Is it possible to have a device in CCP for a MX-890 with different backgrounds on different pages? When I add a device, and then try adding pages to that device, it seems that if the background gets changed on one page, it is also changed on all other pages for that device.

Any workaround?

The workaround is called the MX980. The 890 will use the same background across all the pages on a device.

Haha, ok thanks. :)

As an aside, is the MX-980 a more advanced model than the MX-890? I thought the 890 and 980 had feature parity but it looks like the 980 can do stuff the 890 can't do.

Is there anything the 890 can do that the 980 can't do? (besides having the red/green/blue/yellow buttons)

Is the workaround that I use with the MX-880 outlined here not possible with the MX-890 as well? If it is, I'd certainly call that a workaround. :-P

Thanks for the reply lowpro.

I have tried making images that 120x72 pixels (w x h) but it still seems to leave a gap between the buttons on the 890.

I was doing 120x72 because thats the size of the stock images. I tried increasing the vertical dimension of images but then they start overriding each other. Not sure what the exact size of buttons should be where no gap exists or if the gap is hardcoded into the layout.

In your example, there seems to also be a gap between button, but your background is showing up behind it and it looks nice. On the 890, if there's any gap then the buttons I'm going to be using to create the false background will be messed up by the background underneath showing up.

Thanks.

Each page (176x220) in my example shows a collage of six buttons which both make up the background image and button areas as seen on the page. The six buttons (88x59) fill the entire area of the page (176x177) between the system areas at the top and bottom of the page. There are no actual gaps. Can't imagine the same can't be accomplished per the MX-890's page area.

Lowpro, on the phone its a bit hard to tell, but your workaround was just adding custom backgrounds, right? The question I believe was whether you can add a different background image per page in a single device. Sorry if that is indeed what you outlined, like I said its a little difficult to tell on my phone.

My workaround doesn't involve background images in the traditional sense per CCP. For the MX-880 I'm creating a collage of buttons in Photoshop that when added as device buttons to a new activities page provide the illusion of a custom background image. I'm then copying the new activities page to my target device I want to use it with, then deleting the actual activities page and devices I had just created. Was suggesting to the OP that the same thing should be possible with the MX-890 which certainly seems to be the case per their reply. Sounds like they just haven't determined the precise dimensions that each button should be to seemlessly create the collage. When I get back later perhaps I'll fire up CCP and size things up per the MX-890's page area as I did for the MX-880.

Thanks for the help Lowpro...will definitely mess with this a little later today.

Your post and link were really helpful.

I am thinking that instead of using the same dimensions as CCP's stock icons for MX-890 (120x72), I should try 120x76 to get that seamless look.

Another question I have for you is this: do your images look super washed out and weird on the MX-980? On my MX-890 any image that has any sort of graphical effect such as reflections or shadowing just ends up looking pixelated and terrible on the MX-890 screen.

Especially any color gradients -- they end up looking like streaking lines.

An example is a Please Wait jump page that I was working on...the orange/green background looks like a ton of streaking lines on the actual remote.

Here's how it looks on a computer monitor:



And here's how it looks on the remote (see the lines in the background?)



It gets much worse than this depending on the level of gradients or "effects" used in photoshop -- was wondering if this is just a limitation of the MX-890's screen or if I'm not saving the files in the proper format or something else.

Thanks a lot for your help.

I would recommend you save the images from Photoshop using the "Save For Web" option, "PNG-24" preset. This "should" eliminate the banding that you are seeing once downloaded to the remote. Can't speak for the MX-890, but I haven't experienced any banding to speak of with respects to gradients or any of the effects I've been using in Photoshop once downloading to a MX-880. The images also aren't washed out at all. They aren't quite a sharp of course as seen on my computer monitor, but from 8-12 inches away or so there is still plenty of punch. Not blurry at all. Nice "please wait" page by the way. Looks great.

Thanks Lowpro...

I actually have been saving the files as PNG-24 format and the banding is pretty noticeable.

Could you try the following image file on your 880 when you get a chance and see if the "glow" effect in the background creates banding?



On mine it's pretty significant. Here's a phone pic showing it from a few inches away.



Also you can see the difference in the reds -- it looks pretty washed out on the screen versus the red as it shows up on my monitor.

Thanks.

I don't have a MX-880 on hand unfortunately. Sorry. I'm married to my Pronto Professional TSU9600's as far as personal use goes and don't spend enough time programming other remotes on the side to warrant having test units on hand. That being said, I'll be updating a MX-880 for someone in a few days per a new display and Blu-ray player they purchased. I'll be happy to test out your please wait page then and perhaps in the interim others will chime in. Clearly the image is getting dumbed down in a bad way once downloaded to the remote. Either that or the screen itself is having issues or is simply incapable of displaying any type of gradient. Wow the banding in that pic is out of control. Bummer.

Thanks a lot lowpro.

Hoping someone else can chime in here who has an MX-890 also and can tell me if they experience the same extreme banding or not.

Maybe Dale from URC can provide some insight also on best design practices for any graphic being loaded onto the remote? Would love to get his take on this issue.

Thanks everyone.

Yes, I get the same banding issue you described and pictured. I setup different DC Superhero emblems as my backgrounds on each device to create a Justice League theme. Ok, not so much of a theme, I never went and further creating buttons as I lost interest. However, the background images do in fact have the banding

Sorry for the crappy picture. Took it quickly with my iPhone. I just wanted to prove that you CAN have flash on an iPhone ;-)

By the way, I know this is not what you intended, but I kind of like the banding on this page. It has a Warner Brothers feel to it.