In an effort to gain better control over my new Sanyo HT30744 HDTV, I've been using my old OFA Cinema7 to learn the IR commands from the TV's original remote. Then I load them into IR, look at the device, subdevice, etc., which I use with keymapmaster to create a complete new device mapping to load into my newer OFA 6012.
In this process I learn which EFCs (000 to 255) relate to each button on the original remote. And I also learn which EFCs are NOT. With the old Cinema7 I then send each of the unknown EFCs to the TV to see what happens. In this process I discovered that EFC 129 will discretely tune the TV to it's Component2 input.
So having found ONE discrete input EFC, I'm hoping more are to be found. I'm also having a problem receiving HDTV signals in my area, so I decided to call Sanyo's 800 number for help.
Sanyo's help line folks were VERY pleasant and patient. The first person I talked to referred me to another. The second (a "technician") was able to help me with the antenna problem, but referred me to a third (an "engineer") for help with discrete codes.
According to this engineer, discrete tuning is NOT a feature of this TV. I told him that I COULD get directly to Component2, and he insisted that I must be mistaken since that was "impossible". I tried to explain how using my Cinema7 I was able to try several IR commands NOT available with the TV's remote, and that for example I'd found a code to get me directly into the service menu. At that point the "engineer" suggested that I must know more about this TV's functionality than he did, and I was going to have to answer my own questions. He couldn't. He said as far as he knew, the only way to access the service menu was by unplugging the TV, then plugging it in while holding down the volume(-) button on the TV.
So it was a bit of a frustrating day. But it points out that by delving into the potential of these OFA JP1able remotes, we have moved far beyond any manufacturer's expectation of us. I suspect that there are remnant command sequences in the programming of modern TVs and electronic devices, left over from "old code" used in some prior device. Just like winXP, the device's OS has gotten bloated to the point where no one person knows how it works anymore. It's only we adventurers that find the lost bits, by daring to throw every EFC at a TV.
Now I wonder... If SANYO now knows that they have "sloppy" code that lets someone with a OFA remote access hidden or "lost" commands in their TVS, will they consider that a problem and "fix" it in the next model? Or will they realize the potential and give us MORE discretes and finer control over our devices? I'm hoping for, but not counting on, the latter.
