Once again, the Outlaws came through. Steve, in technical support, discovered the solution to the problem and contacted ME. This kind of customer focus is indeed quite rare in the AV field, and speaks volumes about the consumer oriented philosophy of Outlaw.

According to Steve, the problem turned out NOT to be a defect in the 990, but rather, to be an operational quirk.

In the system configuration, if the OSD is setup to be ON, until it is turned off all other ir operation is "frozen" (except for up, down, left, right, set, and volume).

The simple solution is to set the OSD for a timeout, anything from 15 to 50 seconds (rather than ON). In this case, the menu will automatically close when the set time expires, rather than remaining on indefinitely. As soon as the menu closes, all IR commands once again become fully funcional again.

In a word, avoid setting the OSD to ON, and choose a timeout.

Hope this helps!

CI

Cool! Thanks for the report, CI.

Good catch guys, I think I got bit by this one too, but thought it was my MX700 macros.

obie_fl: a bit off-topic, but how do you like the MX700 with the Outlaw?

I saw a cheap OFA 8 device remote marked down 25% yesterday (the one with the backlit touch screen with (overly sensitive) vibration sensor) and bought it. The stock 990 remote didn't understand my Sony DVD/VCR combo and that was a pain. The new OFA works fine, but there is no convenient way to control the input selection on the 990 (It doesn't recognize the 990 either, but it is a learning remote, so that's not a big issue): the device selection keys just select the device page on the remote. The best I can do is program one key to select the input on the 990 that corresponds to the currently selected device page on the remote (i.e. "Input" in the DVD page selects the DVD, in the Cable/Sat page selects Video2, etc.) by programming it separately for each device page via IR learning.

My wife was utterly confused with the previous setup where she had to use one remote to select the device to control (TV, Cable STB, or 990) and another to control the DVD/VCR. It doesn't help that she is confused between the diference in selecting a 990 input and selecting that input to control.

The new OFA remote lets her control either the TV, Cable Box, or DVD/VCR, but she still needs to use the 990 remote to select an input. (The fact that these functions are on different remotes actually helps her -- before she used three remotes: the 990 to select input and control volume, the DVD/VCR remote to control the DVD/VCR, and the Cable STB remote to control the STB (and TV, because it is a universal remote -- which confuses her when she accidentally select the wrong device).

Adding a "make the device selected on the remote the input for the 990" button on my new OFA would be a big help for her, but it would be ideal to have the 990 select the input that matches the device page selected on the remote automagically. I presume the MX700 can do this?

FWIW, B&O did this ages ago (c. 1987) with their Beosystem 5500: one selected a device, and the preamp switched to that input (with a "control" button prefix to control a different device without switching to it).

I acquired an MX-600 a couple of weeks after I got my 990 and have replaced all the other remotes with it. Each of the ten devices it can control has 20 commands available adjacent to the LCD screen which can be named with up to 5 characters each. In the command set for each source device I have labeled one button PREIN and have taught that button from the 990's device select button. A pleasant surprise that I discovered on the MX-600 is that a button can be taught to issue a repeating command, which makes up for the lack of a jog dial, as I do quite a bit of VCR to VCR editing. I also added the 990's lip synch commands to the buttons for each video source. Right now the MX-600 is controlling two VCR's, a DVD/CD player and a Sharp front projector. Since the Sharp has selectable aspect ratio control I've also added that button's function to a button on each video source panel.

I've used both the MX-500 (identical to the MX-600 except without the RF capability) and MX-700, and both are excellent remotes that can be made to do almost anything you might need them to (although if you get too fancy, you'll probably want the MX-700 for the greater macro support, additional devices, additional pages of buttons on the LCD screen, and PC programming interface). As for Rene's original question, there are two options. With the MX-500, you can assign a command to the device buttons (so that when you select "MAIN" to pick the device you want to control and then select "DVD", the remote starts to control the DVD player and the processor changes to the DVD input). This was a big hit with my wife. With the MX-700, you can assign macros to most anything, so the device buttons trigger macros (which in our case switch the 990 to the correct input and make sure the TV is on the correct input - component2 or DVI - and at the correct aspect ratio). I also have some "fix it if it is out of whack" buttons on each device's first page. There's "FIXTV" (originally labeled "TV IN" but renamed to make it easier for my wife to know what it was intended for) which will make sure the TV is on the correct input, and there's "TV ON" in case the remote got pointed in the wrong direction during a macro and the TV didn't come on. Toss in Bill B.'s "PREIN" button and you're set.

Thanks, Bill B., and gonk!

I hadn't realized that the cheap $75 OFA remote I picked up wouldn't let me program a command on the device selection buttons. Though, as Bill B. notes, the assignment of a "PREIN" button in each device page on the remote will work on my OFA (except that I'll have to steal an existing hard button, there being no soft ones).

I think I'll use Bill B.'s suggestion for the existing remote (and add a TV "FixME" option on one of the macro keys -- I can't disable the TV OTA tuner as an input (ARGH!), even though I can disable all but the component video input. I will plan to get a better remote in the future: I don't like leaving functionality off a universal remote and having to resort to finding the original when I want to do something rare -- soft buttons on an alternate device page are ideal for this.

At least with the existing remote, I can program the macro keys for "FixTV" operation, "TV speakers", and "Main Speakers" selections -- there are times when I just want two channel output to the TV speakers instead of firing up all speakers and sub (even though they sit in standby, with their amps always on -- the 990 is dead silent :-) when muted).

Thanks, again!

Well, I got the "touchscreen" (not really, as it has fixed button positions with a curved protective strip to provide tactile feedback) OFA 8 to work O.K. fine:

I mapped 990 volume up/down/mute to the DVD/VCR/Cable device volume up/down/mute buttons, and 990 device selection for the DVD/VCR/Cable devices all to "INPUT".

990 "Stereo" cycling was mapped to the "Audio" device Record button and thence to the M4 macro (so I can cycle processing modes regardless of device selected).

The remote is not preprogrammed to understand the 990, and I haven't had it learn more 990 buttons, just the basics, so my wife can use a single remote "intuitively": She selects a device, and presses the "INPUT" button to select that device as input. Non-source devices (TV, 990 (as "Audio" device)) have "INPUT" left alone to cycle through inputs, etc.

"Volume", when the TV device is selected, controls the TV volume independently of the 990 (when I'm not running the big speakers, though it's getting increasingly tempting to run them all the time).

I'll probably program M1 to "fix" the TV.