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Roomie Remote - Page 26

post #751 of 951
1/25/13 at 7:32pm
I'm using the Roomie with an iTach IP2IR unit and I can relate a few similar experiences.

  1. If you're going to use the L5, then you need an IR receiver. If you have a Niles IR receiver then that will work file. If you have line of sight to your cable box then it's a non-issue. All you need is the L5.
  2. I'm using a Niles IR distribution system with the Roomie and it's flawless. I have the iTach IP2IR going right into a Niles unit. I also have two additional Niles IR receivers around the house that I installed two years ago. Everything works flawlessly.
  3. It's an in-app purchase to get the Home Theater Pack. Once you are in roomie and edit a room you'll have the option to go to the roomie store within the app.
  4. Generally speaking, you don't need any adapters for IP-enabled devices. But you still need to see what device. IP is being thrown around a lot and just because a device can be put on a network doesn't mean it can be controlled via IP.

I don't see any major red flags or curve balls with your questions. Post to the roomie web site if you're concerned about any particular issue. Their support is great and you'll get an authoritative answer.
Quote:
Originally Posted by luvthefloyd View Post

Hi all, getting ready to order Roomie for my system and just trying to get a handle on a few issue. Apologies if these have been covered in previous pages.


I am planning on ordering the L5, will I need any of the adapters to control my cable boxes if so which?

Will using Niles repeaters create any issues/problems?

Where do i find pricing on the Home Theater Pack and Infrared Control Pack? I didn’t see either in the app store.


Will I need the Infrared Control Pack with the L5?

Is the L5 necessary for IR control?

Are adapters necessary for any IP devices?

Thanks in advance guys.
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post #752 of 951
1/25/13 at 7:37pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by fight4yu View Post

Yeah.. the irulebuilder UI is quite bad... 1 hr is really not enough to even understand how to do those simple thing...
One question I had for Roomie is how easy it is to add/remove button and command? I had a couple of Macros and custom commands, and does it support "drawers"?

At some point, I might switch to Roomie as I really like their TV Guide integration, and as pointed out above, if all those album arts/internet radio are supported by default, that's a big plus. I am also not feeling happy about paying $15 extra (and that's PER device)... So for Onkyo, I just paid $5 and go to Oremote.

Super simple to add buttons and macros and toggles. I haven't seen the ability to have drawers so that might be the only thing. Ask the question about drawers on the roomie forum. If it's not already there, you can request it as a feature for a forthcoming release. I use an Anthem pre-pro and some soft buttons can only be accessed with a series of IR commands. It was a piece of cake to make customized buttons that had underlying macros or custom commands.
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post #753 of 951
1/26/13 at 4:59am
THX, does that mean that even with the Niles repeater i have to buy the itach? I was hoping to sidestep the additional expense.
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post #754 of 951
1/26/13 at 10:17am
Have a question about the guide in roomie remote.I have a time warner cable and also use a Canadian satellite.Is it possible to have the respective guides show when the appropriate source is selected.i.e if I select the sat then the Canadian sat guide would show and vice versa.?
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post #755 of 951
1/26/13 at 10:22am
Quote:
Originally Posted by shah993 View Post

Have a question about the guide in roomie remote.I have a time warner cable and also use a Canadian satellite.Is it possible to have the respective guides show when the appropriate source is selected.i.e if I select the sat then the Canadian sat guide would show and vice versa.?

yes
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post #756 of 951
1/26/13 at 11:26am
Tanks
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post #757 of 951
1/26/13 at 1:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by shah993 View Post

Have a question about the guide in roomie remote.I have a time warner cable and also use a Canadian satellite.Is it possible to have the respective guides show when the appropriate source is selected.i.e if I select the sat then the Canadian sat guide would show and vice versa.?

Quote:
Originally Posted by luvthefloyd View Post

THX, does that mean that even with the Niles repeater i have to buy the itach? I was hoping to sidestep the additional expense.

You need to define your setup. I'm assuming you already have a Niles IR receiver. Is that correct? If so you just point the L5 to your Niles IR receiver and you are good. This is all very logical. Your components need a command. It comes either via your data network into the equipment or it comes via IR. For it to come via IR you need a converter somewhere to convert it from the iphone or iPad to IR. Thats either via the L5 and then it works like a regular remote or via the iTach. if you use the iTach then you need the adapters.
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post #758 of 951
1/26/13 at 5:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thxtheater View Post


You need to define your setup. I'm assuming you already have a Niles IR receiver. Is that correct? If so you just point the L5 to your Niles IR receiver and you are good. This is all very logical. Your components need a command. It comes either via your data network into the equipment or it comes via IR. For it to come via IR you need a converter somewhere to convert it from the iphone or iPad to IR. Thats either via the L5 and then it works like a regular remote or via the iTach. if you use the iTach then you need the adapters.

Correct, both my zones will have Niles IR recievers. I plan to order the L5 and multiroom package. So with that i can skip the iTach?
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post #759 of 951
1/26/13 at 6:26pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by luvthefloyd View Post

Correct, both my zones will have Niles IR recievers. I plan to order the L5 and multiroom package. So with that i can skip the iTach?

Correct. The iTach is ONLY needed if you do not have any means of IR input. In this case, you are doing the work of the iTach via the L5 combined with the Niles IR receivers. I have an extensive setup in my home and everything terminates into an 8-port Niles IR distribution system. Roomie works flawlessly with the Niles unit and I was able to plug the iTach directly into the Niles to have it serve as an IR source. I've been very, very happy.
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post #760 of 951
1/26/13 at 6:37pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by shah993 View Post

Have a question about the guide in roomie remote.I have a time warner cable and also use a Canadian satellite.Is it possible to have the respective guides show when the appropriate source is selected.i.e if I select the sat then the Canadian sat guide would show and vice versa.?

Yes, in each activity, you can specify the guide. So you can indicate "Over the air antenna Guide" for your "watch TV via Antenna"; you can indicate "Canadian Satellite" for that service activity and also "Time Warner Cable Guide" for the Cable activity. The key here is that you can have unique guide for each activity. But you cannot have two guide options for the SAME activity. It sounds like you have these setup as separate activities so you should be just fine.
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post #761 of 951
1/26/13 at 7:25pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thxtheater View Post

Correct. The iTach is ONLY needed if you do not have any means of IR input. In this case, you are doing the work of the iTach via the L5 combined with the Niles IR receivers. I have an extensive setup in my home and everything terminates into an 8-port Niles IR distribution system. Roomie works flawlessly with the Niles unit and I was able to plug the iTach directly into the Niles to have it serve as an IR source. I've been very, very happy.

That's great news. And exactly the information i was looking for. Thank you for answering all my questions!
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post #762 of 951
1/26/13 at 9:24pm
Is anyone trying to use more than one iOS device with Roomie in the same room? We don't have a "dedicated" iOS device or a remote...at this point, we're never without our personal iPhones/iPads, so it seems counterproductive to have one ipad as "the" remote.

Anyway, currently Roomie supports activity sync between devices via iCloud, which is great if all your iOS devices use the same iCloud account. That's kind of hard to do when you use iCloud for sharing other things like personal mail and calendars.

When we used the harmony link, any number of iOS devices would be kept in sync with the current state of the Link (albeit via the not-so-reliable MyHarmony.com site). With Roomie, if I come home to a room with an activity already in progress & want to say adjust the volume on the AVR, I need to select that activity in Roomie to bring up the virtual remote. Doing so, however runs the startup commands for the activity, which can be potentially disruptive, especially if you have devices that only have power toggles in your start up commands.

Anyway, I was just wondering if anyone else has this situation & if so if there are any good work-arounds?
Edited by atebit - 1/27/13 at 3:00am
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post #763 of 951
1/26/13 at 9:53pm
I will be when i get up and running smile.gif
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post #764 of 951
1/27/13 at 6:47am
[I]"Is anyone trying to use more than one iOS device with Roomie in the same room? We don't have a "dedicated" iOS device or a remote...at this point, we're never without our personal iPhones/iPads, so it seems counterproductive to have one ipad as "the" remote.

Anyway, currently Roomie supports activity sync between devices via iCloud, which is great if all your iOS devices use the same iCloud account. That's kind of hard to do when you use iCloud for sharing other things like personal mail and calendars.

When we used the harmony link, any number of iOS devices would be kept in sync with the current state of the Link (albeit via the not-so-reliable MyHarmony.com site). With Roomie, if I come home to a room with an activity already in progress & want to say adjust the volume on the AVR, I need to select that activity in Roomie to bring up the virtual remote. Doing so, however runs the startup commands for the activity, which can be potentially disruptive, especially if you have devices that only have power toggles in your start up commands."[/I]


Try using Dropbox so you can use the same account for backup/restore on every IOS device you own.

I don't put toggle power devices in my automated activity commands. I only have one device that has this issue and I just put it in it's own activity to control it directly. It's a hassle to remember to hit the activity when in an initial state but it beats the alternative.
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post #765 of 951
1/27/13 at 6:58am
Quote:
Originally Posted by atebit View Post

Is anyone trying to use more than one iOS device with Roomie in the same room? We don't have a "dedicated" iOS device or a remote...at this point, we're never without our personal iPhones/iPads, so it seems counterproductive to have one ipad as "the" remote.

Anyway, currently Roomie supports activity sync between devices via iCloud, which is great if all your iOS devices use the same iCloud account. That's kind of hard to do when you use iCloud for sharing other things like personal mail and calendars.

When we used the harmony link, any number of iOS devices would be kept in sync with the current state of the Link (albeit via the not-so-reliable MyHarmony.com site). With Roomie, if I come home to a room with an activity already in progress & want to say adjust the volume on the AVR, I need to select that activity in Roomie to bring up the virtual remote. Doing so, however runs the startup commands for the activity, which can be potentially disruptive, especially if you have devices that only have power toggles in your start up commands.

Anyway, I was just wondering if anyone else has this situation & if so if there are any good work-arounds?

I have this issue between my wife's iPhone & my iPhone. The only device is my 103 that has an IP power toggle only. You can set it up your devices to show manual remote so you can still control the activity without disrupting the current one. Another form of sync would be ideal such as Dropbox, but until them this is my work around.
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post #766 of 951
1/27/13 at 9:16am
Right, as per Roomie, DropBox is for backup, and iCloud is for Activity Synchronization. So DropBox is great for keeping the configuration the same across multiple iOS devices. But that's not the same as automatically being in the same state as the current activity in a room.

In my case, I've been able to isolate it down to just one power-toggle component, my cable box. What I ended up doing was just leaving it on all the time & taking its power toggle out of each activity. So now the only time I need to manually hit the power button is if it gets unplugged, there's a power outage, etc. I don't think there's any real issue leaving it on all the time.

Thanks for the tip!
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post #767 of 951
1/27/13 at 11:32am
That's the main gripe with cable boxes and really the only solution is to keep them on all the time. I haven't seen any discreet codes for on or off--just toggle--and leaving the cable box on all the time solves any and all issues.
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post #768 of 951
1/27/13 at 11:36am
Th
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jano18 View Post

I have this issue between my wife's iPhone & my iPhone. The only device is my 103 that has an IP power toggle only. You can set it up your devices to show manual remote so you can still control the activity without disrupting the current one. Another form of sync would be ideal such as Dropbox, but until them this is my work around.

The other way to tackle this is to create a clone of the activity in question and call it "Watch Bluray - power on" so that the activity is the same but doesn't have the power on commands. Thus if another Roomie is in use you can fire it up without disruption. Without either discreet commands or some sort of RS-232 feedback you don't have other options. It's more of a device limitation than a Roomie limitation.
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post #769 of 951
1/30/13 at 12:42am
I too just bought Roomie and it does work. My only problem is that I can't figure out how to start plex on my Mac Mini using the remote. So everytime I want to start plex, I'd have to either use the apple remote or get off the couch and do it manually using the mouse. I don't have any IR attachments so I'm using Roomie strictly on network connectivity. Thanks.smile.gif
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post #770 of 951
1/30/13 at 6:18am
Quote:
Originally Posted by fujitasenpai View Post

I too just bought Roomie and it does work. My only problem is that I can't figure out how to start plex on my Mac Mini using the remote. So everytime I want to start plex, I'd have to either use the apple remote or get off the couch and do it manually using the mouse. I don't have any IR attachments so I'm using Roomie strictly on network connectivity. Thanks.smile.gif
As far as I know the Mac mini has no IP control, but you can use an iTach for IR.
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post #771 of 951
1/30/13 at 10:32am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jano18 View Post

As far as I know the Mac mini has no IP control, but you can use an iTach for IR.

That's correct. That's why the Apple Remote works. It's working via IR.

There is no specific IP control of the Mac Mini itself that I'm aware of. You'll either need to do an external bluetooth device like keyboard, mouse, or trackpad, etc.
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post #772 of 951
1/30/13 at 12:10pm
THX, I have a cable2go IR distribution system that I am presently using in conjunction with a NextGen IR extender to control all my devices for 3 different zones. I would like to use the Roomie Remote for my basement home theater zone and what I am wondering if I will have a problem going from an itach to the distribution hub without using the gc-gcx cable. Would a regular 3.5mm (mono or stereo?) cable work just fine?
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post #773 of 951
1/30/13 at 12:13pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by HDTV Maniac View Post

THX, I have a cable2go IR distribution system that I am presently using in conjunction with a NextGen IR extender to control all my devices for 3 different zones. I would like to use the Roomie Remote for my basement home theater zone and what I am wondering if I will have a problem going from an itach to the distribution hub without using the gc-gcx cable. Would a regular 3.5mm (mono or stereo?) cable work just fine?
I would try the cable first, only certain repeaters that operate at different frequencies need the adapter such as the Xantech. I have the C2G repeater & an IR iTach but won't be able to try it for a few days to tell you how they work together.
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post #774 of 951
1/30/13 at 12:23pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jano18 View Post

As far as I know the Mac mini has no IP control, but you can use an iTach for IR.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Thxtheater View Post

That's correct. That's why the Apple Remote works. It's working via IR.

There is no specific IP control of the Mac Mini itself that I'm aware of. You'll either need to do an external bluetooth device like keyboard, mouse, or trackpad, etc.


Thanks for the reply. That's too bad. I'll look into iTach then.
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post #775 of 951
1/30/13 at 8:53pm
Th
Quote:
Originally Posted by fujitasenpai View Post


Thanks for the reply. That's too bad. I'll look into iTach then.

The iTach is a fantastic device. I know it adds some expense but you will get lots of additional flexibility with it. Good luck and let us all know how it goes.
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post #776 of 951
1/31/13 at 6:06am
Thanks Jano, I look forward to your experience with the itach in combination with the C2G IR distribution hub. Based on your experience, I will see how to proceed. Keep me posted if you can.

Thanks
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post #777 of 951
1/31/13 at 8:03am
I don't see a way to do this but I will ask anyway. I have a Prismasonic lift for my A lens. You have to hold the button down to get the lens up or down. I know I can configure roomie to where I can manually hold the button down, but I would like to program roomie to do this form me like press for 4 sec. I don't think this is possible.... maybe I can just program several presses in a row and that might work... anyone tried something like this?
Edited by clrv - 1/31/13 at 8:16am
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post #778 of 951
1/31/13 at 3:05pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by clrv View Post

I don't see a way to do this but I will ask anyway. I have a Prismasonic lift for my A lens. You have to hold the button down to get the lens up or down. I know I can configure roomie to where I can manually hold the button down, but I would like to program roomie to do this form me like press for 4 sec. I don't think this is possible.... maybe I can just program several presses in a row and that might work... anyone tried something like this?

Create a custom remote design.
Add a button to the remote.
Have the button issue the same command multiple times or specify that the same command be repeated.

I do it with some old x-10 lights thru a Insteon controller to set initial lighting levels. I have a button for lights at half brightness instead of a slider. It turns them ON then issues 3 dim commands.
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post #779 of 951
1/31/13 at 6:20pm
If anyone is interested, I am posting a Global Cache iTach IP2IR controller. Mint and only 2 months old. Used for IR control of devices via Roomie Remote.

$80 Shipped in US

http://www.amazon.com/Global-Cache-IP2IR-iTach-Wired/dp/B003BFTKUC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359685113&sr=8-1&keywords=global+cache+itach+ip2ir
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post #780 of 951
1/31/13 at 6:23pm
Posting on amazon or on here? If it still has all the cables, etc. I'll take it. Pm me
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