Right, so I want to set up an activity for a video camera and all goes smoothly until I try to change the custom buttons. I have a dvd recorder which has my STB and camera connected to 2 of the inputs. I also have a "watch tv" and a "Camera" activity that both passthrough the dvd recorder. I want to set up different custom buttons for each activity, however whenever I change my custom buttons for one activity it automatically changes it for the other one. Now some of you may suggest using a dummy device which is identical to the dvd recorder, however I assume this will screw up the power settings. For example, say I'm in the 'watch tv' activity and want to change to the 'camera' activity, wont it assume the dummy device in the 'camera' activity is off and therefore switch it 'on' which will in actuality turn it off? Not to mention a dummy device will unnecasary clutter the device list, and seeing as how you CANNOT REORDER THE DEVICE LIST it may bump down one of my more used devices.

Not only that, but it does the same thing for the regular buttons, so since I have certain face buttons (play, pause record etc) assigned to my dvd recorder in the 'watch tv' activity, I cannot assign them to my video camera in the 'camera' activity unless I either assign them to both devices simultaneously (which is ridiculous as I dont want to record, play, pause etc both devices at the same time), or unassign them from my dvd recorder in the 'watch tv' activity! Brilliant! Who was the genius who came up with this system!

This coupled with not being able to reorder custom buttons without tediously redoing each one, having to click 'more custom labels' and wait for the page to reload for every new button you want to add, not being able to backup my configuration (yes i know i can backup the EZhex file but as soon as i need to change something it is useless) which thanks to the web interface takes forever to do, and probably various other frustrating thing I've forgotten to mention make me really hate logitech.

Sure the control is nice when and if everything can be set up properly, but i've probably taken years off my life by the frustration it has caused. I certainly won't be recommending it to anyone until these problems are fixed. Knowing logitech though they wont bother. In fact I have a logitech PC dual analogue controller as well which i bought ages ago, and due to some driver bug one of the analogue sticks didn't work properly after a while which made the control useless. This has still not been fixed to my knowledge (not that i've used it recently) and it was years ago that i bought it.

You set the power on the clone device to "leave on all the time" or "no power buttons".

If you use Device mode more than once or twice a week then you don't have the activities set up correctly.

What type of activities did you create and what is the function of the DVD recorder in each one?

Thanks akirby I didn't realze I could use the "no power buttons" for that. That should fix it. Creating clones still annoys me though, I shouldn't have to invent ways to overcome stupid oversights.

For "watch tv" the dvd recorder is pretty much just assigned buttons to play, record, pause etc. It has a HDD btw which allows time shift functions. I didn't know if I should put it under the dvd recorder or PVR category though but I went with DVDR. Is there any difference in the categories? Anyway so the navigation and number buttons are assigned to the STB.

In the "Camera" activity I want the play,record,pause etc buttons assigned to the camera, and a set of custom buttons (play,record,pause etc) assigned to the DVDR.

"If you use Device mode more than once or twice a week then you don't have the activities set up correctly."

How about when I am on "watch tv" and have the navigation and number buttons assigned to the STB to change channels and navigate the menus, but also need them for the DVDR to set up a timer recording? Is it normal to go into the DVDR device mode in this situation?

Thanks for the help :)

Ok, I just tried changing the power settings on the dummy device and neither work. No matter what I change the dummy device power settings to, the original device is always going to be turned off when I change to the camera activity, because the power settings for the dummy device do not apply to it.

IS THERE ANYWAY FOR ME TO SET UP THIS CAMERA MODE?

EDIT: Well I've just thought of something. If I change the activity setting to "leave unused devices on" it will stay on. This will mean that my STB will stay on though even though it's not being used which is fine, but what if I had other more power hungry devices that I wanted turned off?

You can control power on individual devices by adding them to the other activities as passthroughs (even if you don't use them). This will allow you to determine the ones that stay on or get turned off one by one instead of all or nothing.

Try using a watch TV activity using the STB to change channels and using the DVDR as a passthrough. Define a Watch DVD activity using the DVDR (and/or a record Video using the DVDR) (you can add the STB as a passthrough to keep it on if necessary). Then define a play VCR activity for the camera. If the DVDR has a different function in each activity then the button's should not propogate between activities. Worst case, create generic activities and add the DVDR in a different order for each one so that in one it's Passthrough 1 and it's Passthrough 2 in another and Passthrough 3 in the other one. That will also keep it from propogating.

Thanks. I just figured out I was doing the dummy device wrong. I was thinking I needed to use it instead of the real device and therefore use it to change power, inputs etc, which meant that the real device got confused about what input it was on, whether it was on or off etc. Now I realize I just had to set the activity up normally using the real device, and then add the dummy device after and use it ONLY as an extra set of buttons and NOTHING ELSE.

It kind of makes sense now.

EDIT: Ok I get it now, I just re-read your post and so whatever order I add the devices determines what passthrough number they are.