I am looking at completely redoing my remote. I had an installer come by in December to "setup" the remote. He actually did not do much better than I did back in November. I have a few activities but if one piece of equipment is out of sync, they don't work and I have to grab the original remote. Example is the DVD player. The system turns on fine from the main power on. Then it's, "Watch a DVD", that's great unless I accidentally hit the main button again. For some reason, I seem to hit it. So, now nothing happens with the main button, but if I want to be able to control the DVD, the only choice I have is "Watch a DVD" which turns off the DVD player!!

So,

TV: Panasonic TH58PZ700U
Receiver: Sony DA5300ES
Cable DVR Box: Cisco 8642HDC (Time Warner)
Blu-Ray Player: Panasonic DMP-BDT220
Streaming Player: Roku 2 XD

Also need zone 2 support

Questions: I thought I saw a template that would help with planning. Can't find it.

What is the best approach? I have read through the forums and some say stick with activity buttons and others say do a device and activity button.

Discreet codes? Does anyone know of any discreet codes I can use. My remotes don't have off and on buttons.

Lastly, can buttons be moved around. Example, if I setup a DVD activity and notice that it is missing a button like "Eject", I know I can add BUT it adds it to the last page. Can I move the button to the first page.

Thanks.

You don't need discreet codes, but discrete codes would help. The Panasonic has them. Modify your watch DVD button, take out Power, and add either Power On or Play.

The inability to move buttons around plus much more makes this an unfit remote for zone 2.

Your Panasonic TV has discretes should be code 524.

Your Panasonic BR player will come on with the play command, so you can make a work around.

The Sony has a lot of different code sets and a lot of discretes for various functions.
1060-1066 and 1110-1112. I think 1060 will give you power and inputs. If it doesn't I think most Sonys' come on with an input command and you could easily make a work around with the factory remote. It has been a while since I used a Sony

Not sure about the Roku.

For custom button layouts it is usually easier to learn those buttons and keep your discrete codes on another device and not the activity.

Thank You!

I will update the Blu Ray macro with Play.

Any advice on how to handle the Time Warner DVR (Cisco 8642HDC)? Someone said something about alpha numeric power on. Not sure what that is.

Also, suggestions on button layouts. I just have one page with activities programmed.

Leave the cable box on at all times, and put a power toggle button on the second page of the cable device, just in case you need to power it back on if it gets a software update from time warner.

Thanks Guys! Working better already...

One more question.... How do I move buttons around? I want the more important buttons to be on the first page(main and in device). Is there a way to insert a button somewhere. Another example is my DVD player. It has a Netflix button. So I want to learn that command but I don't want it all the way on like page 5 of the DVD device.

You can't move buttons around on the 450; you can learn buttons and change the text for the button (its also possible to create alias buttons/functions with macro's but this might be going a step further then you need).