Hey Greg, he is making this BLT even longer, it's becoming a BLT Club! (NOTE: I did say BLT, not BDT)

Rob.

Page 4 no less!

In a nutshell:

Will I be able to control a Dish Echostar 4700 receiver set to an address other than '1' with the UCommand?

I know it won't learn the UHF that the 4700 uses, but that isn't an issue as the 4700 also works off of IR. I'm also sure it will work on an address of '1', but since I have a dish 2800 that seems to like that address too, I need to have a separate address for the 4700. Both need to be accessible from the same seating position, so I can't just put one in a different room. I can't use the 2800 remote, as it will *always* operate both units, even if the 4700 is set to a different channel!

Thanks in advance.

No way, dude, I'm suggesting that your guys are the Elite Neat! ... Mike :-)

Rather than wait for the response, I picked up a UCommand at my nearby Fry's (the damned store is within walking distance of where I work!) took it home and tried it out.

I finished programming the default key layouts, and my wife said "You're *done*?" 10 minutes to get six different remotes into one universal was amazing, although I did have to go back and redo a button here and there. What an incredibly intuitive system!

Best of all, it controls *every* device in my home theater setup. Both the address 2 4700 *and* the address 1 2800 dish receivers, and no cross talk. And the amp.

I wish that I could change the source on the amp at the same time that I change what the remote is controlling (as Sony allows), or that it supported punchthrough or macros that could use keys from different layers, but I'll survive for now. Keep in mind that I spent about four hours on Sunday trying to find a way to get my existing bundled "universal" remotes to work together in a useful way and failed. The UCommand took ten minutes, another five for tweaking.

Thanks!

Doug: I couldn't give you an answer on the Dish, 'cause I didn't know for sure. But I will pass that information along to Crisp Solutions.

Meantime: Congrtulations.

Also: If, by "layers", you mean commands that are subsets of other commands, you could always try teaching those layers to buttons on any one spare screen, and then creating the macro from there. But this will work, of course, only if it is possible to teach the sub-command to a button in the first place.

... Mike

Mike, what I want to do is have the buttons that switch the "page" on the remote also change the source (which signal is active) on the AV receiver. I think that's impossible, so I'm considering having a stock button position in each page that allows you to switch to make that particular device the source. I may make a page that just has macros on it, perhaps from the CD page or something.

Just occurred to me: Can I invoke a macro from any page? For example, if I want a macro created on the DVD page, can I trigger it from the TV page instead? Is that what you suggested? That may work!

I sure wish I could move icon labels around, but I understand why they did what they did from a design standpoint, and can live with it.

Hi-We've narrowed down our decision to either the U616 or the mx-1000. Any suggestions out there?

We've got Onkyo receiver and dvd, Sony 5 cd carousel, Tivo, Echostar satelite, and sharp vcr. We've put the lot of them in the closet and have a smarthome repeater thing going to the living room. Works, with all 5 remotes! I emailed Uli (all rumors of great customer service are TRUE) and he said that Tivo is the tough one and that the U616 is beter than the 515. But, any pros or cons between that and the mx-1000? Does the joystick offer functionality that I'll be bummed I don't have?

Thanks, you guys have provided hours of reading pleasure over the last two days! andrea

The newest model from Crisp Solutions, the 616 is the most outstanding we've seen to date for such a low price point.

Visit our webpage at www.AudioVisioneering.com for lowest pricing if you're interested. I will be glad to help with questions you may have.
Randy Sauder
Audio Visioneering

I apologize to Doug and aj... I must have lost track of this thread at some point. If your questions still apply, however:

Doug: Yes, you probably know by now, you can access a macro on the 515 from any page. This is something you cannot do on the 616; the macros are all on one page, accessible from a little "M" button on all screens. Since I have discrete "input/switch? buttons for all devices on my original RCA remote, I've just copied them to an Input button on each page.

aj: Either unit would be great: depends on your personal preferences. I know people who really like having hard buttons, ala the UC-616; on the other hand, they really, really like the simplicity of the UC-515. The MX-1000 looks fantastic, but is also relatively expensive. Joystick functionality is probably great with one thumb; on the other hand, both the UC-515 and 616 can show LCD nav arrows, too. ... Mike

Can anyone help!
I recently purchased a u-command remote in the UK (renamed the e-pilot in Europe)and although very pleased with its performance have had a problem teaching it my DVD functions. I'll try to explain. I have a Wharfdale Dvd player - probably unknown to most of you out there produced solely for the large supermarket chain 'Tescos' in the UK. Problem is once the remote has learned the functions they only operate intermittently. For example on the menu page of any DVD if I try to move up or down a list of options I cannot move more than one step at a time, ie the same function button will not operate twice in succession although it will work if I push another button in between! I cannot figure this problem out. I have tried reprogramming a number of times using short bursts and long bursts from the original remote but to no avail.I have also tried learning in another room to overcome the possible return signal problems. All other learned remotes worked great ie TV, VCR, STB etc. Any suggestions would be gratefully received.

This sounds like the "learned too short" problem. Try teaching the codes again, only this time hold down both the Wharfdale remote buttons and the UCommand buttons for a lengthier period. The UCommand will learn brief and long bursts from originals. Your result is common; my own volume controls would only step up one press at a time until I redid the learning in this fashion. Let us know..... .... Mike

Tony, mind does exactly the same thing! Sorry Mike, holding down the buttons doesn't work for me. My DVD is(don't laugh!) an Oritron. It's a real cheapie but the damn thing actually works great! I just can't program the UC515 to do what the original remote does. I have no idea what the problem is, but I have to hit an intervening button between two sucessive button hits.

No laughing for cheapie DVDs... these days they're almost like CD players... it's the "extras" that add to the cost, since the optics are now pretty much mass-produced.

Anyway, sorry, that's the only answer I have for work-arounds. It may be that the IR signals on the DVD player are outside of the 10 and 150 kHz range; these remotes only accept signals in that range... .... Mike

Here's something odd.

I just got an RCA RC5215P DVD player. My Ucommand's DVD screen won't learn any of the remote's signals. I've tried varying the length of time the buttons are pushed, and even the distance between the remotes, but I continualy get ERROR. Now here's the odd part, I switched to the AUX screen and it learned the signals just fine! And the DVD screen will learn other signals like from my TV or VCR remotes it just doesn't seem to like my new DVD.