I was wondering what kinds of things people are using the macro features for, so I figured I would post what my macro's do and hope others do the same. I figure that there are ton's of uses for macro's that I have not thought of and would love to steal some from you guys. :)

My favorite macro is one for switching my Yamaha reciever's Dynamic Range from Min to Max for Day and Night listening. That basically shrinks the volume gap between wispers and explosions so you not constantly adjusting the volume.

On a related note, I also use a set of cordless headphones for really late night listening. For the headphones to become active I must toggle the reciever's effects and speakers off. I made a macro for that so I would not have to keep going to my reciever page and bouncing between control pannels.

When I turn off my system for the evening, I pretty much leave everything on and just mute the reciever and turn off the TV. That got kinda annoying over time because I had to keep switching to the TV device just to turn it on, and my mute button mutes the TV not the reciever in that mode, which I keep forgeting. :) I made a few macro's that toggle the TV's power, and the recievers Mute. That sounds like it should be one macro, but I have a bunch of them so that it ends up on whatever device I plan on using, VCR1, VCR2, or my DVD player. That saves a minor step, but it is probably the macro I use most often.

I only have two other macro's that I can remember, one for switching from DVD to VCR viewing, and another for switching from VCR to DVD viewing. I thought about making it part of the device switching, but I switch between VCR's way more often than I switch between DVD and VCR's so it would get anoying to have to hold a button not to send the macro that changes my TV's inputs.

That about does it for mine, nothing particularly interesting. I look forward to hearing about yours.

I have 4 macros that I use. The first is to Watch a VCR movie. I always assume the TV is on. The first macro powers on the vcr & reciever and switches the receiver to prologic mode. Disables sound from the tv and uses the Movie advance feature on my Panasonic vhs to que the movie.

My second and third macros are Prologic on and prologic off. This will put the receiver to TV input and turn off the speaker on the TV which gives me line level output from the tv to the reciever. I also have the channel +/- on my remote set to change the tv stations while in reciever mode. I created these macros because my Sony tv requires 8 menu strokes to turn the sound off and go to line output mode on the tv. I can't just mute the sound because then I don't get a constant volume output from the tv and I also have an annoying MUTING on my TV display.

the forth macro is built into my CD device which places the receiver in Stereo mode when the remote switches to the CD.

I think my set-up is fairly simplistic. I originally put macros under each device key.
But in the end i moved the macros back under the
dedicated 'macro pulldown'. I've got seperate
macros for each activity, and segregated under
different headings. Macro group 'FLIX', would
have macros for 'play LD', 'play VHS' etc. I have
other groups like 'SURF', which has a bunch of
seperate macro buttons for different channels,
and 'TUNEZ' for audio only crap.

Each activity based macro basically does three
things only: switch to proper TV input, switch
to proper receiver input (each input has it's
own audio mode setting, so not needed in macro),
and switch to appropriate device window. Once
a given activity macro is run, I end up with
my equipment switched and the proper device screen
in front of me, perfect.

Power control is a different story. I just have
one general 'System on/off' macro, and until
I can track down the discrete on off codes for
most of my rack, I'll leave it at that. I typically have everything on or all off anyways.

I found a 'Oneforall 6 upgradable' today for
$14.44CDN so hopefully I'll be able to use it
to teach the Pronto. Oneforall indicated they
had seperate on & offs for 'most' of what I own,
but still haven't given up the goods. Talk about
lame-ass service, at least a week for e-mail
and forget about their helpline.

Drat.

How about a "displays off" macro for dimming or shutting off the displays on any components that allow you to do this?

It's way too much bother to do so manually, but with a macro--VOILA! When you want them back at your preferred intensity, you have another macro to get you right back.

Hi,
Here are a few more plans I have for macros once the software becomes available....

1. VCR Tape search - Currently, to find the next marked program on my VCR, I must select "index", then "1" (for the next program), then "fast forward" or "rewind." If the tape is not stopped first, the index search is performed in scan mode. Thus, I will have two single button macros: search forward and search reverse (stop, index, 1, fast forward).

2. Single program recording. I normally use one of my two VCRs for time shifting and keep it programmed with my normal recurring shows. I will occasionally use the other one for individual programs, which requires programming the VCR for each occurrence. I could easily set up individual macros for "record channel 5 @ 8:00" etc. Or, for more flexibility, set up a macro page with separate macro buttons for the required programming functions as follows:

A. "Select record" - would input all the commands required to place the VCR on the program screen (about 4 commands in my case);

B. "Time slot buttons" - This particular VCR requires start and stop times (rather than start time and duration). Individual buttons (e.g., 8:00 pm) could input the commands to program these standard times.

C. "Channel Select buttons" - These macro buttons would input the desired channel and all the finishing timer record commands for the VCR.

3. I have a 41 inch Sony RPTV. To change color saturation, tint, contrast etc., I currently have a Pronto template that mimics the Sony TV remote. However, I could program macro buttons for these functions. For example, a "color" macro button could be programmed to input: (a) menu, (b) enter, (c) down x 3, (d) enter. For my TV, this would put the color saturation bar at the bottom of the screen and all I would have to do would be to hit the up or down buttons. Thus, five macro buttons (color, tint, contrast, bright, sharpness), plus separate up/down buttons and an "end" button would get me out of those annoying sony "menu sets" for picture control.

Thats all for now. I'm off to work an a few channel surfing icons...
Clay W.

Last night I just programmed my largest macro yet - two of them with 31 commands each.

I borrowed a copy of Video Essentials DVD and calibrated my TV's colors. The problem is, while it looks fantastic using the S-Video input, cable TV looked horrible afterwards - skin tones were all pink and magenta.

Since my TV doesn't allow me to store various setting presets, I have to manually change color, tint and "auto color" each time I go to or leave DVD mode. This is accomplished like so: press PICTURE, which brings up settings page 1 out of 3. Press + or - to select the setting (say COLOR), press PICTURE to edit, then + and - to change it. Press PICTURE again to apply the change, and then it takes you back to the top of the list... so you ++++ down to the "NEXT PAGE" option, press PICTURE, find the next setting... as you can see it's a real pain.

So, I spent a while and figured out exactly what I needed to do to change the settings to DVD and then back to TV and created a pair of macros. They work great - no delays necessary - and it really startled my friend when I demonstrated it. "What, it can DO that?" he asks as the cursor is moving all over the place, picking an option, changing it, picking a new option... it's great!

I had the exact same problem when I used Video Essentials to tune my TV! I ended up going with my Cable TV setting's since that is what I watch most. I think I will give the macro switching a shot if I can ever find the time to re-calibrate my TV. I can see how that would be an eye catcher too, that does sound pretty impressive.

This opens up a new line of thinking for me too. I had a roomate who would have loved a macro like that. He liked to have the Sharpness turned way up, as well as tweaking things to be overly blue. With the pronto, we could have set up a few macro's to switch back and forth between our individul preferances.

I think I will look for one of those "OneForAll" remotes too. If I can get codes to explicitly set my TV's inputs, I can make my macros less complicated. Actually the thing that would help me out even more would be to find some way to explicity set the inputs on my Sony VCR's.

I like the VCR recording macro idea also. I find myself setting up the VCR to time shift programs quite often. I am usually on my way out the door when I realize I am going to miss some show, so anything to speed the process would be nice. :)

It is too bad you could not pass information into a macro, that would be pretty neat. Imagine the macro's we could produce if there was some way to have it ask us for input. If the macro asked what channel, time, and how long, even my grandmother could program the VCR. It may not be able to do stuff like that, but I am constantly amazed at the stuff the pronto pulls off, this really is a nifty remote.

VCR programming and tape navigation functions are a natural for macros, but after reading some of these comments, I can't resist the urge to sing the praises of the Sony Smartfile 20HF.

Sorry to change the topic, but this thing continues to amaze me, and while I know very few people are in the market for a non-SVHS VCR these days, this model is really worth a look. I needed a new VCR, so I got it because I liked the idea of scanning labels across the sensor to make sense of a lot of stuff I time shift.

While that feature is wonderful and performs as advertised, what really makes this thing shine is the dirt simple programming and tape navigation on playback. It's so simple and intuitive that the panel display (especially the counter) is practically unnecessary.

It doesn't matter if you select to record from the program guide, hit instant record, or set the timer conventionally--the show name, date and time will display on the OSD. Just use the joystick to highlight what you want to watch, and you're there. It's even easier than selecting a DVD chapter and makes past indexing features seem archaic.

Again, sorry for the tangent, but for some reason this seems relevant to other pronto owners seeking enhanced, more intuitive ergonomics. And there are still plenty of great macros you could set. How about "What's On" macro that gets you to the program guide and shows you the detailed information of what's on a certain channel for the entire evening? Or how about a "College Hoops Schedule" macro that sorts the upcoming games for the coming week?

If anyone gets the discrete on/off codes for any Panasonic or Sony equipment (VHS & TV) please let me know.

I have a Sony TV remote that has a discrete off for the TV (I believe it also operates as a discrete off for other Sony equipment also). I was able to teach that code to my Pronto. However, I have not found a discrete on for this TV or any other unit yet.

I got my Sony XBR TV on and off codes from a ONE-FOR-ALL-8. Send me your Pronto and I'll program it for you :)

Steve,

If you were able to program a discrete on for your Sony TV, please let me know what device code and key code you used for your ONE-FOR-ALL-8 as I have one of those also and would like to try it with my Sony TV (not an XBR). Thanks.

Good luck trying to get someone to send you their Pronto. You may have a better chance getting them to send you their first born :)

The above discussion conveys perfectly the need for a website for people to exchange codes which they've learned.
The beauty of Pronto software is that you can "merge" two config files together, ie, yours and someone elses, then purge what is uneeded and save the result.
You could also learn a new device code, and save it as a stand alone config file and share it that way.
It's really a bit like sending messages around you could actually store ba message within a page on the remote.
Perhaps some might use this as a "help" screen?
What a concept! Having help screens that are jumped to from certain help buttons on your custom screens. Significant others anyone?
Could make Pronto a real "helper". :-) :-) :-)

OK Scott (and any other Sony TV owners),
Try this with your ONE-FOR-ALL-X:
IF TV device code 000 controls your Sony TV this should work for you. First press the Magic key followed by 369 for TV On and 621 for TV Off.

Good luck,
Steve

Steve,

Any chance you use Sony VCR #032 and/or Cable
Converter #003?Any seperate on and off codes?

Oneforall sent me another e-mail today, again
with useless codes i didn't ask for. That was attempt #4. Talk about inept customer service!

The TV codes work on two 'Oneforall' remotes I
have as well, the 'OFA-Lite' and 'OFA-6'.

Thx for any info.