I haven't programmed anything at all complicated on and MX850. I've got a TV with toggle only power.

Is there a way to track whether the remote has turned the TV on or off? I've heard this referred to as variables or flags, depending on the brand.

My copy of the MX850 editor, just Live Updated, doesn't have any Help for the MX850, so I don't know where to look for this information.

Thanks, everybody!

Answered your question on the control room forum, but nope, no variables in the 850. A remote with variables would work, but it's not 100% reliable for tracking power status. Your best option would be the MSC400.

No variables for MX-850. But you wouldn't want to use variables to check power states anyway (they will get out of sync at some point in time).

Agree with the 2 above. Track power based upon voltage or video sense status for true reliability.

If your boy doesn't want to buck up for the processor, as a last resort you can put a BOB, or Big Obvious Buttons across every page ....[____TV POWER]

I've used flags, RTI's name for variables (I think) for this with an RTI remote and things only get out of sync when someone turns off the TV by hand. They've been warned, too.

Since I'm the boy in this case, I can stand using the ON and OFF buttons. I've used those with clients in cases where the TV had discretes, with the buttons having the same macro on every device: turn the entire system on, or turn it off and return the remote to the MAIN page.

I still can't believe I bought a TV with no discrete power codes. Model number isn't handy, but I've looked for them for three years.

Thanks for the bad news, by the way. With bad news I can at least move on.

I have to do this Ernie! If you give us all the info< like model numbers and brand we might be able to help. ha ha

You really should consider getting at least an MX-900 and the MSC-400. That thing has made using my nightmare-to-control Scientific Atlanta cable box 100% reliable and completely painless.

Now if only the TV in that system didn't occasionally do bizarre things like fail to negotiate HDCP, or turn on completely but not display any picture beyond a black screen, or completely ignore the power on command occasionally...

Can't you go into settings and set your SA box to turn on with numeric? That makes it foolproof. Use a zero for turn on (stays on current channel) and zero (pause) power turns it off.

Touche!