On Wed, 27 Jul 2011 09:16:17 +1000, Torgeir Veimo wrote

On 27 July 2011 01:49, VDR User user.vdr@gmail.com wrote:

...

On Tue, Jul 26, 2011 at 7:39 AM, Torgeir Veimo torgeir@netenviron.com wrote:

...

The Philips Prestigo SRT9320 seem to have a perfect key layout for VDR. Does anyone have any experience with this remote with VDR?

Yes, that's the one I use on my primary VDR at the moment. I'm very happy with it and my wife is also glad that she doesn't have to deal with a remote with tons of buttons she'd actually never use.

I do agree that direct buttons are better for the most commonly used buttons, but I mostly use the menu/back, arrow keys/ok and the coloured buttons, almot none others. One the remote you liked to, the coloured buttons are far away from the arrow buttons, so it can't really be nice to handle?

That's the point. You really don't need too many buttons for your daily work with VDR and on the SRT9320 all these buttons are close together. Maybe even more important: You can easily distinguish these buttons due to their different shape and position. No need to switch on the backlight in the dark, no need to look at the remote at all. That's also why I'd never go for a touchscreen-only remote.

What else can I say? The remote is not too large and not too heavy as it includes a cell phone battery. Only need to recharge it every 3 months or so. Still the SRT9320 is not perfect. Decide yourself if one of these things matter to you:

* not programmable via PC, only via touchscreen. But usability is ok. Just rearranging the buttons is a bit of a hassle. * no way to enter custom remote codes. Codes which are not in the builtin database can only be learned from an other remote. I had to ask someone with a Logitech Harmony to get the discrete codes for the HDMI inputs of my Samsung TV (even the original remote of the TV doesn't have these codes. The AV button there opens a menu where you can select the input with up/down). * devices with just a "toggle power" remote command are difficult to handle. Note that some devices (like my Samsung TV) do have discrete codes for "power on" and "power off", but the original remote doesn't feature them. The SRT9320 internal database did already know about the discrete on/off codes for my TV. * don't expect software updates from Philips. They once published an updated firmware, but when I tried to update my remote the server was unreachable. Philips support told me, the update server will be made available again when a new update becomes available... * activity concept instead of plain makro support. It's not possible to assign makros to keys. All you get is "switch on" and "switch off" makros. The concept is unusual, but in the meantime I'd even say its superior when compared to simple makros. Let me explain:

The main touchscreen menu gives you two modes: Either select an individual device (something I almost never use) or an activity. When you select an activity, its "switch on" makro is executed. Power on the required devices, switch AV inputs, do whatever you like in this makro. You can even enter delays or configure how long an individual code has to be sent (some devices need a long key press to power it on). Each activity is associated with its own key and touchscreen layout. This is nice for multi-purpose devices as you could even define different activities for the same device, but with different sets of keys depending on what you are about to do. Just select all the keys you need from the set of devices involved in this activity.

Hit the power key twice to execute the "switch off" makro (poweroff devices, do whatever else needs to be done).

Hit the power key once and the touchscreen will give you a list of all your devices with the possiblity to switch on the devices which are involved in this activity and switch off the devices which are not involved (in case some device didn't catch the power on/off command).

Changing from one activity to an other will send the "switch off" makro of the current and the "switch on" makro of the next activity. This is where you'll run into trouble with devices which support only "toggle power" as they will be switched off and on again. Fortunately I don't have such a device any more, but I guess you could work around it by either using different activities or by not sending the power command in the "switch on/off" makros. Instead power on/off manually (hit power key once and select device from list).

Regards, Frank

On Fri, Jul 29, 2011 at 7:45 AM, Tony Houghton h@realh.co.uk wrote:

...

http://www.ixbt.com/monitor/images/hauppauge-mediamvp/du.jpg

If anyone else noticed that support for that type of remote got broken sometime after 2.6.32, I'm pleased to report mine is working again since I upgraded to kernel 3.0.

I've got one of those that has worked fine in 2.6.32 up to 2.6.39.3... It's connected with a serial IR. Maybe support for your particular IR receiver broke, but that remote has been just fine.

On Fri, Jul 29, 2011 at 4:17 PM, Tony Houghton h@realh.co.uk wrote:

...

...

...

http://www.ixbt.com/monitor/images/hauppauge-mediamvp/du.jpg

If anyone else noticed that support for that type of remote got broken sometime after 2.6.32, I'm pleased to report mine is working again since I upgraded to kernel 3.0.

I've got one of those that has worked fine in 2.6.32 up to 2.6.39.3...  It's connected with a serial IR.  Maybe support for your particular IR receiver broke, but that remote has been just fine.

Mine is connected via the DVB card. It says saa7146 in /proc/bus/input/devices but ISTR it's actually the budget or budget_ci module that handles it. It used to require a patch a few years ago and I think the patch was for the key mappings.

Ahh, gotcha. Mine came with a nexus-s, which uses av7110_ir. I saw the remote and automatically associated it with the nexus.

On Wed, Jul 27, 2011 at 12:36 PM, Udo Richter udo_richter@gmx.de wrote:

...

Those kind of remotes are cool but I wouldn't want one for daily use. I prefer direct access to many options with one button press, not going through menus on a remote screen.

From my experience, the keys I _really_ use, are:

(1) Core keys: 0-9, Up/Dn/Left/Right, Menu/Ok/Exit, Color keys, Power, Vol+/-

(2) Keys I often use: Timers, Recordings, EPG

(3) Nice to have, but not essential: Info, Play/Pause/Stop/Rec/Ffwd/Fbwd

(4) Rarely used: Mute, Ch+/-, Audio tracks, Subtitle tracks, Channel list

I can use (1) and (2) and some of (3) completely blind. Having them on some kind of touch screen is not an option.

I/we pretty much use the following daily: 0-9, up/down/left/right, ok/enter/exit, epg, recordings, timers, color keys, subtitle, play/pause/stop/ffw/rew, record, skip +/-... I also like to have a few keys available for macros.

I haven't found any remote that I felt was perfect. I'd love to design one with my own specific button layout but the cost to make a custom remote exceeds my willingness to pay for it so I've got a few that are good enough.