The IR4PS3 Works just as promised - Page 3

I'll have to look at that - may be mine! One of the best movies I've seen - ever - and stunning picture quality, was No Country For Old Men. Couldn't find a single artifact in the entire movie. Wow. Great movie, too.

"One remote to rule them all" can you believe I've never heard that before?! But I like it! Suits my Harmony One well!
I guess Canada Post doesn't update on weekends. Saw this morning that "international item has left Canada" on 7/11 at 19:31. Can't wait! My first movie might have to be The Fifth Element Remastered on BD. And then probably Top Gun will be the first to watch when I get my new AVR supporting the HD audio formats!

Got it! Came in the mail today. Very well packaged, well protected. Ben even included an original Sony "Blu-ray Disc Remote Control" instruction manual. Can't see needing it, but nice touch nonetheless.

Looking forward to setting it up tonight. Need to pull my stand out, plug in and route my Xantech emitter, plug in the power adapter to my power conditioner and route all relevant cables. I think I'll put the IR4PS3 on the back of my stand, upper back corner using velcro, so it's out of sight from my seating.

Then add the device to my Harmony 880 and setup the PS3 activity. Looking forward to it!

Congrats. You will enjoy it. I used a USB cable from my DirecTV to power the box, works great!

Bob

Well, I'm almost set. Turns out the external power jack I bought had the wrong adapter plug. Needed a Type A plug, the one I have is 4.7mm outer diameter, rather than 2.35m outer diameter.

I actually recommended to Ben to slightly modify the wording in his pdf from:

"The external power jack is an adapter plug type A. O.D.: 2.35mm. I.D.: 0.7 mm. This plug is very common."

to:

"The external power jack you provide for the IR4PS3 must have a type A adapter plug, with an outer dimension of 2.35mm, and an inner dimension of 0.7mm. Any other type adapter plug will not fit the IR4PS3. This plug is very common".

It just wasn't very clear to me that he was explaining that there is a part on the external power jack that varies, and that I need to pay attention to the type of that variable part. I also didn't catch the meaning of OD and ID. Just poorly written. Oh well, live and learn. Now I know. Will stop by Radio Shack tomorrow and pick one up.

I bought a 6V, 300mA power supply. I'm certain the 6V is within the required range, but I'm not sure about the 300mA. Ben's pdf reads, "A 500 mA power
supply is not required, 100 mA is also fine", so I'm assuming 300mA is fine.

I'm sorry if I missed this in the thread somewhere, but has anyone had any issues following the 2.40/2.41 firmware update? I've heard that there have been problems with the IR2BT and I want to make sure the IR4PS3 doesn't have the same issue before I buy one. Thanks.

IR4PS3 is confirmed OK w/ v2.40. I've not heard of any issues w/ 2.41. I expect to have mine setup/installed tonight.

Hey thanks for the info Ronnie. Please post back and let us know how it works for you.

This gadget ranks up there as far as the best purchases I have ever made, along with my Harmony 880 remote. This thing simply works. I was going to purchase the IR2BT until I came across this unit.
I have to tweak my remote buttons tonight but other than that I highly recommend this product. It was fun to put together (I had a PS3 remote already) and very easy.
If you are tired of two remotes (I went back to two after purchasing my PS3) then this is for you. No issues with PS3 updates, turns the unit on and off as advertised, quick response, what more can I say.
Thanks Ben, keep up the great work.

Thanks for the review. I think this is the way I'm gonna go.

So I bought my external power supplier, and Type A adapter jack. All ready to install, but a rattling within my IR4PS3 caused me to remove the 4 screws and investigate. Found the IR lens to have a bit of room, causing the rattle. So I glued it in place w/ a bit of plastic superglue, and reassembled. No more rattle.

Unit works PERFECTLY!!! It is out of sight from all seating positions. Plugged the power supply into an empty receptacle on my power conditioner, plugged a Xantech IR emitter into one of only 2 empty output ports in my connecting block, secured the IR4PS3 on the back of my Salamander stand with two pieces of 1" square Velcro, turned the PS3 on w/ my controller, chose to register a BD remote control, held 'setup' on my Harmony 880 within the PS3 device, and VIOLA!!! Works just as you've all described. How liberating it is to be able to navigate my XMB with my 880!! Very nice indeed. Excellent product, Ben. Excellent customer response to my many emails, too. Thank you.

Ronnie, how did you set up your Harmony? I was thinking of using Watch a Movie activity, with the IR4PS3 as a device. You mention the PS3 device.

Everything for me went smoothly. It probably took ~2 days from initial contact (by me) until kit was shipped. First email gives you the latest info pdf. Second email gets you the PayPal info. Third email gets you the tracking no. It took 2 business days for shipping.

It is pretty easy to get the BT board out of the BD remote. After that it's hard to go wrong, nicely designed method. I'm using the USB cable that came with the PS3 for power, plugged into the back USB socket on my AVR (yes, the AVR always gets turned on first and off last in my macros).

Though I could have lived with two GOOD remotes when using the PS3, even after many years of just using one remote, I really couldn't take the ergonomics of the BD one. Too many small buttons, the ones I use regularly too close to "bad" things' buttons, no backlight, it doesn't sit right in my hand. The Sony BD remote does work very well though, why I thought a design based on its BT guts would be good.

It might be useful if Remote Central updated their IR4PS3 review. The pics there give the wrong impression. OTOH Ben may be sufficiently busy already that he might not want better info out there...

Note that the fully-assembled version isn't available from July 18 to Aug. 4.

Just programmed my URC MX-810 to control the PS3. Very nice. Works perfectly as it did with my URC MX-350 and Harmony 670 as well.

Sorry for the delay, BP.

Right, I actually added the device 'IR4PS3', but renamed it PS3. When I selected "add an activity" in my 880, you have the option of letting the 880 tell you what activities are appropriate (I believe based on your devices), or you can choose to create your own. I always create my own.

I couldn't be happier with this unit. I have my hard menu button mapped to the IR4PS3 'pop-up menu', have hard info mapped to 'select'. Have a custom button in my LCD named 'xmb', which maps to the IR4PS3 'power toggle'.

Question for all - I have one of my hard buttons mapped to the PS3 triangle, which pulls up an onscreen menu of options. One of these options is 'instant replay', which acts like TiVo - it replays the last 5 or so seconds. This menu also has 'slow fwd'. Has anyone figured out how to map directly to these commands? A default button for the IR4PS3 is 'slow fwd', and also 'slow rev' (or something similar), but neither work. The only way I can get my PS3 to slow rev or fwd is via the onscreen menu obtained via triangle.

I may call Logitech and see if they can add these commands to the database.

EDIT: Also, I have told my 880 that the PS3 has no power on, power off buttons. I've added 'power on" at the beginning of my activity sequence, and added 'power off' as custom LCD button. The reason is that if I am downloading a large file via PS3, I do not want my PS3 to shutoff and thus stop downloading. So if I'm not downloading anything, I simply hit the single custom button, then the main 'all off', and I'm good to go. Sweet sweet sweet. Awesome product, Ben. Major kudos to you.

Oooh, I could really use that instant replay feature, I never even bothered to find out what it was...typical, LOL. I will try the slow forward or slow reverse IR4PS3 commands to see if they work right here. Maybe it's what I want, like a 1.5X reverse instead of the default 10X (I thought those mapped IR4PS3 commands were for when in pause mode, like a frame advance/reverse, but now I forget...).

I'm using an "unsupported" (in the supplied doc) MX remote (NOT for beginners!!), and all the normal commands I use when watching discs work, besides all the XMB ones. I think those two commands you mentioned, along with the "colors", are the only commands I haven't tried yet.

A couple posts above I mentioned I was powering my IR4PS3 by the USB cable from my AVR, to save having another wall-wart in my system and to not have the IR4PS3 powered up continuously. I eventually decided this was a nuisance, as it required long delays in my shutdown sequence to account for the varying PS3 shutdown times i.e. the AVR must shut off after the PS3 is finished to maintain power...all PS3 A/V goes through the AVR, so it's on whenever the PS3 is used. So I'm using a wall-wart after all, but soldered the wires in so I wouldn't have to buy a new one (there are 2 very convenient pads on the IR4PS3 for this)...bye bye warranty, if one LOL.

One little thing I wouldn't mind having is an LED in the IR4PS3 that flickers when it receives a valid IR command, like my other IR receivers have...not a big deal, but would make the setup and other fooling around with the remote a little easier.

Yes, this is correct. This is the behavior I experienced. Within the default IR4PS3 database, they need to be named 'frame fwd' and 'frame rev', rather than 'slow fwd' and 'slow rev'. But if anyone can figure out the actual 'slow fwd' and 'instant replay', I would like to program those. If there is no answer by sometime this weekend, I'll call Logitech.

Unfortunately, there is no way to program a macro that uses things on the "options" menu if there's not also a remote button for them. The issue is you never know where the "cursor" is in that menu, it stays on the function you last selected in that menu. Perhaps your Harmony could "remember" where it is in the options menu, but this would be kinda complicated to do, not as easy as remembering if a device is on or off.

The only way it could be done is if Sony changed the PS3 firmware. To me, it would make sense to have the options menu "follow" the disc playing state i.e. if you are in play mode, the options menu should come up with play selected the next time you invoke it. Then we could make macros. Alternatively, they could allow some of the unused remote buttons (or any remote or SixAxis button for that matter) to be set up in the PS3 options to do a specific function when watching a disc.

As for your other queries: the frame advance and frame reverse buttons work like the functions do in the options menu. In addition, least with my remote, when you CONTINUOUSLY HOLD DOWN these buttons, they change to slow reverse and slow advance functions...cool! (Frame advance/reverse do not behave like this in the options menu.)

So we have everything except instant replay/advance buttons...I can live without them since I didn't even notice these functions until you mentioned them LOL. The slow reverse/advance will do me fine instead.

Re: the instant replay button, I wasn't thinking macro, but rather discrete code. I was able to find discrete hex codes for my Denon AVR to put the volume at -40db, -20db, and 0db upon executing any activity. These commands are not on my stock Denon remote. I'm thinking something similar for the IR4PS3 - I'm not certain we're limited to the hard buttons on the stock Sony remote. Note - the 'cursor' within the option menu is in a different location if you enter it during a given time that the PS3 is on, vs turning the PS3 off. I believe it always enters in the upper right corner upon turning on the PS3. I'm not positive here, but I believe I observed this last night when I was investigating the instant replay function.

Re: the frame advance and frame reverse buttons, when I posed my questions, I was referring to slow rev and slow adv functions, as that is what those buttons are named in the IR4PS3 device mode. But, as you lead to, they are really both.

If you are in play, and press either 'slow rev' or 'slow adv' button, the movie pauses and moves in the intended direction one frame. If you then hold that button for approx 1 sec, it continues in slow-mo. You do not need to hold the button. So, in application, these buttons are both slow rev/slow adv and frame slow/frame adv - all in two buttons. Pretty cool.

I can live without instant replay/advance, too. But, it would be a great-to-have feature. I'll keep digging - and be sure to share anything I find.

Also, I notice the 'open/close' button only causes my tray to open. Pressing it while the tray is open causes the PS3 to beep a couple 2-3 times (like it received a power-off command), though it does not turn off and the tray does not close.

I changed the name of my custom button to 'open'.

I think the only way to "close" the PS3 "tray" is to push the disc. I've never had a slot-load player where the remote could feed a disc in once ejected, always took a manual nudge.

That is true about discrete codes. The problem here is the "codes" are not really IR codes, but BT codes that the PS3 recognises. And the IR4PS3 is very limited in the IR codes it will recognise; it only recognises the ones mentioned in the docs, and feeds those to the BT module emulating the corresponding BT remote button presses (except on/off/setup). This is unlike things like your Denon (actually, what I use for a pre-pro too, 3808) that can respond to all sorts of "unmentioned" discrete IR codes that are already programmed in. For us to use new discrete IR codes, we'd need the IR4PS3 to be reprogrammed, and likely the BT module and the PS3 too...

Best option would be if Sony allowed BT codes to be assigned to functions in the PS3 setup menu for when viewing discs. Like the 4 color or the L/R 1/2 buttons.

That frame/slow advance/reverse works like with the BT remote; I never used those buttons then so didn't know... What I did (and still do, from long habit, even with VCRs) was pause first, then use the fast-forward/reverse buttons; this works exactly the same with IR4PS3 for frame/slow advance/reverse, and is how I'm used to doing these things with all my other DVD players. Saves a couple hard buttons for better things.

Re: the disc slot, right, I should have renamed the button 'eject', which I've now done. My point was that the default name is misleading. Should be named 'eject' by default.

Re: the discrete codes, your thoughts all sound reasonable. Shoot. I thought about that a bit, though not as well thought-out as you. Yeah, seems nothing we can do there.

Re: the frame/slow advance/reverse functions, I too never used the BT remote. If you are in play, and hit 'slow fwd', it will pause the movie, and the pause icon will appear on-screen. If you continue to press the same button, once at a time, the icon will briefly change to slow fwd icon (really a combo pause/play icon, during the time it takes to progress 1 frame. But if you hold the button for 1 second, the icon will change to that slow fwd icon, until you press play. All of this, of course, is the same w/ slow rev. Good discussion.

What I meant in that last paragraph above is that I can use the remote with IR4PS3 and PS3 exactly as I have used remotes to do slow/frame advance/reverse for years, going back to VCR days. So I don't have to change my habits, or learn any new button positions. And I can free up the two buttons I used for the "slow" functions for more useful stuff, without losing the functions. I don't have any idea what the button etc. layout for Harmony would be, so I may be talking about something that's useless to most people. But the IR4PS3 integrated perfectly for me, and with a few days use I've got it optimised for my viewing habits, which is what it's all about. And its IR sensor is very good, much better than the one in some gear for sensitivity. I can almost use my remote as though it's still a BT one, it does put out powerful IR though.

Thanks, Ronnie. Just got mine in the mail yesterday! Got it all set up, and ready to go. Used the door method to take apart my PS3 remote. It was already paired, since I used the guts of my existing remote. Just had to put it together! Everything works great! Love just having one remote.

I just got my IR4PS3 today, and I'm having some odd issues. I have a Harmony 890, as well. Certain buttons on the Harmony seem to send the "Power Off" signal to the IR4PS3 unit (So far, the X key, and the "Ok" key in the center of the d-pad, which is probably mapped to the X key) but nothing happens to the PS3. Other commands don't seem to work correctly, and the Power Off command just brings up the on-screen menu of "Turn off System, Turn of Controller," then moves down, and up, and just sits there without powering off. Do I have a bad unit, or is the IR4PS3 entry in the Logitech database goofy?

Everything that doesn't work as expected:
L1 - Also sends "power off" signal to box, but does nothing to the PS3
Popup/Menu - Also sends "power off" signal to box, but does nothing to the PS3
ScanRev - Also sends "power off" signal to box, but does nothing to the PS3

EDIT: After seeing the explanation of the power-down macro (down down down up x x) I can see now why it doesn't work, due to my issues with X. I'm guessing that my unit is somehow bad, since that macro, as I understand it, is internal to the IR4PS3 itself, and has nothing to do with my remote. However, if you have other ideas, don't hesitate to post them. If there is some way I can modify the command to work, I will.

What power supply are you using? (IIRC the docs say there could be erratic operation with a very low voltage one.) Did you get the complete unit, or did you already have the BT remote? (i.e. they are tested before sending, but it comes to was the whole device tested, or just the IR4PS3 board)

I'm using the USB power, so that should be standard. And the thing is, the behavior isn't erratic, it's straight down the line. Those buttons are always the same, each time I've tested them.

I bought the remote myself and assembled the kit, because I thought it would be fun, and it was the cheaper option. Perhaps I should've gotten the full kit.

By "erratic" I meant "not as expected", but perhaps that's not what the docs meant...I don't know since I didn't have power problems. I used USB at first too, but the source of my USB power made my shutdown macro awkward. (I'm going to get a proper USB PS next digi-key order as I could use one for other stuff too.)

This sounds like a problem for Ben. All I can suggest is: re-insert the IR4PS3 board. There is the tiniest bit of wiggle-room (least with mine) and possibly the (extremely narrow) fingers are a tad offset or not making good connection, thus the BT board is misinterpreting the emulated BT remote button press. This seems most likely to me, if power is from a *stable* USB source i.e. not a hub plugged into a hub (some PC USB ports are really hub ports).

Yeah, the USB power source is a Belkin wall wart with 2 USB ports specifically for power. I'll try out a different cable and try to re-seat the IR board. If I have no luck after that, I guess I'll talk to Ben.