LP - I just wanted you to know that I couldn't be any happier the way your "DVD Juke" is performing on my pcf. A child could operate the activity w/o a glitch. I was going to say wife, but I know I would be asking for trouble :-).

Can I ask where you purchased your Zektor HDS4 HDTV AV Switch? Was it from Zektor's website or some other site?

Continue to keep up the good work. Hopefully someday I can contribute something to RC, that you and others can use.

-- wjjz106

I purchased my Zektor switch from here.



Right now they are offering free cables when you purchase any Zektor switch. Pretty good deal.

LP - Thank you for the info.

-- wjjz106

You are welcome wjjz. :-) The Zektor switch will certainly not disappoint. I'll be picking up another HDS4 myself in the next couple months.

While I'm here I thought I'd share with everyone the latest thing I'm working on. In preparation for an eventual full color .pcf file I started the process of recreating all my channel icons in color. This evening I started with my XM icons. I am using Daniel Tonk's channel icon .psd file of course. :-) Thanks Daniel! When I get the whole set completed I will be sure to submit them to the files section. Just started this evening and ended up cranking out 68 of them! Guess I should not be suprised that it's going on 4am. Good thing I don't sleep. :-P Think I'll take tomorrow off and resume my channel icon madness on Wednesday.

I like the Zektor refurbished switchers at www.hdtvsupply.com

For those trying to find the refurb page, here's the link.

[Link: hdtvsupply.com]

Interesting to note is that you can sometimes find these things on Ebay. I picked one up last week for around $183 USD.

Lyndel

Thanks for the link action. I will soon be picking up another HDS4. Did not think about trying Ebay and the price at hdtvsupply is very nice.

Today I decided to work over my configuration file yet again, this time focusing on the main interface pages. I really like the look of Daniel's new TSU7000 layout, but still strongly prefer his TSU3000 layout. As such, I tried my hand today at giving the TSU3000 interface a fresh look marrying some of the things I like about the TSU7000 layout. Below I've updated my XM Radio screenshots to show what I got finished today in this regard. So far it's shaping up real nice I think. :-P

XM Music Channels
XM News, Sports, & Talk Channels

(All prior screenshots in this thread have been updated as well now.)

howdy yall. awesome work on these configs. i have been trying to research as much as possible about the 3k and the 7k models. the only reason havent got the 7k is price. i dont have the awesome systems that yall have but i do have the changer and thats my main focus. i love the layouts of both. first question (probably already been answered and i have unintentionally overlooked) is do you have the disks listed alphebetically in the changer or do they just point to there actual location? i havent got either remote yet so if i got the 3k would it all make a lot more sense to me? i have 300+ movies in just one changer (same changer as lowpro) with a spreadsheet of movies and there number. looking for ease of setup. thanks in advance and maybe when i get one i can be at the level you all are in with configs.

I would first point out that nothing is listed in the DVD changer. The disc explorer interface is not used in any way. The listing of your DVD collection is the sole job of your excel sheet. It is best when using an excel sheet to have a changer slot column calling out what changer slot each disc resides in. With a dedicated column for this you can reorder your excel sheet by title for instance and still know what changer slots your discs are in. You then load your discs in the changer according to your excel sheet and the changer slot column.

The first time you load your changer you can certainly do so alphabetically, so long as you are following your excel sheet. From that point forward you will not be loading discs in your changer alphabetically. You will just be loading each new disc in the next available changer slot and assigning that disc in your excel sheet to that changer slot. Please keep in mind that your excel sheet is being used to keep track of what slots your discs reside in. The only place you will need to maintain an A-Z order is with your DVD cover image buttons in the remote via the editor. Each DVD cover image button in turn links to the proper slot number button (accordingly to your excel sheet) under my DVD changer device.

I use an application called DVD Profiler rather than an excel sheet. It's a great program! This application assigns each new disc I add to it a collection ID. I then load said disc in my changer according to its assigned collection ID.

Collection ID's 0001-0400 = Changer 01 (Slots 1-400)
Collection ID's 0401-0800 = Changer 02 (Slots 1-400)
Collection ID's 0801-1200 = Changer 03 (Slots 1-400)
Collection ID's 1201-1600 = Changer 04 (Slots 1-400)

When I first purchased my changers I did take the opportunity to first reorder my DVD Profile alphabetically. I then had to ensure that each and every physical disc in my collection was added to my DVD Profile as well, not just each title. DVD Profiler adds DVD's by title, not by how many discs make up that title, so if a given title includes more than one disc you have to add however many additional entries for that title to account for those discs. This way you have a collection ID for each disc.

thats awesome. thanks for the details. this will probably make even more sense when i actually get the remote and start playing with it.

Got a question for you.

I have noticed that in all of your devices the pages are hidden. Is that to restrict what the remote can manually page to?

When you moved each set of ir codes to the respective device, does it make it harder to work with the device? It seems easier, but for the most part all the configs that I have looked at have a seperate page for the IR and one for all the Macros.

I went to Best Buy and Video Only today to get some prices on a second changer. Neither store carried them anymore and couldn't give answers to why they no longer carried the units. I didn't want to buy off the net but that might be my only source.

Has anyone done something like the Ipod for cd access? All I am looking for is titles of discs on a scrolling list?

Yes. The only pages I ever want to be able to page up and down through are my channel icon pages and my DVD cover image pages. This is why the rest of the pages are hidden in my .pcf file.


Not sure what you mean here. I have seperate IR codes devices for each peice of equipment in my setup. If you are referencing the IR codes column on the setup page under my DVD changer devices, I do not have IR codes learned to those buttons. Like the rest of my .pcf file those buttons link to the Pronto Signals (Bridge) device which in turn links to each of the seperate IR code devices storing the IR code buttons.

As far as macros go ...
For macros which multiple devices link to I would recommend a seperate device just storing those macros. That would be best. If a given macro or series of macros are only servicing one device, there is no reason to not just incorporate said macros into that device. This is what I have done with each DVD changer devices in my .pcf file.


If you are referring to the Sony DVP-CX985V this unit has been clearanced out. It is probably only available now via the various online retailers out there. Due to the even worse nature of the auto-play issue with the 995V I stuck with the 985V changers. Picked up my 4th one just before Circuit City stopped carring them. If you want HDMI output and video upconverstion the 995V will fit the bill for you. It is sold locally at places like Circuit City, Best Buy, Tweeter, and so forth.


Can't help you out with this one. I pipe my audio and video from my computer to my home theatre system and use a couple front ends to access my digital music collection.

This message was edited by Lowpro on 11/17/05 08:55 ET.

Thanks... one more question.

I was noticing when you are doing the pages for loading a dvd you use a link to another page with a button that has a jump to the loading screen. Is there any reason for this? Can it be done the same way with a jump directly in the pre and post macro to the load screen of choice?

thanks
timbre

Use my setup page for reference when reading the reply below.

Yes it can, but it is not advised. I devised my setup page and the 400 slot macros in a very specific way for a reason. The 400 slot macros are only referencing the pre-macro, slot number, and post-macro buttons on the setup page. In turn, the pre and post-macro buttons are only referencing buttons on that same page in the 2nd and 3rd columns. This keeps everything in tact at all times, irrespective of whether you have anything linked to the buttons in the 2nd and 3rd column of the setup page or not.

This is considered a dynamic setup. It allows one to simply copy my DVD changer device into their .pcf file, link the buttons in the IR codes column to their IR code buttons already in their .pcf file, then either leave the buttons under the page jumps column in tact, or point those to different loading pages.

There is no benefit to linking anything directly to the action lists of the pre and post-macros outside of the setup page. This opens up the possibility of say your target page being deleted (such as a loading screen page) and that action list item in the pre or post-macro being lost. I have the timing of the loading pages down to the second it takes for the changer to load a given disc. If I want to put new loading pages in place for instance, I don't have to go to the action list of the pre and post-macro and add jumps in all the right places, then deleting jumps to my prior loading pages. That would be a pain and defeats the whole purpose of having the setup page. Instead, I just go to the page jumps column of my setup page and direct each button to its new loading screen page.

Thank you. That helps to explain a better way for me to approach this. I was wondering about keeping everything together for a specific device.

I had to adjust the timing a bit on the load macros for some reason. but that's ok. The little tweaks here and there are the fun part.