I am a newbie looking for comments on what are the various strategies for building configurations and the pros and cons.

One strategies I have been looking at implementing is to set up a Physical Device that has one or more pages representing each piece of equipment I have. Each page would have up to 50 buttons with no bitmaps representing each button on the remote and any discrete codes. Then I would design each device and link to these pages as needed.

Does this seem reasonable or am I looking for trouble?

i seem to recall that philips says that you shouldnt have anymore than 32?? buttons on any one page. can't remember where i read that but it's somewhere.

This is from the txt file from ver 1.3

Under "Issues sovlved in this release:"

PR 105: An excessive number of buttons on one page can crash the emulator or ProntoNEO. Don't put more then 30 buttons on one page.

So I'd try it and see what happens! If the buttons don't have bitmaps then that would be better too.
I have seen this type of layout before in another .nvf I Downloaded off the Yahoo site.

Look for a file by the name of Zeo 1.2.ncf

This I think is what your looking at doing?

-steve

I think that idea comes from the Pronto. There are a lot of CCFs setup that way. The biggest difference is that in a CCF you can hide the IR panels (pages) and you cannot do that on the NCF file format.

At least not with out having to edit the XML file.
By setting a device to nothing for the name, and the size of 1x1 pixel, and using 0 for the bitmap, you can have the device never seen by anyone!

I have went this same route. "Aliasing" :) All my learned buttons are in a seperate device, which it on a seperate device overview page. Hidden enough for me. Only bad thing is that when you upload I'm pretty sure it renames all the pages of learned codes to whatever the device is called making it hard to find what code you want to link to. Haven't actually tried it though because I am still doing some setup and I would prefer not to have to rename them. Another thing, someone said that when you link to a vol key you have to press the key over and over instead of just holding it down. I found that this is correct meaning that you just have to learn the particular vol you want to control to each vol button. As far as other layout the possibilities are endless. Being able to use more dicretes would make things more interesting but there are work arounds for some, or it you know your system you can make the macros work still. One thing I've done for my wife is make the function "f" key always jump to a page with all the power buttons. Two for each device, one to just turn it off. Another to turn it on, and jump to the appropriate controling page. Other suggestions, two large buttons at the bottom of any screen are good for thing you use a lot. For example my "guide" and "cancel" keys are there for my Dish. I can use them without looking at all effectively giving my two more hard buttons, only customizable. Also, jumps can be very cool. I couldn't figure out a way to incorporate my PVR functions into the touchsceen a way I liked so I just put a jump button at the top of the screen where I'm at when I'm controlling my Dish. When I push it all my hard buttons are transformed from controling the guide to being able to Pause, FF, Rewind, ect. Then there is a jump back from there. Do your jumps right and you will rarely have to navigate through a bunch of screens. If you haven't figured the remote out much yet, or you just haven't set thing up a lot write down your ideas for later. Once you get all the basic stuff done, some cool customization will be easier.