I suppose I was overstating, and should have said that it would open the possibility that more average consumers could sufficiently program their inexpensive universal remotes.
First I'd just like to say that there's a huge catch-22 in this whole train of thought. Cheap universal remotes are not meant to be programmed with codes supplied by the manufacturer of the devices you want to control. They're meat to be "set up" with lookup codes that point to a specific code set from their built-in generic database. It's possible to do more with these remotes, but that's not what they're designed nor marketed for. The concept of doing more with these remotes is a fan/user driven one and is relatively small. That's the main reason there's been no traction in supplying codes in such a format that would be readily usable by such remotes. And why, in the past it was harder to com by IR data from manufacturers of the devices.
I've not seen this myself. Don't get me wrong, I'd like that. I've certainly never seen IR codes included in documentation. Do you have an example of that?
Denon, Yamaha, Lexicon, DVDO, Philips, and more. I have a lot of documents here with IR codes that have been provided by the manufacturers. Stand-alone documents, addendum and some included as an appendix in a product manual.
Here's the thing though. I spent over 2 years living and breathing remote controls. I've forgotten more about IR and remote controls than most people into remote controls will ever know, never mind your average joe. Seriously.
So much so that it's one of the top three criteria I set when looking for a new receiver. It was important enough that I wouldn't get one that didn't have it.
I'd be happy so long as the device has the codes, regardless of whether they're on the remote. It so happens that my pre-pro doesn't have a dedicated "ON" button on the remote. What you do is click the individual source buttons and that will turn it on to that source. Then there's an OFF button which turns it off. There's also a simple ON command, but that's not on the remote.
Aside from on/off, the only discretes I need to create a decent macro are inputs, and possibly something that will set the receiver's audio to some sort of auto-decode mode.
See you do get that these things are about device design. It's not necessary for them to be on the OEM remote because that remote isn't the one being set up for automation. Most average people aren't going to do the IR learning dance. BTW, some manufacturers also have dedicated teaching remotes that are basically a huge grid of buttons with all the commands on them, specifically to teach other remote. Crazy eh?
As much as I love Remote Central, I simply haven't found this to be the case. "Many devices," sure, but I can't tell you how often I run into brick walls trying to find just discrete on/off for a device for a client.
Remote Central remains the authority on remote codes, though in the past years some people have left the community and, I'm sad to say it, some have passed away. But if you're looking for a discrete and you don't want to contact the manufacturer, or they're unresponsive, you should post in the RC forum if it's not something already part of their file area.
The most common is cable boxes
Yeah, I agree, they suck.
What? This doesn't make sense to me. Why would I blame them? Like I said, those codes are hard to get, and the high-end remotes don't have them either.
Because the makers of those remotes are responsible for what's on them. Actually, it's the makers of the database chip they use, and unfortunately many of them simply license the same chip. There are very few providers of IR databases out there. Anyway, these guys can get them the same as you and me, from the manufacturers. It's a LOT of bloody work though and it's why many are lacking. And why at one point I had a better IR database than anyone in the business other than Logitech/Harmony.
Again, I simply have not seen this. First, where is this "Pronto database?" I haven't seen one.
DIdn't you say you have a Pronto? There's a database of codes built into the software. It includes some discretes the last I recall. URC's software includes discrete commands in as many of their data sets as they can and they also have discrete-only sets that they update as they can.
[/quote] And I suppose things might have changed since I owned my Harmony remote, but when I had it it didn't find one single discrete code for any of my devices. How would you know if it did, anyway? Isn't the point of the Harmony that you don't think about those things?[/quote]
Most consumers aren't supposed to think about those things. But if you read what I wrote at the top you'd know that didn't apply to me. I am pretty familiar how the Harmony software and remote work inside and out. Not as familiar as I wanted to be, but I knew as much as one could know without sitting over the shoulder of their developers reading the source code. That said, what I mentioned about discretes is in fact more general a fact than that. If you have ever added a device from scratch or reconfigured the power and input commands, or just taken a look at the complete list of commands for one device, you'd see that their software tracks POWER ON and POWER OFF in addition to toggles and when available and so-configured, the discretes will be what's used to power on and off a device. The toggle is the last resort.
What's unfortunate is that with such a large community and lax controls over the DB, there is a ton of duplication in the DB and a lot (a LOT) of mess/crap. Some of the duplicated devices don't include the discretes, some include completely bogus commands, etc.
Anyway, I don't think we'll see any changes in this regard. TV remotes won't come standard with ON and OFF buttons any time soon. SOme will, but they will by far be the exceptions.
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