Hi everyone, ive been surfing Remote Central for years, and this is my 1st post... I thought I might share my thoughts about my newly aquired NAVITUS NX7000.
This is my 1st experience with a remote that uses software, but I have been using high-end universal remotes for about 15 years... ive never been one to have 8-10 remotes in my lap!
I always saw myself eventually getting the Pronto 7000, but when I saw the NAVITUS about a year ago, I changed my mind... ive never been a "Sony guy" but I loved my AV-2500, then the AV-30000, then my AV3100 which I probationarily retired yesterday.

Anyway, here goes... I downloaded the software about a week before I got the remote, so I could play around and learn it. 2 things I was disapointed with right away pertained to the "list" feature, which is a big part of what swung me to this remote. 1st, you cant edit the "element" headings... what DVD has an "Album" or "Artist" name?? and if I dont want to use or display the "Genre" catagory, I shouldnt have to! 2nd is the list screens and buttons, AND the list button used on your component screens, they cannot be customized to match your other button graphics... so you spend hours on your custom screens and buttons and there is this ugly mismatched LIST button in the middle of it!! As somone else mentioned, its stupid that you are forced to use the same background for every screen of a component, this needs to be changed. Also, I would like to see the ability to setup the 5 hard buttons like the home component buttons, whereas you can assign an instant press jump command AND a separate 2 sec. push macro. Other than the things I mentioned, I like the software... its easy to figure out even without any instructions... if you're fairly computer savvy. I also like that the configuration and image files werent built into some .BIN file, they are accessable and can all be viewed and modified.
My next post will discuss my experiences once I got the remote and started uploading to and from it. (coming soon)

Would it be possible to also draw comparisons to the 3000/3100s that you used?

Other than the obvious differences and advantages of the NAVITUS, I will mention some of the features of the AV-3x that are lacking on the NAVITUS.
If the AV-3x is completely off, and you press a hard key or a macro key, the remote instanly comes on and sends the codes out... If the NAVITUS is off, and you press a hard key or macro key, it comes on, then you have to wait about 2-3 seconds for what I call the "wake up" delay, then press the key again.... so, if the phone rings or you hear a funny noise outside, and your NAVITUS is off... it'll be a bit before you can use that mute button or pause your Tivo!
The other major thing is the battery life... with what I consider heavy use, the AV-3x batteries last about 8 months. The NAVITUS rechargeable batteries last about 8 minutes of total use before it goes dim and the IR signals are so weak that they dont even reach the components... once its dead, your stuck watching the same channel for a while, and forget about using the pause feature of your Tivo!... unless of course you want to use it with the cord attached to the FRONT of the remote (a dumb place to put the adapter socket!).
The battery issue is pathetic, Sony should be ashamed of themselves for releasing a product with such unacceptable battery life.

Now that ive used the software for a while and have download my setup to the remote many times... I want to share an issue ive been having as basically a heads-up to anyone else using it or planning too...
My computer is Pentium 4, 3GHz, custom built by me and and is tweaked to absolute perfection, I am using XP Pro SP2. Im using NAVITUS Design v1.0.1 (the latest version), the NAVITUS software is very stable (as somone else posted) but randomly and for no apparent reason, the PC program DELETES one or more of the component folders or just the ir.txt and/or preset.txt file (or its entire contents) from the component folder... thus killing all your learned and/or preset codes!!
OK, so you have to just re-learn all your codes for that component again right?? WRONG, the software goes nutty and starts duplicating codes on mutiple buttons between your hard keys AND your touchscreen keys!!... therefore forcing you to completely delete that component INCLUDING all your layout work... the up side is, your imported graphics will still be there.

I have figured out a way to restore your codes, etc. if this happens to you, so here's some advice on how to avoid losing all your hard work...
First off, USE the backup feature when downloading!
secondly, make multiple copies of your master file... after you click "save" from the file menu to save your changes (which you should always do BEFORE you download to the remote) go back an click "save as" and enter a different file name... this will give you TWO copies of your master file in case the software goes nutz and deletes your codes while your working with it.
NOW, if you make a ton of changes before saving again, and dont want to lose the changes because suddenly all your codes on another component dissapeared... do this...
Save the changes and exit the software... double click the desktop icon for both the master filename and the backup that you made with the most recent changes... delete the component folder for the component that lost the codes, copy the same component folder from the backup file and copy it back into the file that lost the codes... restart the software, open your file and YAY, your codes and your layout are all BACK!

OK, that enough... I hope this helps somone... more soon

This message was edited by theonlyest on 09/30/05 15:55 ET.

theonly guy, hello. I have not fathomed out the list feature yet. I am concerned about your programs instability. Possibly you are using Mcaffee anti virus or a Norton program? I have not lost a single file or had a bit of computer trouble you wrote about. I also build computers. I agree with your findings on using the remote but to not have a single touch screen "misfire" makes it all worth while. As to your picking up the remote to awaken it, leave it on when on the dock and just turn off the lamp. I set the off time to an hour to avoid the muting problem you wrote about. Compared to the old 3xxx series there are a million plus'es for the RM NX 7K. Just don't carry it around with you... LOL.......

I think this remote had a lot of potential but was treated like the red-headed step child by Sony. They never bothered to do any work on the software/firmware for this remote.

boe_d I agree with you 100% man. Last update a year ago? I think when the battery issue came known to the wigs they said f it and moved on. I still like mine though.

Well you can set about writing your own software for the remote. Sony has made it public domain at the same time they released the remote for sale. The source can be found here [Link: sony.net] only thing is i dont know Linux

I definately agree with what Boe said... it makes no sense why Sony apparently dropped the ball on this unit.
Anyway, yes Billman, I do have McAfee running on my system, but I cant agree with you that its causing Navitus Design to go nutz and wipe out the entire contents of my IR text file... and its usually always the same 2 files.... either sat_00 or dvd_00, the other 8 components are always solid. somtimes it deleted the entire folder!! But I have my backups, and I usually just copy & paste the entire folder back into my master design file, and all is well again.
Since my last post, I have overcome a couple of my initial gripes concerning the LIST feature... #1, I figured out how to edit the list files to remove the headings I dont want (like "album" in the DVD list) and I can add any that I do want. I can edit the options in the genre list, or change the genre heading to "format" and change the drop-down list options to "widescreen", "full screen", "special edition", etc. The list file language is very similar to HTML. (right click on the list file and select "notepad" from the "open with" menu) After experimenting for a bit, I had it figured out, now all my lists are customized exactly the way I want them... I even figured out the commands for each heading to directly display the list numerical, alphabetical, or to use the button search screen (abc, def, ghi, etc).

#2, since I dont use any of the default graphics in my component screens, I changed all the "def" button graphics that the list uses to what I wanted... for example, the button for the "list" itself, I changed to the icon for windows notepad (slighly modified in size) so all my list button graphics are now all custom too... the only BAD thing with the list function still remaining, is the default text on the buttons, I havnt figure out how to change that yet... I hate the huge bold "Jump to Page 1" text... I wanna change it!!

I'm having alot of fun with this software... not only did I get to learn something new, but it gets my creative juices flowing and gives me something to do if I ever get bored! My girlfriend keeps saying "why do the home screens look totally different every other time I pick up this remote?" She's techno-tarded, so it keeps her on her toes! :-)

Mr Mod Hello. My only gripe with the unit is with the power issue. The program seems to work great. As soon as a power sourse with the capability of running a small city yet small enough to fit in my 7000's backside is developed the nx-7K will be a widely accepted devise........