There's been less urgency to change my config recently, seeing that most of what I use on a day to day basis is already programmed. Add to the extreme business at work, lack of sleep, you begin to get the idea...
However, I did manage to extend the idea of using ST:TNG (Star Trek: The Next Generation)-type panels. I've tried this on the Advanced DVD activity panel, as well as the DVD device panels:
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Thoughts on Screen Design
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I looked at many designs that had been posted; I had even started doing some 3D-type buttons about a month ago. Ultimately, I decided on the ST-style because I liked that the design used up the whole screen area, and it was difficult to produce "selected" versions of 3D buttons, especially when they're grouped together. It also gave me incredible flexibility in placement and sizing of the various buttons, grouping, "tabbing" (for want of a better description), et al. The graphics would also take up less memory since they were mainly empty colored frames.
The 3D stuff that remains are the round black buttons, and the cursor pad (on the VCR and DSS devices). And while they look cool in the Pronto Emulator--click on them to see what I mean--the contrast on the Pronto screen doesn't do much for them.
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E-Z Stuff
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I've come to a conclusion that it's too intrusive to make the
many screens necessary to
guide a beginner through the E-Z activity panels. You can see what I mean by looking at all the additional panels I created under E-Z DVD--it's simply too difficult to strike a balance between usability and hand-holding. So even beginners now will have to get a 5-minute tutorial on the E-Z activities to figure it out, but that's simpler than trying to create something universal that will work for everybody.
The Channel +/- buttons on the E-Z DVD panel functions as chapter +/- keys. I'm undecided what should go here--originally, I had the aspect ratio keys here. I'll probably go back to that.
It is important to note that because of the myriad of options with DVD, it's nearly impossible to create a foolproof "activity" to do all the right things in my system. For instance, select 5.1 audio as the default soundtrack, choose the right aspect ratio on the projector, et al. Here again, a little user education would go a long way.
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Advanced Activity Panels & Device Panels
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To design the Advanced activity panel (DVD only currently), I wrote down all the buttons I used most whenever I performed that activity, and tried to include it on one page without making the buttons too small, or the screen too crowded to make sense.
Since the advanced panels and device panels won't generally be used by anyone but myself, I designed it for right-handed use. Because of the way the Pronto fits in my hand, I find that any button towards the right edge of the screen difficult to activate. Also, I like large button areas whenever possible since I usually use the pronto one-handed. Again, the ST-style lent itself very well in this regard.
I like the activity panels on the Macro menu because I can stop the macro, whereas it would be impossible to do if this was on the Device or Home menus. Still pondering about whether this is a good idea for the E-Z activities. I may eventually move the E-Z activities to the Device menus.
Originally, I reduced the number of X-10 commands that I had to put in each macro by creating what is the Lighting Scenes macro panel. I've simplified it further by getting a X-10 computer module that would actually send a bunch of X-10 commands based on one X-10 command, hence saving Pronto execution time. So you'll find the Lighting Screen shortcuts basically consist of one X-10 command, eventhough it may result is as many as seven separate X-10 lights to dim, brighten, turn on or off.
With all the recent discovery about the X-10 IR signals, I was able to incorporate all the features into a separate file called QUICK_X10 (which can be found here).
Oh yeah--to get to the Advanced DVD activity, select Watch DVD from the home panel, then press the Admit One tix. I plan to do this for all the activities. Of course, you could simply use the Macro menu also.
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Various Tidbits/Solving Problems
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I arranged the devices and macros according to how I'd use them. For instance, the sequence of devices is identical to the sequence in the device list on the home panel.
The Doubler, Screen, and Sub device panels are almost never used. They are there to hold the necessary codes that are aliased in macros and other device screens. The Projector device panel contains all the common controls (aliased) I need for the doubler and the screen.
The Faroudja doubler remote was a bear to decode! For one thing, the Pronto would not learn the codes correctly without all sorts of monkey-ing, like pulsing, etc. From talking with a Faroudja tech, I found out that the stupid remote emitted multiple codes, and the unit would respond based on what it's "status" was at the time. I managed to break it down finally after many countless hours and experimentation, and have created discrete on/off and input selection macros that work well.
My PreAmp (Theta Casablanca) does not have a disccrete on/off command, so again, I had to create a macro that would solve the problem of making sure it was on. I found that the "boot" process takes about 13 seconds--all IR commands are ignored during that period--whereas the "power down" is instantaneous. What I basically do to ensure that the PreAmp is powered up is to send it
two power commands within 5 seconds of each other. That way, it the PreAmp was on, it would get turned off by the first signal, then turned on a few seconds later. If it was off, then the second power signal is ignored since it was busy booting up.
The Mute button in the Power panel turns off all components.
Things that I still haven't settled on include:
1. What to do with the Hard Left and Right buttons, especially since there is a bug right now that limits the functionality when a macro is assigned to any hard button.
2. How to design truly "help"-ful screens for beginners.
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Get the CCF/Notes
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Here's the link for the complete CCF as it stands:
www.pollstar.com/staff/ivan/ivan_config.zip Note that the graphics on some devices are not "pretty," because I was experimenting with a variety of button styles. There's also work to be done in cleaning up channel icons in the surf panels, etc. When my CCF is less messy, I'll break up the file to individual devices for posting. Down to only 20% available memory... :)
As usual, comments/feedback are welcomed.
Ivan Luk <
[email protected] >
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Acknowledgements
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The whole Pronto community on
www.remotecentral.com and
www.prontoedit.com . Special thanx to all who helped "formulate" my CCF in one way or another, in big and small ways. In no particular order, they are: AHP (a helpful person), Kevin Popp, George Mills, Barry Gordon, Jack Schultz, Daniel Tonks, Kevin Calvano, Phil B., Manu Duarte.
I'll probably miss some of you, so if I've forgotten you, please forgive me! Do email me, and I'll correct it; but blame it on the lack of sleep since ProntoEdit was released...
