I do have the strangest situations, don't I? But it seems most of you must have run into this if you're programming a URC or RTI remote.

The client has changed his TV and his receiver to a Samsung UN75NU800DF and a Yamaha RX-A780. The Samsung remote has no discrete buttons and the Yamaha has no discrete input buttons, though Scene buttons come damn close to being discrete Super-Input buttons.

Do you know of a couple of remote code sets, one for Samsung and one for Yamaha, that I could use in programming remotes such as RTI or URC remotes? I mentioned Pronto because I could even use those commands if they exist.

Or is there a different solution to this?

URC Samsung 656
Yamaha AVR 1567 or 1095, 1439

Thank you, Tom! At least an hour saved there, maybe four.

Both Yamaha and Samsung are in the urc database. I’m lost as to why you asked this to begin with.

You didn't look at the URC MX Editor (or whatever you need to use for that particular remote)?

Which remote? Hard to help if we don't know this. :)

Remember that comment about the strangest situations? This client LOVES his MX500 that's a dozen years old and in perfect clean condition. He modernized his TV and AVR and wants to use the same remote. Try finding the files for THAT!

I'll be putting codes into another URC model, then teaching them to the MX500. It's what the client wants and will pay for, despite the lack of backup that all more modern remotes give us.


How could it be that you're not expecting an insulting response to that? I know it's an attempt at humor, but it's ridiculous. I cited the model number of the TV and the receiver and you need me to tell you the remote control model number? You really don't.

For the purposes of this discussion I only looked up and copied the illustration of the TV remote. But surely you can find a remote when you have the component's model number!


Fins,
You're kidding. Of course you know why I ask. You've either forgotten about this or you haven't put in any similar models and tried to control them from codesets made to emulate the remote controls for models like this.

This is the remote control for the Samsung model that the customer has. Note the lack of buttons for discrete commands such as HDMI 1. Imagine programming a macro on an RTI or URC remote to turn the TV on and set it to HDMI 2. Do you see the buttons needed for that?



Typically, RTI and URC sets of IR commands give the commands that are found on the factory remote for the product. This is the factory remote for the product. There are no buttons on the remote for HDMI 1, HDMI 2, HDMI 3, etc. (I apologize for writing so simply and repetitively, but you don't understand the issue. I'm trying to make it clear.)

It's very possible that the RTI or URC file for this TV model has EXACTLY and ONLY the commands shown on this remote: Power toggle, Home, Vol up, Vol Down, Ch up, Ch dn, a cursor pad, and the few other commands you see on this remote. If that were the case, then no discrete commands other than volume and channel would be available for controlling this TV.

Sure, someone has probably tried out remote sets NOT specifically made for this TV model, and has mucked about with several of them to see which discrete codes -- for other models -- work on this TV. In fact, I'm depending on someone to have done that. But it's unlikely that such a codeset would be listed with the model number for this TV. So how many codesets will I have to try out? Why would I have to reinvent this particular wheel by trying out different codesets when some RC member probably knows already? And see, the answer was only a question and several hours away.

I've been doing mostly commercial systems for a few years now, so this problem has not come up before.

That's why.

How the hell do you make money in this business? All the discrete codes for both Yamaha and Samsung are in the URC database. For Samsung TVs, start with the devices at the top of the list, “discrete codes”. Neither brand has changed their codes in years, so it only takes a couple minutes for an experienced tech to find which codesets work.

Well, one item is that instead of trying out multiple sets of IR codes to see which ones work, spending one to four hours to do something that surely someone else has done, I'll simply ask a short question, and VOILA overnight I have the answer. Why do you think that limits my income?


I admit it: I never looked because I knew I'd have to go through several models' worth of files to find the commands I need. Or I could ask.


Let's say "a few" actually turns out to be five minutes. I've gone home from the worksite and I need the codes next time I'm there. I asked. It took a minute. What is your problem with this?

Choice:
A. Ask someone about it. I will then have to go to that/those command sets and I will find what I need. Downside: my mighty male ego will be bruised from having to actually stop and ask directions of someone who has been there.

Or

B. See how many codesets there are. Try them out, one at a time. Very likely the order that they're listed in won't correspond to the most useful commands for the latest TV, so I'll be looking, at random, at various codesets until I find what I need. If I'm very lucky the first one will work perfectly. If not I will either have to try them all to find one that has everything I need, or cobble together commands for two or three TVs to get what I need.

What I wonder, Fins, is why you would put yourself through this if someone else might have already done so. Why are you afraid to ask for help, for directions? Did you see that help came fast? And overnight, when I couldn't work on it anyway? I don't find the method of being one of a thousand lone installers inventing the wheel over and over to be a good method.

I'm sure this probably shows some personal flaw of mine, but --
I'm still irritated at JVC for their RS232 instructions for the first D-ILAs on the market (the ones that were first sold as the Hughes brand). Instead of giving us a list of RS-232 commands we could just friggin copy, they published a 60+ page volume on HOW to construct RS-232 commands for this projector.

I was also installing Vidikron at that time, and Vidikron manuals had, on a single page, a list of EVERY RS-232 command EXACTLY as it had to be entered.

The engineers at JVC somehow could not understand me when I asked, "didn't someone, at some time, actually use this manual to construct RS-232 commands? Didn't they make a list for future use? How about providing that list? Why make a thousand installers each wade through that manual instead of giving us the commands?"

Fins, I'll stop and ask and I won't feel bad about it.

It takes less time to look and see that first, URC has all of the Yamaha models and codes, and at the top of the list for Samsung they have “discrete codes” than it took to type out your question. And the fact you asked for Pronto or rti he’s codes shows you aren’t even familiar with the databases enough to know this. How the hell have you been in this business this long without knowing this? Again I find myself amazed that you make enough money to not have to live in a cardboard box.

The Pronto codes thing was a joke. Why are the things I do so important to you that you're getting upset about this?

I was no longer on site. I could not try out any commands. I could do exactly what you suggest, and yes, I know how to do it... but I asked one question and got a clear answer. Why are you angry?

So this is the key info, that if missed, causes everyone to wonder.

You truly did ask the most basic of questions, so the “how do you make money” question is warranted. You basically indicated that you may have done between one and ten URC remotes in your entire career. That is not a knock, it's just something we wouldn't have expected from such a grizzled vet. We see Samsung often daily, so the code sets are memorized. Yamaha is seen frequently, so same deal.

Curious, what do you use for control in your commercial work?

Your hypocrisy knows no bounds!!!

Unless a few years actually means 12+, it doesn’t change anything. And even so, what commercial projects are so different that someone in the business this long has what is equivalent to zero knowledge of the URC database?

Unbelievable.

Whom were you addressing? I don't see how it applies to anyone here.

I know about the URC database, but it has been about a year since I needed it. IIRC, TV remotes still had input buttons on them last time I needed to use URC to set up a system.

Consider one barbecue place on La Brea in Hollywood. They have 10 TVs. A projector shares video with one of those TVs. Video is DirecTV from a SWM system. It's a simple thing to set up a DirecTV remote to control one brand of TV plus three different DirecTV receivers via RF. The bar thus has two remotes. What's the difficult part of this system? One remote lives on the left side of the bar, the other on the right. Not complicated.

On the other side of the room the DirecTV receivers are behind the TVs. Only one remote is needed for that half of the place. You walk up to a TV to control only it. The entire wall gets turned on from across the room with one remote.

How would URC improve this? Nothing more complicated is needed.

In other systems, that is hotels and larger restaurants, we use wall controls. That's not URC.