Need Affordable Dealer/programer

[bseal]

I've had a control 4 system in my home for almost 3 years now. I have not been impressed with my dealers programing (house calls) pricing. All i need changed in my programing is the timing of a simple macro for a 400 disc dvd changer.

Is there dealers on here who can do it remotely for a reasonable price? If not can anyone give me some suggestions?

thanks,

Brian

[SRSAudio]

Where are you? What equipment? Any details?

[bseal]

Where are you? What equipment? Any details?

I'm In Salt Lake City, and it's my Sony 400 disc DVD changer (DVP-CX985V) that has poor timing.

When you go to cover art from control4's on screen and select a movie it does wait long enough for the DVD player to power up before starting the Marco. If I power the DVD player on first, then select a movie it works fine.

[slemay]

bseal - I've worked with this and the 995 before... they're NOT pretty to program.

I created a driver for the 985 that works 100% of the time... but it takes a good 30 seconds to turn the player on... and another 15 - 20 seconds to select a movie. So almost 60 seconds later it'll start playing your movie. BUT - it's what had to be done to get it to work 99% of the time (1% is that once in a blue moon, some new movie comes out that starts playing and it ignores all commands sent).

Anyways - most of the dealers on here, I'm sure can help you out. Feel free to contact them or myself. As long as your have remote access (4Sight) - any dealer should be able to help you out remotely.

[michelo76]

I am using an older sony DVD changer that has the same problem with the 985, I just program the DVD to come on whenever the room powers on no matter what the selected device is and send an IR code to power it off when room powers off. My DVD changer is in the garage with rest of my equipments so it does not bother me and works out better than waiting.

Michelo

[neil12011]

long live the 777!!

[slemay]

Michelo - we did that for a while, but the problem with it, is that during the POWER ON MACRO phase - the system STOPS responding to any new requests to that controller. So if I have the 985 and a Satellite receiver plugged into a HC-300 (for example) and turn the TV on... it sends the power on macro sequence to the 985... but the customer may want to watch satellite and choose that from the navigator. This is where the problem comes in... even though the customer does not want to use the 985, nor even realizes it's turning on, he/she is forced to wait for it to power on (ie: power on macro must complete) before the controller moves over to controlling the satellite. So the TV might come on in 5-10 seconds... another 5 seconds for the customer to select Satellite - but it's a good 15-20 seconds before the satellite turns on. I was getting calls that things were very slow - and this is what we tracked it down to be...

Our solution: NOT to turn it on with the TV but just explain to the customer, that when they want a movie... they have to wait 60 seconds (approx)... since they saved $500 on the changer... the few customers that this effected, were happy to take the compromise.

[michelo76]

Shawn, thanks for the clarification. So I take that the 985 or 995 does not have Discrete Power. I Am using an old DVCX-875P (300 discs) with discrete power capabilities so it does not take long to power on the room. My only problem is the first time you choose a movie using the cover art it just goes to the dvd and you have to see the whole macro being executed, after that if you choose a movie you will get the C4 "please wait, your selection is loading". BTW I am using the 777es IR driver and it works fine. I am glad because I was about to get a 995 for a good price I guess I will stay away for now.

Michelo

Michelo

[slemay]

The DO have discrete power, but the problem with the Sony's is that they'll start to play the last disc. So, in your startup macro you have to account for that - in order to choose media from the NAVIGATOR, the changer MUST be sitting at the Sony banner screen (not playing a DVD etc...) - so the driver I wrote takes a bunch of "possible" variables into account and works around them (for example, some DVDs won't let you click STOP until it gets to the MOVIE - well that can be a problem when turning the player on and it starts playing the movie - even though it's not the one you want to watch).

This is the trouble with a 1-way driver... you can't just tell the player "DO THIS" and read it's responses and act accordingly, you've got to "guess" as to what it's trying to do etc...

That's why the driver takes so long to start up... but it works 99.9% of the time, and the few times it hasn't is usually because of something done incorrectly (like I'm trying to play a 2nd movie without stopping the first) - there are too many different variables for guessing every scenario.

[michelo76]

Thanks Shawn, I understand now.

Michelo