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I did a post a while back on XMP based remote controls, and I’ve noticed a LOT of interest in the subject so it’s time to give a bit more detail since Comcast, in particular, is beginning to hand those remotes out like candy.

So, let’s start with the basics – most people are trying to get more information because they got a new Comcast DVR and suddenly neither their old Comcast remotes or their fancy universal remote will work with the new box. In fact, in many cases, a code does not exist in your universal remote nor can it learn the codes for the new box. Your first thought is, “What, are they insane? – putting out a system that completely cripples all my controllers dooming me to have to explain to my wife again how all the fancy toys are worth it when no one can even change the TV channel anymore…”

There are three “typical” remotes being handed out right now, and it is easy to tell the difference -

The one on the left is the standard Comcast remote and works all of the legacy Motorola and Scientific Atlanta Boxes. The old familiar black(SD) and Silver(HD and DVR) boxes as well as the newer “compact” SD box (Not the DTA) all work with the legacy remote only.These are the ones to look for…

Newer boxes – namely the Cisco RNG/PNG200 series and the latest Motorola boxes (look for the more square front ones)

and the new Mot boxes (the top one in this pic) use the newer XMP protocol (the middle remote above – the “dark grey one”)

The bottom box is a DTA – and uses a completely different remote… (The litle black one in the top picture)

One note, some of the newer Motorola DVRs will accept EITHER the legacy silver comcast remote or the dark grey one – A very nice thing indeed.

To decode a little, the silver remote uses a legacy code that nearly every universal remote already has in it and it is easily learnable.

The dark grey remote uses the XMP protocol and the DTA is different than both of them.

The XMP protocol is a new development from Universal Electronics – bottom line is that it functions much like a standard code but they tightened up the specs. Specifically the tolerances are such that without a patch, a standard universal remote cannot learn the codes. Why? because according to the older specs, it is ok to be a little sloppy – that rising edge of the pattern might be off by 7% or so and nothing in the system really cares. The new protocol has to be much more accurate. Here is the really fun part, most legacy UEI remotes cannot even learn the new codes. In their brilliance, UEI made it so they obsoleted many of their own remotes in the field.

Why would they do this? Opening the door for later two way communications is one good reason – future remotes that can actually receive data about what is being played and show it right in your hand – cool (but dont count on ever getting anything like that free from Comcast – are you kidding?)… More likely it is a competitive thing – what better way to step on UEI competitors than making it so that the latest cable systems won’t work with competitors products – because UEI has BOTH Comcast, DirecTV and Dish contracts as well as a very healthy stand alone universal remote  business. For shame.

And, Cisco implemented the remote receiver extremely poorly – even with a really good remote control, the suckiness of the Cisco box means you almost have to be right in front of it to change the channel – forget about changing the channel from the kitchen. Makes sense I suppose as Cisco is new to the business just having purchased Scientific Atlanta, and when one company buys another they always seem to know more about how to do things than the expert company they bought – this is the perfect example. My suggestion, if Comcast tries to hand you a Cisco box – refuse – demand Motorola.

As a side note, BOCS systems actually use a uEI chip and a simple firmware upgrade solves the issue (more suspiscion that this is a competitive strike), and like new DVD encryption that comes out periodically (like on the latest Twilight-New Moon DVD) it is quickly broken and systems are patched.

Bottom line – if you got a new dark grey comcast remote and your older universal will not work with your new set top box, go to your universal remote’s website and see if there is an upgrade – likely it will take a little work but you can do it.

I’ve collected a LOT of data and scope/screen shots of the new protocols and happy to share that with anyone that wants to take the next investigative step -

Good luck and don’t forget that with the new Comcast “going all digital” changeovers, there is no better way to get all your channels back than to install a new BOCS system.

DF

This will look much better in the Wiki version, but there are a few firmware versions out there now with a few slightly different features – yeah we learned a LOT by having a bunch of folks using the product literally every day and have upgraded some features from time to time.

Rather than doing the the traditional way – “1.1.1.2 changes these things” let’s flip it around – I’ll list the major changes (the ones an end user might notice) and let you know which firmware version it shows up in.

First – what does your remote look like – if it is this one (<- Left – with the circular top) you have an alpha unit – basically forget it – that is discontinued and firmware is completely incompatible. Call us for a replacement system. You were an early adopter so we will make you a very special deal. I really didn’t like this remote – buttons too small, too many buttons, too many colors…

If you have a production system you have a remote that looks like the one on the right –>

This is the only one we are supporting – but unless you have had your unit for more than a year – this is what you have… Don’t worry what the buttons or markings look like – as long as the pause button is not bright yellow you are good.

The firmware version can be found in the battery compartment under the left battery – you will see a label that looks like this: The Firmware version is the last 4 digits on the F/W line – so this version shown is 1114

Your serial number is the number after the S/N:

OK – now for features:

Learning:

Learning is the ability of a device in the Xtender system to “suck in” an IR code from an Original (OEM) remote that came with a device. By default, the Xtender has learning enabled – i.e. if you plug an ipod dock into the “Blue” channel – we don’t have codes already in there for iPod docks – so you put Xtender into learn mode (Red + enter) then press the play button on the BOCS remote (where you want to put the learned code) – then you point the OEM remote into the IR window on the front of Xtender and push the play button – Xtender sees the light flash, remembers it, and next time you press play on the blue channel it regurgitates that code into the little IR bug stuck to the front of the ipod dock. But the remote itself needs to be able to suck codes in as well – for controlling TVs and other devices that stay in the room with the remote and are controlled not through Xtender but via the little IR lights on the front of the remote itself…

Here is where we made a mistake – we assumed that needing learning on the remote itself would be rare (since we pretty much have every TV code ever made already stored in the remote) – but it turns out that people frequently want to customize the remote – like putting the TV input button somewhere they can remember on a particular button. So Remotes used to come with learning disabled by default. We did build in a cool little way to activate learning – in the beginning a customer would call up tech support, give a credit card number, we would charge $10 and provide an unlock code to activate learning… For now we are waiving the fee – just call tech support and we will provide a free upgrade code – you hold down a couple buttons, punch in a nine digit number unique to your serial number and learning is activated.

For all NEW remotes with firmware version 1450 or newer Learning is activated on the remote by default

Fast Tuning

Some TVs, when entering multiple digits to change channels, want to see +100, 1, 4 to go to ch 114, some want to see 1, 1, 4… and when tuning to a two digit channel some want to see 1, 4, enter or 1, 4, OK otherwise they dont change channels at all or there is a big delay after the second digit is pressed before it changes channel (waiting to see if you punch another digit)… So for firmware versions 1329 and above, we added a feature to allow adding OK or Enter after the two digits are sent to change to a BOCS channel (Red, Green, or Blue) – Hold Menu+5, then choose one of the options:

1=default, 2=+100 then two digits, 3=option1+OK, 4=option2+OK, 5=option1+enter, 6=option2+enter

So for most TVs, try 3 or 5 to speed up tuning…

Be sure to press OK to save your change before the power light goes out.

Low Battery Indicator

In early versions of firmware (1047 and older) the remote periodically checks to see if you have a low battery and if so flashes the power light briefly every 10 seconds or so… We quickly realized that turning yet another light on when your battery is already low tends to speed up the death process. So we switched to no indicator. Then we ran into a bad batch of Chinese batteries – really cheap ones apparently with little chemical mass – so poor that when we switch both IR LEDs on at the same time to change a channel that the IR chip goes into reset because the voltage is drawn down too far… Causing the remote to do really weird things – (The Local TV led would stay on for a long time and nothing was put out of the IR LEDs – so it kind of looks like the remote is doing something but it would no longer control the TV… not really intuitive that the batteries are low). So with firmware version 1317 and newer, we rapid flash the power led to show an error. Unfortunately the new plastic cases with the “Low Batt” marking in red next to the power led are still in works in China – so the indication is there but no marking yet to tell you what it means. Hopefully it is strange enough behavior that you will change the batteries.

TV input

OK – I admit it, I missed a button – TV input. For almost all firmware versions, it can be sent to the TV in Local TV mode by pressing shift then Live-TV but frankly, that is a pain – so with 1114 and newer we mapped it – when in Local TV mode – to the shift-Live TV button. But this is easy to solve with any remote by simply learning your input button – well – wherever you’d like to put it. Note that the A, B, C, D buttons (shifted to access) are mapped to direct TV inputs – different for each TV but they take you directly to specific inputs instead of having to cycle through them.

I still didn’t like it, so with 1385 and newer, it is mapped to the unshifted Live-TV button when in TV mode. no more having to push shift to change TV input.

Some learned codes do not work

We noticed that some IR codes for Sony products could not be learned either into the Xtender or into a remote. Long story short, we learn the code properly but when we regurgitate, we do not put out the code long enough (Sony and a few others want to see the code repeated a few times before they recognize it – dumb if you asked me but no one did)…

So – firmware version 1133 and higher we added a feature that if a code is learned and does not work, you can have the Remote and/or the Xtender repeat the code a while longer to make it work… You hold down the “record” and “mode of interest” button (mode of interest means Red, Green, Blue, Local TV, DVD, CBL or Aux button – whichever one you learned codes into) then select a repeat length – default is 1, but you can choose 2, 3, 4, or 5 (2 or 3 usually work just fine) then press OK to save. If you learned into multiple “mode of interest” buttons you have to repeat this for each one you want to “stretch” the IR code length for.

Favorite Channel when going to Local TV

On all remotes, when you press Local TV it (by default) goes to channel 9 – mostly so something changes when you press the button to return to local TV control – otherwise you could still be watching, say, the Red channel but since you pressed the Local TV button the remote is now only controlling the local TV and not the Red channel – confusing – so we have it go to a channel so at least something changes. Apparently change is good.

You can set any default channel to go to that you like (instead of channel 9) just press local TV, the channel you want, and then local TV again – the remote will remember that channel and go to it every time you press the Local TV button.

But – for some rooms, I really do not want the remote to go to any particular channel. So for firmware versions 1114 and higher, if you enter 00 (That is zero zero then press TV) as your favorite the remote will no longer change to any channel when you press local TV.

Why would you ever want this? – well – for instance I have this weird TV in my bedroom that cannot be changed to channel 96 by pressing 96 (I think it is a firmware glitch on Magnavox’s part – so to get to my Blue channel I hit Green (which goes to 98) then hit Local TV, channel Down, then Blue… yeah a little weird but it works – so I disabled the local TV default channel change to I could do this without holding my hand over the front of the remote. OK, I admit it, if you understood that you are special.

The Cisco PNG Set Top box from Comcast

I’m sure it is making its way out to other cable companies in other parts of the country, but if you live in Houston, you may very well get one of these boxes. (See my post specifically about how crappy the box is). But it took a firmware upgrade for BOCS to be able to control it. So, if you have that box (Or any similar STB that uses the XMP protocol) you need version 1400 or newer. Long story short, that particular code is built into the firmware and added to the list as soon as you put the batteries in – the code is 06078.

The most common firmware that you will run into right now, however is 1043

And No, firmware is not field upgradeable – it takes special PC software, very special adapters and cables etc. But if there is a feature here that sounds really good to you feel free to give me a buzz – I’m sure we could arrange a Remote swap if you cover the shipping.