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Post 133 made on Thursday May 5, 2005 at 08:30
Lowpro
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March 2004
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Below I've revised the partial walk-through given of my TSU7000 DVD Juke PCF. Prior to this revision much of what was here was outdated. It's a much better read now. I've also included updated screenshots. In the process I've been able to free up quite a bit of web space which is always good.

1) The "Home" page.



The home page displays a modified version of Daniel Tonks' License Agreement as seen in his TSU3000/7000 PCF files. When downloading my PCF to the remote this page is always displayed first as it is the home page. Though they are not labeled, the hard button assignments while on this page mirror that of my X10 IR543 device. Once tapping the "Agree & Continue" button you are taken to my activities page. The activities page then takes over as the home page for the rest of my PCF.

2) The "Actvities" page.



This is the starting point for every new session with the remote. From here you can turn my entire system on or off, immediately engage in an activity, or view my device gallery.

There are also buttons just off the corners of the activities page as seen in the pic above giving you quick access my audio (receiver) device, video (projector) device, the settings pages, and IR code pages. The center Pronto icon is intended to take you to Daniel Tonks' Galaxy NG game. Unfortuantely, I no longer have enough memory to include the game. Once I upgrade to the TSU7500 I'll add the game back in. When accessing my IR code pages you'll need to use the directional pad's up and down buttons to navigate across each of the IR code devices. The OK button will take you to the tools menu, and the home button returns you to the activites page. I make the IR code pages of my PCF available in the remote for testing and demo purposes.

3) The "DVD Juke" device.



This is my DVD management interface. My goal here was to create a DVD management interface that allowed for browsing ones collection by DVD cover image A-Z via any number of genre/categories. Most importantly, the interface had to be fun and easy to use. Working within the limitations of the editor I feel I have accomplished all of these things. I especially like the new loading pages which are displayed while I'm waiting for my system and proper disc slot to be queued up. Thanks again Daniel for the wonderful "Please Wait..." graphic.

Below I give a breakdown of each section in my PCF making up the DVD management interface. For point of reference refer to the following screenshot.

DVD Juke (Menu): This section contains all the devices required to simulate cursor navigation of the genre/category menu.

DVD Juke (Index): The devices in this section each contain an Index (A-Z) page for jumping directly to a letter, and their DVD cover image pages.

In addition to the pages mentioned every DVD Juke based device contains a HBA (Hard Button Assignments) page, and DCA (Direct Changer Access) page as seen here.

DVD Juke (Submenus): This section contains the devices you are taken to when a given DVD title has more than one disc to choose from.

The first of these devices is the "Single Page (A-Z)" device. When only one page is used to display all available discs for a given title those pages are located under this device. Among these are my 2-disc template pages, and custom single page submenus. The rest of the devices in this section display all available discs for a given DVD title over multiple pages. Below are some examples of this.

Band of Brothers
From the Earth to the Moon
Lost (Season 1)
X-Files (Season 1)
X-Files (Season 2)
X-Files (Season 3)
X-Files (Season 4)
X-Files (Season 5)
X-Files (Season 6)
X-Files (Season 7)
X-Files (Season 8)
X-Files (Season 9)

There are a few exceptions to rule regarding my DVD Juke (Submenu) devices. Several of these devices display all discs for a given title on one page, but can't be included in the "Single Page (A-Z)" device as they include a description page as well. Screenshots of these submenu pages can be seen below, including my submenu pages for the Star Wars films.




Though not in the screenshot each season of 24 does include a description page. The DVD Juke (Submenu) devices for 24 are also setup a little bit differently than the others. The initial page that comes up is a menu page. From there you are required to pick a season, tap the description page for that season, then select the disc you want to watch. The directional pad is used to return to the 24 (Seasons 1-4) menu. You can also just use the Browse Backward (Firm 1) button to step back to the menu page.

The DVD Juke (Submenu) devices actually make up half of the DVD Juke based devices in my PCF. This is due to the fact that for a given title there needs to be one DVD Juke (Submenu) device per genre/category said title falls under. If this was not done there would be no way via the Menu (OK) button, or Index (Home) button to return the user to the proper page based on what genre/category they were browsing under. As mentioned earlier, each DVD Juke based device also has its own HBA (Hare Button Assignments) page. This comes in especially handy here as the HBA page for each DVD Juke (Submenu) device can reference any changes in hard button assignments made over the default DVD Juke hard button assignments. In this example notice that the HBA page shows the specific DVD cover image page the user will be taken back to when hitting the Index (Home) button, including the change in hard button assignments to the directional pad. Better yet, any hard button assignments which are not active at the time are greyed out. This is the case for all HBA pages in my PCF. Take note of the Page Up (Firm 2), and Page Down (Firm 3) labels in the last screenshot. Other examples showing inactive hard button assignments can be seen here.

I wanted to also comment on the many 16x9 submenu pages as seen in my PCF. I've done nearly all submenu pages for box sets this way. When viewing these pages you want to hold the remote as seen in the example pic above obviously working the hard buttons with your left hand, and tapping the screen with your right to make your selection. I'd also note that full page descriptions are included for every DVD Juke (Submenu) device, except for the "Single Page (A-Z)" device. When available the full page description will be the first thing that comes up after selecting the small DVD cover image. Tapping anywhere on the description page will then take you to the first of the submenu pages for that title. You can also just hit the page down (Firm 3) button to start browsing the submenu pages. Once you've started browsing submenu pages hitting any of the directional pad buttons will take you back to the description page.

DVD Juke (DLM):
This is the last, but most important section of my PCF making up the DVD management interface. The devices found here are responsible for automating disc selection of my changers. Within each are also the disc confirmation pages.

-The "Setup" page.
The setup page contains the buttons each of the 400 disc loading macros link to for a given changer. This makes keeping the applicable buttons on the setup page in tact crucial. If said buttons were deleted from the setup page the action lists for each and every disc loading macro would be gone. Below I describe how each of the disc loading macros are built via the setup page. The screenshot linked to in the first sentence below can be used for reference.

Each disc loading macro links to three items on the setup page under the same device, the pre-macro, numbers which make up the slot number, and the post-macro. The pre and post macros in turn link to the buttons in the "IR Codes" and "Page Jumps" columns following the exact order as seen on the page. From there the buttons in the "IR codes" column link to the learned IR code buttons in my PCF via the links made under my Pronto Signals (Bridge) device. Lastly, the buttons under the "Page Jumps" column link to the loading pages found under my "Device Activities (Please Wait...)" device. While this may sound complicated to some just starting out it's really a very straightforward process. Having this structure in place is very important as it allows for editing the macro sequence which runs prior to the slot number being entered, and afterward without ever having to edit the action lists for each of the 400 disc loading macros.

When I first created my PCF I did not have things setup this way. Any change I wanted to make had to be made to each of the 400 disc loading macros for my 3 changers. Talk about starting off on the wrong foot. Having to edit 1,200 action lists just to make one change was a real drag let me tell you. This is one of the main reasons I've made my current PCF available for download. Hopefully it has served to ensure others start out on the right foot with their Sony changers and Pronto remotes. I would not wish having to edit 1,200 macros on anyone. The dynamic setup I have in place also makes for incorporating these DVD Juke (DLM) devices into ones own PCF a very easy task. All one has to do is copy one these devices to their own PCF, then establish all the needed links under the buttons in the IR codes and Page Jumps columns of the setup page. Talk about an easy setup process! Once that step is completed it's just a matter of linking DVD cover image buttons to the proper disc loading macros. One can also choose to link their DVD cover image buttons to the corresponding disc confirmation links buttons instead. This will cause a disc confirmation page to come up first giving you the opportunity to confirm your selection prior to having the disc load. More on this is covered below.

-Disc confirmation pages.
Disc confirmation pages have been part of my PCF for a while now. Originally I had no disc confirmation pages at all. For anyone other than myself this did not work out well as one would never know if selecting a small DVD cover image would load the disc, or take you to a submenu page or series of submenu pages instead. Later I added generic disc confirmation pages. That was a good first step, but I wanted more detail on each confirmation page. Very recently here I updated each disc confirmation page to include the selected DVD cover image, in addition to calling out the specific disc selected if there was more than one disc to choose from for a given title. This latest update to the disc confirmation pages has finally put the finishing touches on my DVD management interface. Short of updating some of the graphics used there is not much more I feel I could do to improve upon the interface. I'm very happy with it. Looking back over the past couple years my PCF as a whole has evolved quite dramatically. It certainly has come a long way since this anyway. :-P




For those that don't own a Pronto NG remote I'd highly suggest downloading the lastest version of ProntoProEdit NG (PPENG) and my PCF file. Once installing the editor you will be able to open my PCF and run the emulator. Reading about my DVD management interface is one thing. Experiencing it first hand is another. To download my PCF just hit up the link in my signature area below. There you'll also find details on the updates made to my PCF each time I've made a new file available.

(To see a listing of the items which make up my home theater, including pictures of my actual setup check out my user profile.)

Last edited by Lowpro on November 21, 2011 20:32.
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