All off – and on. And off.
The ZR800D has two hard buttons that have so far not been covered. Those are [All Off], near the top, and [Show View], near the middle.
When it is held down for 3 seconds, the [All Off] key is pre-programmed at the factory to send the assigned “Power” commands to each of the remote’s 8 devices. Conceptually this is to turn all of your devices off in one fell swoop, but the remote insists on sending the power command to every device, every time. So if only half of your devices have been powered on, the [All Off] key will automatically turn those devices off... and everything else on.
This “off” macro transmits much faster than manually recorded macros, but cannot be customized in any way. It can, however, be easily broken by making use of the remote’s learning function. Once at least two [Power] buttons contained a learned code, the [All Off] key stopped going through its normal routine and would only turn off a random number of devices – sometimes just the current device, sometimes two devices, occasionally more. It also managed to lock up the remote several times.
“Was that Judge Judy or Dr. Phil?”
The second special key, [Show View], is described in the manual as “automatically scans all channels for a brief quick view”. What this boils down to is that holding the [Show View] key for 3 seconds will cause the remote to begin continuously sending the [Channel Up] function every 2 seconds, until another key is pressed. Channel surfers with repetitive strain injury on their “channel up” fingers rejoice!
Curiously this feature is only available on the [TV] and [SAT] devices, and the command associated with this key is dictated by the preprogrammed database and cannot be changed (on all other devices this key can hold a normal learned signal). The delay between each “channel up” also cannot be changed, which proved an issue with modern digital tuners that often take one or two seconds just to tune in the channel – so when they say “brief quick view” they really mean it!
Locking things down.
The ZR800D includes a function called “Device Lock” that can be enabled on a device-by-device basis to inconvenience any accidental (or intentional) changes to the configured preprogrammed code number. A well-intentioned feature, but alas it does nothing for the remote’s learning capabilities. So even if a device has been locked, users will remain free to learn new codes or delete existing ones.
Another option is “Volume Lock”, better known as “volume punchthrough”. This allows one of the eight components to be configured as the master volume device, so that the remote’s three volume keys will operate that device at all times. This feature cannot be overridden by learning different codes to certain devices (for instance if you perhaps want to control the TV’s volume only when [TV] is selected but the amp’s volume everywhere else), so it’s an all-or-nothing proposition.
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