After searching for days to find a cool "universal leader" like used in the old films I finally found one but in mpeg format. I couldn't find any free software that would conver the mpeg to animated gif. After searching for hours looking for free software I decided to just bite the bullet and buy some software. I had to convert the mpeg to avi and then using another application to convert it from avi to animated gif.

So I now have a cool universal leader in gif format and the correct size for our MX-3000's. I'll be happy to share the gif with anyone that wants it. If you like it and want to donate a couple bucks to offset my cost on the software that would be very cool too.

I don't know how to post a file here so just e-mail me for a copy. [email protected]

Thanks,
James

James:

Have you run your GIF file on the remote itself? Many people have tried what you've done, only to be disappointed when the full-screen animation runs far too slowly on the remote.

I sincerely hope you've met with success. I tried it, and ended up going with a different approach. My own implementation of a fullscreen leader requires a few minutes of variable reconfiguration to bring it into your own RCC. If you've developed a working fullscreen universal leader, I'm certain you'll do exactly as you described and make a lot of MX-3000 users happy!

Thanks,
Dale

Hi Dale,

I don't have the remote here with me but I will try it tonight. The software allows me to control the frame rate of the gif so I made several versions at different speeds. I feel pretty confident it will work. (fingers crossed)

I just sent you an e-mail with several gif's in case you want to try it before me.

Thanks,
James

James:

Yep, I gave it a try. The results, unfortunately, were as I expected. The problem isn't the frame rate of your GIFs, but rather the processing speed of the MX-3000. The remote is doing so many other things that full-screen animations end up taking a back-seat to vital tasks, such as sending IR.

So far, the only workable solution I've seen for a full-screen leader is the use of variables and macros to turn on and off small sections of the screen.

Dale

I got a GIF of this to work, and I'm using it now on my personal system. The problem I had wasn't the processing speed of the remote so much as the fact that there seems to be a limit to the number of frames it will display before starting over. I was only seeing about half of the animation until I went in and deleted a lot of the intermediate frames. It did run faster or slower depending on what was going on at the time, but with this particular macro a lot of it was time delays, so it ran at full speed most of the time.

I would imagine that if you wanted to have full memory given to the ability for animation without the macro taking up the memory, install an MSC-400. Make all the macros in the controller then when you are using the macros, it only sends out a quick burst trigger and not a lengthy macro full of IR. Have the MSC send all the IR data without hogging up all the memory.

Good Luck,
BNC

Unfortunately, it's more complicated than that. The MX-3000, even when idle, is doing stuff in the background. Animation, while cool, is the lowest priority for the remote. So, without some very good optimization, it will be very hard to get fullscreen animation to work.

Dale Crawford
Instructional Media Designer
Universal Remote Control, Inc.

Is there anything the programmer can do to minimize the processor overhead on any given page? That is, for example, will reducing the number of buttons improve the response? Any hints or suggestions?