JP1 Remotes

I found a number of threads mentioning the 6690, but none that talk abou how folks like it. Before getting my 8811 and 8910, I looked at the MX500 which is sort of hybrid looking with it's "soft" buttons.

I also gather that an extender is available for it also. How about some general/specific usability/programmability/compare-n-contrast to other remote feedback?

Best,
jeff

Hi Jeff,

To my knowlege the jp1.2 hybrid 6690 doesn't have an extender, yet. The JP1 remote 6960 has an extender.

I've got a 6690 remote as well as a 6960 remote.

The kameleons look nice, and that's the only thing I can find nice to say about them.

I like hard button remotes.

My mistake on the extender for the 6690. Thanks for the good info vicky. I've come to rely on the extender with the 8811 (primary remote). So I guess that's a non-starter for me? I use LKP (short to select device keysets and long to execute macros) and toadtog. Aren't these available for unextended remotes?

Best,
jeff

I'm pretty sure you'll see LKP and ToadTog for these remotes in the near future. I've just started writing extenders for JP1.2 remotes.

Does anyone have a manual for the 6690 - cheers Robert

Remote Central has a downloadable pdf file

I've got a 6690 remote and it's not bad altho it does have interesting characteristics.

I'm not really sure what having the device buttons on the Kameleon part accomplishes other than make them look kinda cool. It doesn't "reconfigure" the device buttons based on what is selected or anything interesting like that.

The bottom 2 rows are what reconfigure. They switch between transport controls (ff, play, rew etc) and tv PIP, zoom etc. Net result is only 6 more buttons than you would have otherwise and not a huge amount of customization to the particular device you are currently using.

I would say over all it doesn't have a huge amount of buttons and it's not the best DVR remote since all the transport controls are on the Kameleon part. The setup button is located in the bottom right of the remote and is depress making it kind hard to use for a shift button too.

To me the most annoying thing is it has to wake up any time you press a button so any time you try to use the remote the first button press just wakes up the remote and you have to repress the key to get it to actually do something even for the hard buttons.

It does seem to have quite a bit of memory available and with some special protocols it would definitely be a usable remote. An extender could probably fix the waking from sleep thing too.

Personally I just picked up a jp1.2 atlas and so far I'm liking it. Lots of hard buttons. Pretty logical groupings and good spacings/variety. It manages to do that with out feeling overly large or hard to use. Overall I'd say it's a well designed remote for cable/dvrs which makes sense since thats what it is.

It's a bit of a gamble trying to pick one of these up since they can't be bought at retail and on ebay or similar places people don't really seem to realize or care about the differences between the different versions of the remotes. With everything from jp1 to jp1.3 versions some with learning and most with out it really is a bit of luck as to what exactly you get.

I'm not quite sure what an extender would provide. HT functionality doesn't seem like a good idea, since the buttons are not available for a press without selecting the device. You could have the X_Shift functionality though, and as Evan suggested, hard buttons could be programmed to send a signal as well as do the lcd wakeup. Of course you could have a lot more keyboard and macro space if you use the learning area.

Cheers guys for the feedback and the manual - cheers Robert