SR-260 Bunch of questions

[Jakelay]

Hi all. Did a lot of searching but hard to find some of this info scattered throughout the forum so hoping I can get some input from the gurus.

Trying to decide on shortcuts and programming for SR-260s in rooms. I have a rough idea about what I think I want to do but hoping I can get a bit more info to narrow this down:

1. Can any of the buttons be programmed with a double or triple press or press and hold?

2. Is the ‘cancel’ button usually used as the ‘back’ command? On our DTV DVRs it is very useful to be able to hit the back button - saves having to go through multiple menus.

3. Can different buttons be programmed for different functions based on the device in use? For example, when using the DTV boxes, color keys operate as normal. When using ATV they can be used for different commands?
 

4. Dot shortcut buttons - what do people use these for? I have a few ideas that I know we want to setup as shortcuts but due to the 3 button limitation, I’m rethinking this - or not - if there are double or triple press options. For example, I’d like my wife to be able to select her DVR and ATV as two of the shortcuts. Much easier than hitting ‘watch’ and then selecting them. That leaves one button left over. I wanted to have one of the buttons turn off the lights and then I also wanted to have a button that could activate a sleep timer. So that’s 4 shortcuts I would want to program but only 3 shortcut keys. Suggestions? 

5. Turn off room vs turn off audio/video only - What do most people do for turning off A/V but not lights? From what I’ve seen, for room off there is a confirmation screen that pops up (I believe can be bypassed?) to turn off the room. However, what if we want to just turn off the Tv and audio but leave the lights on? New to lighting integration so little things like this never even popped up in my mind until just now. How do folks use the ‘off’ button.

6. Is there a way to change what is shown on the remote screen when hitting the ‘list’ button. For example, could we have our source shortcuts, lighting off and sleep timer functions on a ‘favorite’ screen that pops up first? Not a lot of info online for me to see this myself. If this is possible, the shortcut keys are less of an issue as it would just be a button press and then a selection vs going through a bunch of menus.

7. AVR settings feedback - I want to have an easy way to limit loud sounds at night on our one TV. Once I figure  out which setting I want, is there a way to set a toggle and get feedback on the state of that setting on the remote? (Denon Avrx2600H)

8. May have to deal with a rare occurrence where we watch a DVR on two zones but with mixed audio so the multi channel will only get 2 channel sound without a down mixer (I know the C4 matrix has this built in, going with a different matrix for other reasons). I want to have an easy command that I could use to reset the EDID/HDMI handshake to set the audio back to multi channel in that room once the other Tv is turned off. Anyone have an idea bout how to program this to happen automatically or on an SR-260 and if so, how? 
 

9. Are experience buttons able to be accessed on the SR-260? I’m not super familiar with them but wondering if that would help with #8 above and other things.

Thanks again everyone!

[South Africa C4 user]

1. Yes, but you need to program this yourself with a timer and a count for every press.  I use a triple (or more) press of the red button (inside 2 seconds) to set off the alarm.

2. Yes.

3. Yes, but this is often driver dependent. Many drivers allow you to map these keys or leave them for programming.  In programming, you can program by source.

4. Yes you could program double and triple taps (as in 1 above).  Will be a fair bit of programming.  I use them to turn all lights off, close all blinds and set a Watch TV lights setting...

5. by default, the room off links to AV only, not to lighting.  You can link lighting in.  For instance, our TV is in a lounge of our bedroom.  When we turn the room off, it turns off the TV and speakers.  I have then programmed it to do different things depending on the time of the day.  In the evening, it turns all lights off (they usually are off anyway) and turn one rope light on at a very dim level so that I can find my way to bed but not wake my wife if she is already in bed.

6. No.

7. Yes - although the feedback bit is not easy and won’t necessarily be intuitive.

8. No idea.

9. Yes but not intuitive

As I answered all your questions, I came to realise that I have really moved on from the SR260 and am firmly in the Neeo camp now.

[Jakelay]

Thank you sir - very helpful!

I’m thinking I may need to consider a Neeo for two areas where we would use these areas most and maybe have the wife use one and keep the SR-260 on my side of the bed for some of the deeper menu commands.

Appreciate the info and would love to hear anyone else’s thoughts on some/all of the above, especially uses for shortcut/dot buttons.

Thanks again!

[Cyknight]

Another Perspective

1 In theory yes, and it's ok to do as described for a color or custom button (the 1,2,3 dot buttons) but limit yourself as it is easily forgotten what all of them do.

2 ehm. NO. back is usually PREV(ious) though depending on the driver in some cases, especially cable/sat boxes cancel may b e used for back or 'live' instead. It's driver dependent

3 Not quite Colour buttons CAN be defined in the driver, and most drivers wil allow assigning specific device commands to those buttons (and, again to the custom 1,2,3 buttons) which will then be triggered no matter what room that source is used in. You can ALSO program over-all functions to those buttons PER ROOM (as in what room the remote is displaying) - but doing both will result in both functions happening. To prevent that, you'd have to program in a whole string of IF statements, room by room. Can be done, but realize the work your going for (and remember those dot buttons!!)

4 Exactly the sort of thing what you're looking to do, but you're overthinking the complexity of pressing watch then selecting the source. Just put her preferences at the top. You'll likely find it is a non-issue.

5 Pop-up is only on neeo (and can be disabled), room off IS A/V off as mentioned.

6 Nope.

7 Sure, those dot buttons will do nicely. I would assume there's no true feedback (at least not on a sr260 remote) - but if you're doing C4 lighting you could have a button or switch LED color (or all of them int he room) change color to provide a 'room state' feedback.

8 Use a switch that can downsample. Frankly almost any other work around will not be reliable UNLESS the source driver/device has a built-in ability to directly set the audio output (never came across one). Yes I know you mentioned you're 'going for a different switch' - but if this is the function you need, you need to get the right gear.

9 They're there, but as mentioned it's not intuitive, that's not what they were designed for. Any experience button under watch or listen is jsut there, so it's usuable enough, but when it comes to some of the feedback you're mentioning, that's not available on the SR260

[Jakelay]

Great info - thank you!

On the prev/cancel buttons I’ll likely just have to try both once things are set up and see how the driver is programmed. Usually prev takes you back to the previous channel and then just toggles between those two most recent channels whereas the back key can keep taking you back one menu step each time you press it. I’ll see what does what the default is for the DTV boxes and see if it needs programming to adjust.

For most everything, it seems like a Neeo might be a good option or the app since I’m not getting touchscreens to start - might add them later. I might grab a Neeo just to try it alongside the SR-260 since there seems to be some tradeoffs between the two.

Really appreciate you all taking the time to comment! Hoping I can pay it forward once I get some experience under my belt.

[WisC4]

Any news on SR-260 firmware updates?

[msgreenf]

Don't expect any.