Hey Everyone:

Setting up the 880 and really like the remote as I am finally getting used to how it works. My questions are:

1) On the screen that appears after pressing an activity - is there a way to remove
letters like "A", "B", etc. and if so, where do you access the commands?
2) Can you move button assignments around in that screen?
3) My TV when I am watching local channels, has the HD channels listed as
"13-1", "13-2", etc. When I entered those numbers in the favorite channel setting
the remote would not accept them. My orignal remote does not have a "-" button
to use to teach the 880 the command. The way I accessed these channels with
the original remote was to bring up the guide then scroll through until I reached
that channel. Do you see any way in which I can program the 880 to bring up
these channels directly without scrolling?
4)

Hey Everyone:

Sorry about the way the above post ended. I got interrupted during my train of thought and signed off. There is no question #4 and thanks to everyone for any help

The answer to 1 and 2 is to go into the activity (on the website) and click "change behavior of activity, sound and picture buttons". At the bottom of the screen you'll see the custom LCD buttons in addition to all the hard buttons. One thing to remember is if you add custom LCD buttons for a device it will automatically add them to all the other activities which use the same device for the same purpose. There is a workaround - let us know if you need it.

For #3 - go into device mode for the TV and see if there is a "-" command already present. You could also check your TV owner's manual to see how to tune directly to those channels. I know it's been discussed before how to add those to a favorite channel but I don't remember.

FXDX: Also note that the order of the LCD buttons within an Activity is decided by which device(s) it applies to. Hence if you have 4 devices in an Activity, LCD buttons that control something on the first device (that is, in the first column) come first, then those for the second column etc. I assume everyone finds this, it is annoying as you can't seem to have the buttons in exactly the order you want them. At least mine get reordered if I try to enter them differently.

akirby: what is the workaround to stop the commands being added to other Activities?

You have to either add clone devices so that each activity gets it's own unique copy of a device or you have to add the devices to the activity with a different function (display, sound, dvd player, etc.). If you add things as a passthrough device then it goes by number (passthrough1, passthrough2, etc.). If you add the same device in a different order and it's assigned a different passthrough number then it won't propogate the commands.

I have 3 light controller devices - one for each activity. This way I can have a custom LCD button for "lights norm" that is different for each activity (I have a different lighting scene preset for each activity).

Thanks guys for the feedback, but I'm confused. I went into my homepage; then under activities to customize, to change the behaviour of the buttons. I went to the bottom of the chart where it had custom buttons. For instance one of my activities is watch local TV. Under this activity in the custom list I have nothing listed, but the screen that appears on the remote after I select that activity has an "E" in one section. The only other device included in this activity is my AV receiver. I checked the same place on my homepage under the AV receiver and did not have anything listed. I guess I'm not looking in the correct place. I currently have 6 different activities listed on the 880: Watch DirecTV Tivo, Watch Local TV, Watch a DVD, Record a DVD, Play VCR, and Watch C-Band Satellite. Each activity goes to the correct inputs, but it's when you get to each activity that needs cleaning up. Does this setup sound like I'm on the right track?
When you talk about "cloning devices so that each activity gets its' own unique copy"; I'm not sure I've done my setup correctly. For example, my TV is an integral part of each activity. It is included by input which would be different for each device. So how is cloning different? Also, to get rid of those letters on the screen after activity, can I just make eight of my own custom labels and button functions or will it screw up one of the other devices used in an activity? I hope I have made some kind of sense with these questions; (watching college basketball on espn). Thanks for any help

You need to check the other activities - chances are one of those has an E command in the custom buttons for either the TV or the receiver, and that's being propogated to the Watch Local TV activity. Or you're just overlooking it.

Cloning devices means adding multiple copies of a device and using each copy of the device in only one activity. So if you have a light controller and 3 activities you'd add 3 light controller devices that are identical and you'd add the first one to the first activity, 2nd one to the 2nd activity, 3rd one to the 3rd activity. Any custom commands that are assigned won't be propogated to the other activities because they don't have the same light controller device.

Thanks akirby - I'll go through the other activities and look again. As far as cloning, I think that is what I have done in my setup for example with the TV. Thanks again for the help.

No - your tv is included in each activity, but with a different input. That is still one device. To get clones you would actually run the Add a Device wizard multiple times and end up with multiple TV devices on the left hand side of your home page.

akirby - thanks for setting me straight on the cloning issue. I swear I have looked all over that web page and do not see those letters anywhere in any of the device custom button settings. In fact, I don't see the letters in any of the button menus. They all appear to do something at one time or another, but I would really like to get rid of them. Thanks for any additional suggestions

It could be a bug - there was one a few months ago but it was with the Aspect ratio. If you can't find it call support.

Another question in reference to setting up digital channels. I found the button on the original remote for my Mits TV and programmed the button into the 880. The button functions on the original by pressing the first one or two number keys then the "SUB" key (which adds the dash "-") then the last number key for the digital channel. Example: 8-1
would be press 8, press "SUB", press 1. When setting up this channel in the favorite channels, I typed in 8-1 into the channel field. When I tried to update the remote I got an error message that I had to fix the problem before updating the remote. How do I get the 880 to recognize the digital channels? Thanks

Did you teach the "SUB" key as a command named "-"?

jlet:

Well, I don't know. I taught it the "SUB" key command, but named it "dash" instead of "-".

Yes but in the Favorite channel setup, you can only type a single character to represent an IR command. You can't type "dash", so you have to type "-". But unlike the single numeric character command name (0-9), it does not know what "-" is. That is why you have to learn the original "SUB" key command as a single character command name like "-".