HTINews Review

HomeVision - Version 2.4 - Custom Solutions Inc.
Page 2 of 3

Infra Red Setup

HomeVision has IR send and receive capability. You can teach the system to send commands to your home using any IR remote control and it can send IR commands to your entertainment system from any program, schedule or home control interface. Setting up the IR system can take a bit of time however depending on the complexity you require.

The first thing to do is teach HomeVision all of the IR codes that you plan to use. The signals can be used either to send commands to your system or to operate the Video Menuing Screens (more on these later).

A handy feature built into HomeVision allows you to test your "Standard" Remote and read the IR Codes from each button. These codes can then be listed (similar process to listing X10 devices) on the IR signal list.

In addition, the system can learn the codes from a non standard remote so that you can have the unit send these as part of a command.

Once you gone through this somewhat tedious process you can program HomeVision to send IR commands to your equipment as well as use your remote to send signals to HomeVision and have it perform control functions.

The other important feature that requires IR control is the Video Command mode.

Video Output Setup

HomeVision can control your system from a series of Menus displayed on your TV screen and controlled with an IR remote control. This is a couch potatoes dream come true. Fortunately, setting up an IR remote for video is reasonable easy. The best method is to use a OneForAll (or similar) multi device remote that has a spare TV device setting. HomeVision has several TV device codes built in so you need only select one of these for your remote control device and tell HomeVision which one you will use (by entering the correct device code).

The system will fill in the correct key codes for you. You can of course alter the key usage if you like by changing the key codes manually. HomeVision will now use these keys to control the Video Menus. To use the video system you need to install a video cable (with RCA jack each end) from HomeVision to your TV or VCR video input. There are several built in Menus but these can be customized and new ones added.

The Video Control screen lets you customize settings and command the video system directly. This one is kind of fun as you can write all kinds of weird messages to your TV screen if you're so inclined. In typewriter mode you can even pretend that you're Doogie Houser and write out some meaningful life lessons.

OK, so now we've got everything set up and defined ... whew! I guess you have to expect a lot of setup when you're using a system as powerful as HomeVision. The good thing is that this work only has to be done once (except when new equipment is added). Now let's get to the fun stuff ... programming this beast. Oh by the way don't forget to download all of this stuff to the controller before you try to use it. This is another small criticism I have. HomeVision doesn't prompt you to download and the manual and help system don't really cover it well. Obvious for experienced users but a mystery to a novice. It would be nice if each set-up and control screen had a download button.

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