You could try learning the buttons instead of the codes to see if it behaves better.
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HBO-specific URC MX-980 Issue
I control my Roku (and other A/V devices) with my URC MX-980 remote. I use only infrared. The remote works well with all my devices, including Roku, with one odd exception: When I stream HBO MAX and view the scrollable list of videos on the main screen, the remote’s LEFT/RIGHT buttons consistently cause the horizontally scrolling list to skip over selections. Usually, no matter how quickly I press and release the button, the on-screen selection skips not to the next item, but to the one after that. Sometimes, the selection will skip over two items, landing on the third item to the left or right of where it started.
I first noticed this issue on my old Roku 3. I recently upgraded to the Roku Ultra, and the issue persists.
When I got the Roku 3, I used URC’s AUX.565.LEFT and AUX.565.RIGHT codes for the LEFT and RIGHT buttons. When I got the Roku Ultra, I found URC’s codes specific to the Roku Ultra, and I used Streaming Media Player.992.Left and Streaming Media Player 992.Right to program the buttons.
In both cases, for my old Roku 3 setup and for the new Roku Ultra, I set Minimum Repeat When Pressed = 1, and “Repeat while button is pressed” is enabled. Am I correct that these settings should reduce as much as possible the risk that Roku will interpret a single button press as multiple presses, while preserving the ability to scroll when desired?
As an experiment, I programmed unused buttons to use the same Roku Ultra LEFT/RIGHT codes, but disabled “Repeat while button is pressed”. This solves the unwanted skipping-two-or-three-menu-items behavior, but scrolling is not possible.
Can anyone suggest a reason why HBO MAX behavior is different from the other (dozen or more) Roku streaming channels I use regularly, all of which have horizontally scrolling menus and none of which exhibit the problem I see on HBO? Is there a workaround or solution that’s better than my hack of using special HBO-only buttons on my remote that have “Repeat while button is pressed” disabled?
I first noticed this issue on my old Roku 3. I recently upgraded to the Roku Ultra, and the issue persists.
When I got the Roku 3, I used URC’s AUX.565.LEFT and AUX.565.RIGHT codes for the LEFT and RIGHT buttons. When I got the Roku Ultra, I found URC’s codes specific to the Roku Ultra, and I used Streaming Media Player.992.Left and Streaming Media Player 992.Right to program the buttons.
In both cases, for my old Roku 3 setup and for the new Roku Ultra, I set Minimum Repeat When Pressed = 1, and “Repeat while button is pressed” is enabled. Am I correct that these settings should reduce as much as possible the risk that Roku will interpret a single button press as multiple presses, while preserving the ability to scroll when desired?
As an experiment, I programmed unused buttons to use the same Roku Ultra LEFT/RIGHT codes, but disabled “Repeat while button is pressed”. This solves the unwanted skipping-two-or-three-menu-items behavior, but scrolling is not possible.
Can anyone suggest a reason why HBO MAX behavior is different from the other (dozen or more) Roku streaming channels I use regularly, all of which have horizontally scrolling menus and none of which exhibit the problem I see on HBO? Is there a workaround or solution that’s better than my hack of using special HBO-only buttons on my remote that have “Repeat while button is pressed” disabled?
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I tried to do that, but the remote that comes with the Roku Ultra doesn't use IR. When I get a chance, I'll dig out the old Roku 3 remote, see if it uses IR, and check whether learning from it is possible and useful. I'll post again if I have anything to report.
Other possibly useful info: (1) The (non-IR) remote that comes with Roku Ultra works fine on HBO MAX. (2) I can use my MX-980 with my Apple TV 4K streaming device. When I view HBO MAX on Apple TV, I have no problem with the MX-980 LEFT/RIGHT buttons. Those buttons are programmed with URC's supplied codes for Apple TV, which may be out of date but appear to work (Blu-Ray/DVD.329.Left and Blu-Ray/DVD.329.Right).
My issue appears to be specific to the combination of HBO MAX and Roku, and I suspect the source of the problem is HBO, Roku, or both -- not with my MX-980's programming. But I'll continue to tinker with my remote.
Thanks Mike for the suggestion.
Other possibly useful info: (1) The (non-IR) remote that comes with Roku Ultra works fine on HBO MAX. (2) I can use my MX-980 with my Apple TV 4K streaming device. When I view HBO MAX on Apple TV, I have no problem with the MX-980 LEFT/RIGHT buttons. Those buttons are programmed with URC's supplied codes for Apple TV, which may be out of date but appear to work (Blu-Ray/DVD.329.Left and Blu-Ray/DVD.329.Right).
My issue appears to be specific to the combination of HBO MAX and Roku, and I suspect the source of the problem is HBO, Roku, or both -- not with my MX-980's programming. But I'll continue to tinker with my remote.
Thanks Mike for the suggestion.
You could try learning the buttons instead of the codes to see if it behaves better.
If you unplug the roku, the remote will switch to IR mode so you can learn from it. Then plug the roku back in when you are done.
Ah, thanks for the tip. I'll give it a try and report back, but won't have time tonight.If you unplug the roku, the remote will switch to IR mode so you can learn from it. Then plug the roku back in when you are done.
I followed AlienWarlock's advice and learned the LEFT/RIGHT buttons from the Roku Ultra's remote in IR mode. The unwanted behavior is still there, same as it was with URC's programmed codes.
I welcome any other suggestions, but doubt it's possible to solve the problem by programming my URC remote.
I'll post my question on a Roku or HBO forum (I just noticed that community.roku.com might be useful). There could be others who have noticed this issue. But the number of people who use Roku AND subscribe to HBO MAX AND use an IR remote instead of the Roku-supplied remote AND participate in relevant forums is likely small.
I welcome any other suggestions, but doubt it's possible to solve the problem by programming my URC remote.
I'll post my question on a Roku or HBO forum (I just noticed that community.roku.com might be useful). There could be others who have noticed this issue. But the number of people who use Roku AND subscribe to HBO MAX AND use an IR remote instead of the Roku-supplied remote AND participate in relevant forums is likely small.
Posted the following sometime back:I control my Roku (and other A/V devices) with my URC MX-980 remote.
Add HBO Max to Netflix and Amazon. I have made other changes and will have to see what I have done. In the meantime you can download an older MX-980 .CCP file of mine from here. It's the free version Saber so it will make you wait. You can import the Roku as a device from my file into yours or use the Transporter to import only the keys of interest.For the Roku Ultra 2019: Most of the codes were from the URC database. For Netflix and Amazon apps, the cursor will move by 2 for each button press no matter if I told the MX-980 to send only one time (no repeats). For all other aspects the cursor works as expected. I procured a Inteset, Model INT-422-3 remote and it worked fine with the Roku so I learned the cursor into the MX-980. This works with Netflix and Amazon as expected except it will not repeat while holding down one of the cursor buttons even tho I have repeat set to on in the MX-980. So I use the database codes for the cursor pad and have 4 keys for cursor movement when using Netflix and Amazon.
Thanks so much for your reply. I downloaded your .CCP file and will experiment with it when I get a chance (may take a few days). Based on your short description, I expect your IR codes will improve usability. I'll post an update when there's news.Posted the following sometime back:
Add HBO Max to Netflix and Amazon. I have made other changes and will have to see what I have done. In the meantime you can download an older MX-980 .CCP file of mine from here. It's the free version Saber so it will make you wait. You can import the Roku as a device from my file into yours or use the Transporter to import only the keys of interest.
I added your .CCP file to my CCP devices list, so I can see your entire remote setup. I also copied your Roku device to my own daily use CCP file and downloaded it to my remote so I could try it out.Posted the following sometime back:
Add HBO Max to Netflix and Amazon. I have made other changes and will have to see what I have done. In the meantime you can download an older MX-980 .CCP file of mine from here. It's the free version Saber so it will make you wait. You can import the Roku as a device from my file into yours or use the Transporter to import only the keys of interest.
Testing your Roku setup on my Roku Ultra, I see that your customized UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT buttons behave exactly as you described in your earlier post. Unless I’m missing something, your solution works the same as one of my experiments, when I used the standard URC LEFT/RIGHT codes but disabled “Repeat while button is pressed”. Both solutions solve the cursor-skipping problem but make scrolling while holding the button impossible. And both solutions use a separate set of cursor-control buttons, different from the normal joypad, dedicated to the problematic Roku apps.
I may have found a solution that’s less awkward. For now, I’ve assigned my customized Roku LEFT/RIGHT codes to the unused CHANNEL UP/DOWN button. If they work well during normal use during the next few days, I’ll move the customized codes to the regular joypad.
For testing purposes, I’ve assigned pretty simple macros to the CHANNEL UP/DOWN buttons. They use the standard URC Roku Ultra IR codes, and they look like this (using the move-left code as an example):
IF (Press Time >= 1 Second)
IR (Streaming Media Player.992.Left)
ELSE
IR (Streaming Media Player.992.Left)
The first IR instance has “Repeat while button is pressed” enabled; currently I have Minimum Repeat When Pressed = 1. The second IR instance has “Repeat while button is pressed” disabled.
This code avoids the unwanted cursor-skip problem but allows scrolling if the button is pressed for a second or more. Based on a quick test, the customized button behavior works well both for the problematic HBO MAX app and for other Roku apps. It might be nice to reduce the 1 Second value in the macro to less than one second, but the CCP programming application doesn’t seem to allow a fraction of a second.
Unless I find unexpected problems that my quick test did not expose, I’m reasonably happy with this solution.
A few weeks ago I added added a conditional statement (If, Then, Else) to my system Off macro. After doing so my second X10 device stopped turning off so I added a 1 sec delay between the two and it started working again. Part of the macro:Unless I find unexpected problems that my quick test did not expose, I’m reasonably happy with this solution.
ALIAS [Lights/Page2/9 Equip]
ALIAS [Lights/Off]
DELAY [1.0 Second]
ALIAS [Lights/Page2/16XLS1000]
ALIAS [Lights/Off]
Changed my Roku again, did the following to the MX-980 cursor pad. Up is listed below, just do the same for Down, Left and Right using the appropriate codes. 839 is Roku 1, 992 is Roku 4. Could have used all 992 or all 839 but using both made macro more clear to me.Unless I find unexpected problems that my quick test did not expose, I’m reasonably happy with this solution.
IF (Press Time < 1 Second)
☐ IR (Streaming Media Player.992.Up)
ELSE
☐ IR (Streaming Media Player.839.Up)
992 Up is set for no repeats
839 Up is set for 1 repeat and repeats while button is pressed
So for short cursor button press it moves just one time, hold the button down it will scroll.
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