I am the captain of yacht. The owner has decided to replace the older PAL VHS player with a NTSC DVD. We are therefore substituting one piece for the other. The system is a Crestron MC2W Media Controller and a handheld Crestron ML-600 (the remote actually looks a lot like a URC remote that was used throughout the previous vessel I captained.) Does anyone know what is required to reprogram this? Does the original installer have to program or can anyone simply make such a change. I know from previous experience that not having the copy of the original program costs a lot more when I had to have a bunch of Xantech remotes reprogrammed. I was just curious if anyone could give me an idea of what this involves. Thank you very much.

If you have a copy of the original program, the change won't take very long and any crestron programmer will be able to make the change. If you don't have the program then you have to get 1. Get the original company to make the changes 2. Contact the original company to get a copy of the program, or 3. Have a new company come in and re-program the whole system.

Assuming I can get the original program about how long does this change take? 1 hour, 3 hours, full day, etc.

Changing a single PAL for NTSC component should only take a few hours but whoever does it must have the original Crestron program AND the Crestron software to communicate with the system and make the change. Any Crestron installer should be able to handle it but it is not a DIY project.

This will all depend on how the system was programmed originally and what the brand of DVD player is going in. I personally can't see it taking much longer than 2hrs to complete to change, but without knowing the original program and DVD brand can't provide an accurate time.

What exactly does the remote control? I mean everything.

You may find that any crestron programmer can just rewrite this and hand you the
program in a short time if the system is simple enough. No need for the original program code in this case.

Talking just the programming, that is changing the IR driver in the program from VCR to DVD and adding a few buttons to the ML-600 30m-1h.

Doing the proper install and setting everything up + testing, about another hour.

STRONGLY suggest you get the source code/have the original installers make the change.

Otherwise anything you haven't mentioned about the system will need to be reprogrammed from scratch along with the new DVD.

2 hrs??? Sorry....give your had a shake. What in this industry just takes 2hrs. This supposed easy change could be a big can of worms.

To comment a shot in the dark "2hrs" is dangerous.

t&m baby

Funny how every month or so there is a captain or engineer for a private yacht on here looking for help with Crestron. Are these yacht owners getting that cheap that they won't hire a pro to handle this? The replies listed above essentially tell you what needs to be done. 2-4 hours minimum once they are actually on the ship, you need the original source code or you're starting over. Plain and simple, hire a pro.

Hence why I stated "It should take about 2hrs but without more information I can't give you an accurate amount of time". 

Obviouly any smart company would do this job for T&M, the OP wanted an estimated time to complete this so I gave him one.  From my understanding he is asking for someone to remove a VCR ir driver and replace it with a DVD ir driver.  This may also entail altering/adding a couple buttons on the ML-600 remote, as well as maybe having to alter the stepper to change the amp to a different input.  If you/your programmer can't perform the above within 2hrs you have some major time problems.  To be clear I am assuming that the DVD player is a well know brand so learning commands isn't required, and the system is a one room system with a DVD, amp, sat box, and TV.  Like I said to the OP, without having the program and knowing the DVD player brand providing an accurate time isn't possible.

Oh come on we all know you were lowballing to get the gig so you can hang out on a yacht lol To the OP, if it's off the coast of Las Vegas I'll do it for 1,500 :-)

Okay you called me out...

Calling the original installation company to make the change should take a minimum of 2 hours programming and install time, remotely. More if there is trouble, like the original programmer is MIA, and the new programmer has to take some time to figure it out. Or, it's multiroom with a switch. Or, the new player is unusual. Or, the installer needs to physically make changes too.

Thank you to everyone for the information. I have every intention of hiring a pro I just wanted to be an informed consumer. I also did not want to go to the trouble to track down the original installer if it was not necessary. I was not captain then. Thanks again for the help.