hex commands were 4 digits instead of 2 and the EFC codes were different than what is listed for a sony-0000 code - I sort of remember reading about the (2) vs (4) digit thing).

So this non-extender method acutally works. I don't like having to press the "set" key but at least it works. But a couple of questions:
1. why can't I use IR to assign advanced codes
2. why can't I assign advanced codes to non-tv devices; only the set 994 method works in tv mode.
3. it doesn't seem like I can move advanced TV codes to other devices(either manually or in IR)

So than I decided to try the extender method so I wouldn't have to press "set" each time. I downloaded and installed everything correctly. I tried to assign my advanced codes through IR and manually through the remote, but neither seem to work. I really don't understand the "t" (transport?) and the "o" (other?) keys. What is this built in macro for tv mode actually doing V_TV, T_TV, O_TV? Are there any detailed tutorials on how to use this type of extender for programming?

Sorry this is so long winded. For now, I'm going to stick with the non-extender method and keep trying to understand the extender method. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks
Chris

[Nils_Ekberg]

The 6131 is one of the newer remotes that has a different format for keymoves/advanced codes and that is why IR can't handle them correctly. The extender overcomes this problem by allowing you to format the keymoves in the old format in IR. Once you load the extender you can't use the manual way in the remote.

The V_, T_, O_ are used to assign groups of buttons to a device. If you put V_TV in a macro it will assign all the volume related buttons for the TV to the device that is currently selected. The T_ buttons are the transport buttons (FF, rewind etc) and O_ is everything else. So basically the default macros assign all TV related buttons to the TV device.