TX-1000 Medius Setup

The Medius is both an IR (infrared) and an RF (radio frequency) remote. The beauty of an RF remote is that you no longer need line of sight. Heck, you don't need to be in the same room. All you need is an RF base station (like the MRF-250 supplied for this review) and a number of IR emitters and you are good to go. The way this works (in general) is that the remote is programmed with all the IR codes of all your equipment. It transforms these codes into an RF signal which is sent to the base station. The base station sends out the proper IR code to the proper equipment via the emitter which is attached (by an adhesive) directly in front of the IR receiver on your component. So, when you press the button the on the universal remote, you'll actually see the emitter flash (it uses a visible IR spectrum) at the front of your equipment. Or maybe you won't. At this point, you could put all your equipment in a different room and never have to see it again.

The first thing you'll want to do is call an installer. The Medius is a powerful tool and like almost all powerful tools, it has a bit of a learning curve. I can say that once you've gone through a little bit of training, you will not be reliant upon the installer for each and every chang... well, at least I wasn't. The programming of the remote is all fairly intuitive and logical. My background in database creation and management (I think) increased the speed at which I picked everything up. If you are fairly computer literate, I think you should be able to go in and make fairly complex changes without having to call anyone for help. Even if your solutions wouldn't be as elegant or as sleek as an installer's would be, they will still work. And that is what is most important.

Setting up the remote isn't nearly as hard I as thought it would be. Universal Remote Control keeps a database of most all of the remotes out there. When you buy a consumer level remote (or most any mid-fi component for that matter), there are usually some programmable functions. You usually need to press a few buttons and then enter a code. Suddenly, your receiver remote can now control your DVD player and TV. Those codes are no different from the codes used by the Medius except for one thing 舑 OEM remote codes are stored internally on your remote. That means that those codes are up to date only at the creation of the remote. You can never update them. The Medius connects to the Universal Remote Control IR database online and can get new codes as they are released. That means that your Medius can potentially be used forever.

The Medius is basically programmed by you on your computer. You'll need to connect a USB cable to the unit (for me, it is the same cable as the one for my digital camera) and install some software. If you have a laptop, I highly recommend you install the software there. I find it to be much easier to have the computer nearby when I want to make changes. This allows you to make more changes on a whim than you probably would if you had to go to a different room for every change. An alternative is to keep a pad of paper handy to list changes as you come across them. Either way, you'll find yourself interacting with this remote far more than you'll expect during the initial programming stages.

At the top of the user interface is the program menu. Basically, what you'll want to do is follow those steps in the order that they are presented. I've listed them with a brief description of each below:

• Create and name devices - This is where you specify the devices you have in your system as well as the layout for your macros and device control. This is just the grand list. You can be as specific or general as you want. All that is really important is that you understand what each of the labels mean.
• IR Database - Here, you connect your devices to the specific IR code. For each device, you'll pick from a list the type, brand, and model. The database will then download all the appropriate keys to your remote for each device. It's mostly intuitive except that Universal Remote Control opted to condense lots of items into a category called AUX rather than entertain countless categories.
• Edit buttons - As there are only 12 places on the LCD touch screen to program, the buttons may be spread out over a few pages. Depending on the complexity of the devices this can be quite a few (the Denon 3805 had five pages of codes). Here, you can rearrange the buttons on the pages, change the names of the LCD buttons, or assign functions to the physical buttons on the remote.
• Learn - Like all universal remotes, the Medius is a learning remote. If you have a piece of equipment that you'd like to have access to but can't find the codes in the database, you can have the Medius learn those codes like any other learning remote.
• Macro - This is the true power of the universal remote. A macro basically executes a number of commands in a specified order. This is how the remote knows to turn on the receiver, turn on the DVD player, turn on the TV, and dim the lights all with one button press.
• Punch through - If you'd like some of the physical buttons in one device to be used for another device, you can set the Punch through so that you don't have to reprogram every page. For example, if you'd always like the volume and mute buttons to control the receiver, you can punch them through so that when you hit "Mute" you'll be controlling the receiver from each device page.
• Backlight on time - This sets the time the backlight is on (I hate obtuse labels). You can manually turn the backlight off by hitting the Light button a second time.
• RF control - This tells the remote which of the six connectors on the back of the base station each of the components is connected. That way, it knows how to direct your commands.

Whew! That's a lot! But not really. Let's take a look at some of the more involved steps starting with step three.

Edit buttons

You're going to find yourself on this screen more than you'll expect. Editing the buttons is the single most important step in the process of setting up this remote. The better thought out your button layouts are, the more enjoyment you'll get out of your remote. You want to remember of a few things:

• What are the most important functions that are NOT included in the physical buttons on the remote?
• What are the most often used functions that are NOT included in the physical buttons on the remote?
• Where within the area of the LCD display is the most intuitive place for each button for you?
• How are the buttons interrelated? Is there any grouping that makes sense?

What you'll want to do is make sure you have a page (or more) of buttons laid out exactly as you want them. Check to make sure that each of the physical buttons are used (they'll have a little red dot on them if they are programmed). You may be able to place some functions that you use often on those buttons. For example, I found that the chapter forward/back is often mapped to the Channel up/down buttons. Personally, I prefer them mapped to the skip +/- buttons which are down by all the other playback controls. You'll only know to make some of these changes once you've lived with the remote for a while

Macros

Macros are at the heart and soul of a universal remote. They are what make spending the extra money on one worthwhile. A macro is simply a set of commands, linked to a button, that execute in a specified order. While not a hard to understand in concept, I've never personally used one... until now. What I like about the Medius computer interface is that everything is right there laid out for you. All you need to do is find the button, click on it, then hit "record" in the macro window. Every button you press from that point on will be part of the macro. For example, on my Watch splash page, I have eight buttons programmed, six of which are labeled. Three are labeled (in this order from left to right) Watch DVD Movie and the other three are labeled Watch Cable TV . Each of the three DVD buttons are programmed to turn on the TV, turn on the receiver, select the correct input for the TV, select the correct input for the receiver, turn on the DVD player, select the correct processing mode on the receiver. There is also a pause built in there to give the receiver and the TV time to turn on before sending the next code. I have something similar set up for the cable TV.

But why three buttons for each? Remember the six character limit? Well, I wanted to make sure that whoever picked up the remote knew what they were pressing. I could have just macroed the buttons under the words Cable and DVD but I just knew someone would complain that the remote wasn't working when they hit the word Watch or TV . I had the extra space as I don't have that many sources to watch at this time. If you had multiple DVD players, game players, etc... that might not be the case.

Author's Note: Discrete power buttons
Your regular remote may have one button that turns power on and off. That does not mean that there are not discrete On and Off codes that will be available to program into a universal remote. Since your remote has no way of knowing what the current state of your component is, having discrete On and Off codes is extremely important. If the same code turns on and off a unit, it could seriously hamper the effectiveness of your macros (you'll always want to attempt to discover a workaround which can be used to help identify the component state).

Wait... didn't I say I had macros for eight buttons? I only talked about the six with labels. True. I macroed two buttons that lead directly to the TV and Receiver menus specifically. These buttons are protected from use by unqualified people (ie everyone else in my house) in two ways - 1) They are unlabeled so people are unlikely to press them and 2) there is a 2 second hold time before the remote will bring up the appropriate screen. Actually, any button can be programmed with two macros - one on an initial press and one after a held press (held presses can be as short as 1 second and as long as 5). I've implemented this in my remote because it is far too easy to accidentally press the Watch or Listen buttons and kick yourself off the correct screen. I added a 2 second hold macro to take me to the DVD or Cable screen directly without all the switching on of all the components.

I've skipped the learning function because it is just like every other learning remote. You set the two remotes IR transmitter to IR transmitter and tell the Medius (via the computer interface) where you want the learned code to be stored and then hit the button on the sending remote. The interface will tell you if the remote has learned the code or not. In fact, the only real difference with using the Medius to learn a code and other learning remotes is the remote needs to be connected to the computer. In actuality, you can access the learning function from one of the services menus but it is a lot easier when hooked up to your computer.

RF Control
The last part of setting up the remote is connecting the IR emitters. Each of these 10 foot cables have what looks to be a teardrop shaped piece of plastic on the end. The cables connect to the base station in one of the six supplied slots. You'll connect the cable to the base station and then run it to each piece of equipment. There is a little piece of paper on the end that you can remove to reveal an adhesive. You want to place that directly over the IR receiver on each piece of equipment. Now, don't fear, your normal remote will work as well so you aren't blocking the receiver. If you don't know where the receiver is, take a flashlight and shine it into the faceplate. You should be able to locate it. If you miss the receiver, you'll know as the component will either be completely unresponsive or will respond only intermittently. I had this problem and was able to remove the emitter and reattach it successfully. These emitters are not designed to be removed once set so you may not be as fortunate as me. Luckily, they provide six emitters with six extra adhesive pads with the MRF-250 base station. This should keep you good and set up for a while.

There are some tips that you should know when positioning the emitters. First, it is vitally important that you record where you plugged in the emitter for each component. The last step is to tell the remote where each of the components are attached. If you have an HTPC which handles multiple functions, you can assign the same emitter to different sources. If at all possible, you should try to run the emitter line over the top of your component and hang it down to the IR receiver. Make sure you put a good bend in the line as it comes over the edge. This way, if the adhesive fails, the emitter may still function if it retains its position.