help with sony receiver volume control.

[jryan1776]

i've got a sony str-da2es receiver, and the volume control is driving me crazy. with all the half dozen other sony receivers that i've owned over the years, the volume control from the remote control was just like any other device. press the button once and the volume goes up/down by a single unit, press and hold the button and the volume goes up/down at a constant rate...

now comes the ES receiver. a single remote button press does not increase/decrease the volume level. the receiver only responds with a display of the current dB level. if you press and hold the button down, the volume will increase/decrease more at a logrithmically rate than a continuous rate. if i press and hold the volume button, the receiver responds very slowly at first and then begins to change very aggressively. we've used this remote for years this way and have learned the timing to get the remote to respond to simple 1 to 4 unit changes, but it is always difficult to dial in 0.5 dB volume changes without a 3dB move here and there.

i've searched many many times to find a group of people with similar experiences, but i have never been successful... i've always imagined that there was a "smart" remote setting somewhere in the receiver that i could turn off to acheive "normal" control... but i've never found one.

i'm finally desparate as my harmony 680 has burned through yet another set of 4 - aaa's. i am certain that the extended volume button presses to dial in minor dB changes has been the main contributor to very poor battery life.

today i tried an experiment to use xlobby to take over volume control of the receiver. i was not able to find a method that would satisfy me... i experimented soley with the "repeat" feature of the xlobby ir command and was able to gain interesting results (posted below). if anyone can offer any advice, i would really appreciate it.

RESULTS
trialing repeat rates, i found that a single button press with the repeat rate from 1 to 17, a single button press would only bring up the dB display, but would not actually raise or lower the volume level. subsequent button presses (before the dB level indicator on the screen disappeared) would cause 0.5dB changes up or down.

(MOST INTERESTING)
at 18-25 repeats and 1 single button press at a time, the volume would move 5dB at a time from -90 to -60 (-90,-85,...,-60). after -60, the volume would change -2db at a time (-60,-58,...,-40).... multiple button presses would cause 0.5dB changes up/down each button press until the last press which would move either -5dB (<-60) or -2dB (>-60).

at >25 repeats with a single button press, the volume would move exactly double what it would at 18-25. -90 to -60 would move 10db at a time, >-60 would move 4db at a time. multiple presses react like above, 0.5dB at a time and then -10dB (<-60) or -4dB (>-60) on the last button press.

NOTE: the volume increments are exact when i say -90,-85,-80... if i start at -93.5, the receiver will jump to -90,-85,-80. this makes me feel confident that this volume scheme is embedded in the receiver and not the by product of using a custom remote and usb-uirt.


as i'm sure you can probably see, getting linear volume control is very difficult... and finding a control scheme that will allow both fine and course volume adjustments is impossible. as i write, i am wondering if i were able to have 4 buttons to control volume, i could have a fine and course set, but i don't have the buttons to spare.... any help would be appreciated.

[tswhite70]

I don't know about doing it in Xlobby but I have a somewhat similar situation. I'm using Girder and some event logic to control my issue.

First button press, sends 2 volume up commands (getting you by the initial DB display).

If Second button press within 1 second it sends 5 more volume up commands.

Next button press within 1 second sends 5 more; continues forever until 1 second expires between button presses, then it starts over.

It's not necessarily pretty and requires a little remote control awareness on the part of the spouse, but it sounds like you are already in the boat. The Girder logic is relatively simple using Timer wait commands and enabling/disabling groups.

good luck,
tsw

[jryan1776]

Thanks for the advice, I read somewhere that girder would support an initialize request and follow up requests which I though might help with this issue. I'll have to experiment more with the 60dB threshold which switches me between 2 and 5dB increments. Maybe with the Girder time delay, I can overcome this. I've not yet committed to using girder as a startup function, but it looks like this might finally push me over the edge.

I was surprised that this issue is so hard to find on forums. My past sony receivers all seemed to have responsive linear volume control the increase/decrease speed was a little slow, but nothing like what I see on this ES model.