Hey guys,

Ok, I am at my wits end here. I currently have a blank labelled button on Main Page 1 that I would like to assign a macro to. So I highlighted the button in question, inserted a 1.5 second delay as the first macro command and then inserted a "GOTO Main Page 2" command after that. My current Main Page 2 is the devices page and I have it marked as "hidden". I saved the macro and downloaded the whole MX-800 setup file back to the remote. However, when I hold that button down, it just takes me to a totally blank page which is labelled "Page 2" at the bottom of the lcd screen.

Shouldn't I be able to see my Main Page 2 even though it's hidden when using the Page buttons? I thought the whole point was that it was possible to get to hidden pages via Goto commands.

Also, is it normal that the Page "names" aren't displayed at the top of the LCD window like they are in the little mockup in the MXEditor? I mean, I see "Main" listed above the line when I am on Main Page 1 on the remote, but I don't see any device names at all when I go to the device page. Did I miss a checkbox or something that allows the page name to be displayed on the remote?

Thanks,
Jeff

I'll try to post my screen by screen setup to show what I'm talking about tonight if I can. Maybe seeing what I am talking about will help in terms of helping me figure this out.

Regs,
Jeff

Jeff,

I've seen things like this happen. Insert a command as your second step, like "exit" from cable or sat, then insert your go to. That should do the trick. Macros don't seem to like the go to without an actual command in it.



Thank you,
Damon DG
= = = = =
http://www.ProRemotes.com - Authorized Dealer & Remote Programming Services

Damon,

Thank you. Unfortunately, either I am missing some fundamental understanding of how hidden pages work, or something is not quite right in Denmark. :) Here's my current setup.

Main Page 1
WATCH HDTV
WATCH A DVD
LISTN ATRON
NIGHT TIVO
EMPTY BLANK

EMPTY = Truly an empty slot... nothing assigned or programmed there
BLANK = Here is where I programmed the 1.5 sec delay, TIVO Exit command and goto Main-P2.

Main Page 2 (in the MXEditor this is how it looks)
TV ATRON
TIVO RECVR
DVD NT-TV
EMPTY EMPTY
CONFM EMPTY

This is supposed to be my device page. I currently have this page marked in the editor as "hidden". I can not get to this page by pressing the Page button when on the Main screen. This is as I intended it. My goal, however was to use the push and hold macro I programmed with the "BLANK" button on Main Page 1 to goto Main Page 2 so that I could see all the devices and access them individually should I need to. Unfortunately, even though the macro appears to take me to MAIN Page 2, there are NO VISIBLE DEVICES when I get there. Is that supposed to happen? I thought that it would only be "hidden" as far as accessing it via the Page button. FWIW, even though the screen appears blank except for the "MAIN" written across the top and "Page 2" written on the bottom, the button FUNCTIONS still seem to be there. That is, if I press the LCD button that corresponds to the TIVO device, it jumps to the TIVO device page and I can see all the LCD button controls for the tivo.

The final issue I have, and perhaps this isn't an issue after all, is that other than the MAIN pages, the title pain (i.e. the part above the topmost line on the LCD screen) never shows what device I am looking at. It's always BLANK! Is that supposed to happen? Seems very odd to me.

Anyway, thanks again for your help. Please let me know if there is addtional info that I can provide to help debug this issue.

Regs,
Jeff

To my knowledge, hidden is hidden!

You can draw comands from hidden pages but you can't make the 'visible'.

Ahh, I see. That was a bigtime misunderstanding on my part then.

What about the portion of the LCD above the black line. Is it normal to have nothing displayed there when you go to a particular device page like "TV" or "TIVO"?

Thanks,
Jeff

Jeff,

What if you unhide Main - Page 2? Would it cause you a problem to do that? Give it a shot and tell me if you get the results you wanted.



Thank you,
Damon DG
= = = = =
http://www.ProRemotes.com - Authorized Dealer & Remote Programming Services

Damon,

You mind reader, you! :)

I was in the process of unhiding the page and downloading the new file to the remote just as I read your post.

So here's the deal.

1.) As you indicated, I needed to put a "dummy" command into the macro that went to my devices page.

2.) If you hide a page, not only will everything on that page be hidden, but the device names and everything else will be hidden as well.

Once I stuck the dummy command into the macro and unhid Main Page 2, I now have my "Title Bar" displaying the device again.

Which brings me full circle to where I was about a week ago. :(

I'm trying to follow Chad T's explanation of how he hid his device page so that only he can access it by using a press and hold macro on a blank button on Main page 1. Clearly I must be missing some vital piece of info on how to do that as I just proved that you can't hide a page and still be able to see anything on it, other than in mxeditor.

I sure wish there was a PM ability on these forums. Chad hasn't posted since April.

Thanks again, Damon. Guess it's back to the drawing board on making this idiot proof enough that my family doesn't screw anything up, but tweakable enough such that I can access every nook and cranny by knowing some secret buttons to push.


Regs,
Jeff

Hidden pages within a device can be accessed with a "go to" macro and the commands and device name will show up at the top of the screen. Your problem is that you can't do that with MAIN page 2, as it must be unhidden.

Mike
www.SurfRemoteControl.com

Mike,

I think I understand. So what would be your recommendation to accomplish my goals, those being:

1.) Main Page that displays only the 4 choices to watch or listen to things.

2.) Some "hidden" method of accessing each and every one of my devices individually.

Obviously, my main watch/listen macros will "go to" the correct device. For instance, if I hit the "Watch HDTV" buttons, it will "goto" my TIVO device and the remote will be setup for the TIVO control. However, what if I want to then go into my Marantz Receiver's surround sound setting and set it to "stereo" instead of "auto"? I'd PREFER not to have to hit MAIN-> Page to goto Main Page 2 where my devices are all listed and then hit RCVR on that page. If that's the only way to do it, I guess that's what I'll have to do, but other threads I've read here seem to indicate that you don't have to make the whole world aware of the devices page.

Thanks again for pointing out the error in my thinking on the Main vs. Device pages and "goto" commands.

Regs,
Jeff

1. How to accomplish? Just keep it the way you have it. Your activity macros on page 1 execute the macro, and then jump you to the device page so you can control it.

2. Is it really the end of the world if you don't hide page 2? Just don't tell your family that hitting 'Page' brings them to another set of controls on 'Main'.

As for changing surround modes? Come on, man!! That's simple!! :) Just create a new device on the main page 'SURND' and make page 1 of that new device the different surround modes. I have a Marantz SR5600 receiver at home and my surround mode page is laid out as follows:

AUTO >GAME
5CHAN >FM
DOLBY >CD
DTS >DVD
CSII >CABL

the Auto, 5chan, etc, are all the different surround modes of the marantz receiver. All i did was create shortcuts to the actual buttons on the receiver page of the remote.

The >GAME, >DVD, buttons are just 1 step macros that jump to that device page so that after changing the surround mode of the receiver, I don't have to go back to main and then execute the device macro again. If I'm watching a DVD, I can simply press Main, SURND to go to the surround mode page, change it to DTS, and then press >DVD to go right back to DVD without going back to Main.

8ate8,

LOL! That Surround Sound comment was just an illustration, not an actual need. Sorry to come across as a total newbie.

Honestly, no... it's not THAT big of a deal. But since forum member Chad T described the scenario that I have been trying to get to work in the "MAIN page layout preferences on MX-850" thread... I thought it sounded like a very cool idea. Clearly I am missing something though, since it doesn't appear to be possible to do what I THOUGHT he was implying.

Here's what he wrote. Can you decipher something different from what he is saying than what I interpreted?

I'm constantly tweaking my 850. Here is my current layout:

Main Page 1:

(down arrow)HEAR VIEW(down arrow)
CD CABLE
HIREZ DVD
MUSIC VCR
RADIO

I use the words "HEAR" and "VIEW" because these allow an extra character for a downward arrow, which points down to the available activties.....just trying to dumb it down as much as possible. I like method #2 and used it for awhile, but #2 only allows 5 activities on Main Page 1 and this current method has room for 8.

The button that has the activity macro also has the device on the same button, so pushing "MAIN" and the activity button at the same time bypasses the macro and goes straight to the device. The first page(s) of the device have the absolute necessity commands. Then I put the other remaining commands on hidden pages within that device. To access those hidden pages (for when I want access to commands that allow me to tweak my system) I use a blanked out, key (usually the lower, right one if available) with a push and hold 1.5 second macro that takes me to the next hidden page of the device. For example when pushing the DVD activity button, this executes all necessary macros to make that happen, then it goes to the DVD device. Pages 1 and 2 contain the commands I want the average user to see. Then in the bottom, right corner of page two I have a blank button that takes me to hidden page 3. And in the bottom, right corner of page 3, I have a button that takes me to hidden page 4.

On main page two I have:

WRONG PAGE!


RECVR
TV X-10

The "WRONG" and "PAGE!" buttons have page 1 hidden, so pushing them actually does nothing.....but hopefully give the user the idea to go back to Main page 1.

When pushing the hard off button this executes a go-to macro that goes to a hidden device on page 2 that says:

TURN WHOLE
SYSTM OFF?
ARE YOU
SURE?
NO YES

"YES", executes a system shutdown macro. "NO" goes back to main page 1. I did this for the same reason others mentioned in this thread.

I wanted to create a remote that is fairly simple for the average user, yet still gives me access to every available remote command for all devices so *I* can tweak the system when desired. Critique?


Re-reading that... I think I understand where I went wrong. Geez, so much for asking dumb questions you can practically answer yourself, right? :)

Thanks again, and thanks to all for their patience in putting up with my thick-headedness.

Regs,
Jeff

Yea what he is saying there is that he is jumping to pages 3 and 4 of the hidden device pages by using a blank button on page 1 of a device. He states with the "WRONG PAGE!" statement that the user /can/ access page 2 of main and will see 'WRONG PAGE!" in case they accidentaly get there.

And no problem, man. We're here to help each other out.

8ate8,

Yeah, I re-read that for the umpteenth time and it all started to come together for me. Guess I'll try to do that "WRONG PAGE" thing myself. My confirmation "system off" message appears to work like a charm. Very cool idea of Chad's. Need to hook up the correct DVD player in the living room tonight and start putting this setup through it's paces. Then hand it off to the wife for further debugging. After that, it's down the RF setup path I go. :)


Thanks,
Jeff

I don't think you really need the WRONG PAGE thing. I've never had a customer say that they accidentally screwed something up in the TV or Receiver by going into page 2 of main. They just never go there because I never tell them :)

Anyways, it you REALLY want to make it 99% fool proof, just delete the name of the device for anything you have on page 2. The device will still be there and you can still access its' commands, but there's just no text on main page 2 that says it's anything. Only downside to this, is that you have to remember where you put the buttons :)