I have a 19" Sony Trinitron color TV, purchased in the spring of 1979. Nice woodgrain cabinet makes stylish furniture. Little knobs behind front panel to adjust the frequency for each of the channel buttons. Still going strong after 27 years, though doesn't get the call much anymore; sits in a corner in the rumpus room in the basement and gets occasional use. [all TRUE]

This TV uses an ultrasonic remote with five functions: Volume Up/Down, Channel Up/Down, Power Toggle. [TRUE]

I need help to learn this remote control's buttons to my MX-850. [FALSE] Hey, that's a joke, but I bet the subject line caught your attention :-)!

Just feeling a little nostalgic, remembering where we've been. I've got an even older Pioneer amplifier with black metal grill top, silver brushed aluminum front, and thick wood side panels; a still older receiver in woodgrain cabinet; a good turntable with a woodgrain base. Used to have a cabinet (mono) HiFi (truely beautiful furniture) using vacuum tubes. Even have an original wood-box wind-up 78rpm record player with no electronics in it--just a big horn!

Now I'm kinda feelin' like setting up that turntable (JVC, maybe?), dustin' off all those LPs (and some 45s), and capturing them to hard disc. Sigh

Aww man, I was hoping you were serious. You could probably do this with a PC/IR application. Have the PC play back a .wav file recording of the ultrasonic signal when it recieves the correct IR signal. Would also make a nice little homebrew project....

Instead of a PC, it'd be nice to use my Ocelot. But do you think the PC (or Ocelot) could capture/replay frequencies that high? Don't say 'Yes,' I don't wanna get serious this late on Saturday night :-).

"It's my party, and I'll cry if I wanna..."

How high?

I thought maybe they were around 20khz... that'd be doable with decent equipment, but I saw a blurb that indicated they might be 35 to 40khz, and you'd need an ultrasonic speaker for that. If the sound card can't handle the frequency, the old PC speaker interface might be able to. Or hook it up to a serial port and just vary the baud rate or data pattern to hit different frequencies...

The IR pulse frequency that the MX remote's can generate might be close to what your ultrasonic remote generates. You might be able to hook an emitter output from an MRF unit directly to an ultrasonic speaker, and hit different "tones" by holding down keys programmed for the correct frequency.

Maybe you could buy one of those voice diguisers and have it boost the frequency of your voice, and then you might be able to whistle tones to control your tv.

The possibilities are endless here...

How to learn from an ultrsonic remote?

Learn that it had serious limitations in it's day.

Learn that trying to revive 25 year old gear in this day and age will often be cost prohibitive.

Learn that most who would want to do this, aren't willing to pay for it!

That's what I've learned about such ventures!!!

Aw, you can't "learn" an old dog new technology!

He was just joking! :)

But then again, the MX-950 has that built-in speaker. Maybe it could hit the right frequency from a hamonic of a lower frequency ...