I've been looking for a setting to control the speed of a repeat within an RP-6 macro over IR. Doesn't seem to exist, just like to confirm. Right now, the repeats are running too slow for some of my macros.

...alan

too slow????
do you have a rs232 string in a macro, which is repeated in the macro?
or do you have a rs232 string which is set to repeat/sustain?

Unfortunately, this is to control a Tivo Series3, so no rs232.

I have a bunch of navigation macros to go to various Tivo pages or navigate within a page. The one that's very obviously too slow is the keyboard interface for the various search functions. The macros look like:

Letter w:
Repeat 5
down cursor
Repeat 3
right cursor
Select
Repeat 3
left cursor
Repeat 5
up cursor

It's not actually implemented that way, each repeat sequence is its own macro and there's a few other tricks, but that's basically it. There seems to be maybe .5s pause between each iteration of the repeat.

I have a few other ways to work around this, but the general question still holds as a matter of interested - is the repeat speed adjustable somewhere i'm missing?

...alan

brain drain on the 232.

i think you are going about this an [email protected] about way.

are you trying to type "wwwww, (cursor down),(cursor down),(cursor down),(cursor right), select,select,select, (cusor left),(cusor left),(cusor left),(cusor left),(cusor left),(cursor up)????



what i think you might meen. Try this

create a macro
put in the letter "w" from your IR library
right click on the line which has now appeared
select "edit step"
put 5 into the minimum repeats box
uncheck the "Repeat while button is pressed step"
uncheck the "Delay for 0.3seconds after this code"


if you want a delay after this code then insert one into the macro.

now repeat for the other codes.





right clicking and edit step might be all the help you need.

im not familliar with tivo

Getting bogged down in the detail of what I'm trying to do rather than the question i had..... :( Sorry about that. I'll assume there's no way to change the repeat rate.


Now, as for what i'm trying to do. Tivo has a typical screen for input of alphabetic characters (searches for example). There's no IR for each letter, one must cursor through the grid to spell out what's need. A 'w' is 5 clicks down and 3 clicks to the left for the normal starting location of 'a'. A royal PIA. I made a small keyboard to make this easier. First try was with macro repeats. That doesn't work, next try, as you suggested, is to do IR repeats. Setting up the macro repeats was less work through the ID interface than IR repeats, so i tried that first.

Thanks,

...alan

dont use the repeat function. put in the commands 3/5 times. again
"edit step"
uncheck the "Delay for 0.3seconds after this code" for all the steps.
if this runs too fast for the tivo to keep up, then inset a 0.1 second delay between each command. (this will make the whole macro about 1.8 seconds long.

if you just want me do it for you email mail the file to my username( no spaces)@live.co.uk

I'm curious about something, I know it's OT, but...

If the position of each letter is arrived at through a macro that starts at the letter "a" position, how does it get to the second letter of a word if that word doesn't start with "a"?

The macro always goes back to 'a'. :)

When Tivo first enters a page that requires alphanumeric input it starts at 'a'. I made a qwerty keyboard that assumes that. To enter a letter, I enter the appropriate number of 'down' and 'right' cursor movements to arrive at the destination letter. Select that letter, and then move 'up' and 'left' back to the letter 'a'.

Implementation wise, i have 8 'down' macros - Tivo-Down1, Tivo-Down2, etc. and their associated 'up' macros, and the 4 'left' (and then select) and 'right' macros. Each qwerty letter calls the appropriate down, left, and then up, right macros. It would be much easier with a proper programming language or the ability to write .rti files directly.

...alan

Of course. I can see why the speed of these macros would be an issue.

Did you have any luck with the "uncheck the Delay for .3 seconds after this code" method?
You might also set the minimum repeats to zero or one.

I haven't had a chance to get back to it yet. I'll report back with the final solution once i have it working....

Ok, just to close the loop on this.

Tivo has an on screen 'keypad'.
a b c d
e f g h
.
.
.

I really hate these things. Way to many clicks to spell out anything. So, i made a qwerty keypad page that does the appropriate cursor down, cursor left, etc. I created a set of macros, 'Tivo-1down', 'Tivo-1up', 'Tivo-2down', etc. To get these macros running as fast as possible, I needed to right-click -> 'edit step', turn off the .3s delay and reduce the number of repeats to 0. Tivo seems fine with 0 repeats.

I also tried changing only the number of repeats to get multiple cursor downs, but it was too non-deterministic.

A typical macro for a letter is:
Tivo-Ndown
Tivo-Mright
select
Tivo-Nup
Tivo-Mleft

Where N and M get me to the correct letter and then back to the home position. Too bad macros can't take a parameter, it would have saved a lot of typing! :)

Thanks for help.

...alan

The search function is so clunky that I'd give up on it from your remote.

The TiVo and DirecTV DVR remotes are the two remotes that I tell people to just firggin' oick up and use if they are doing anything more than just watching TV. Even simple playback of recorded programs, and navigation including skipping, is much easier and more reliable with that remote. I hate it, but it's true.

If I did program a remote for all functions, I'd want a hard button for skip and another for 8 second return. If I'm using, say, a T2C, I have to put it on the screen; there's no good hard button for those. The whole reason I want a remote with buttons for navigating TiVo is so I won't have to look at the touchscreen, but rather can feel the button, to know just where I am.

I don't have an IR pickup in the media room, so can't use the native remotes in this particular case.

I 100% agree with you Ernie. I had a URC MX-900 before the T2C. The software and RF was awful, but the build quality and ergonomics of the remote itself was a step above the T2C. I had all the pertinent Tivo functions mapped to hard buttons on the remote with use cases that made complete sense ergonomically. That's really the only area of dissappointment with the T2C, mapping to Tivo is sub-optimal, at best. I'm really pleased with the T2c/RP-6 and love the ID SW, but Tivo interaction just isn't there.

I'm still experimenting, but with enough macro programming, i think i can get the scroll button and keypad to nearly be a stand in for proper hard buttons.

...alan

Ernie,

Why?

Put 8 second return on the |<<
Put 30 second advance on the >>|

Then on >> I put
button test
if button held down then FF, FF, FF, pause till button is released, then Play
else FF

And corresponding rewind commands on the <<

Am I missing something as to why you wouldn't use those buttons for this?

Mapping the Tivo transport controls to the T2C controls works fine in theory. In practice, it's awkward to use it that way. When watching "TV", one doesn't want to have to look at the remote to find the appropriate keys for transport. It's very difficult to have to not look at the T2C if the transport controls are used - they're all the same shape and they're all evenly spaced. Just doesn't work well.

...alan