Turning the WDTV Live SMP COMPLETELY off in order to also turn off the connected external hard drive always allowed for it to remember the place I was at on a video allowing me to resume the video next time, with the previous firmware.
This is no longer possible with firmware 2.01.86.
It is now necessary for me to turn off the WDTV Live SMP unit so it is in STANDBY mode and turn off the connected external hard drive separately to allow the WDTV Live SMP unit to have the resume function on a previous partially watched video.
I only turned both the WDTV LIVE SMP and the connected external hard drive completely off to hopefully allow the units to last longer and maybe also save on some electricity. I was willing to live with the much longer boot-up times of the WDTV Live SMP.
I accomplished this by using an X-10 power controller activated by a macro on my URC MX-450 remote control to turn both off.
I can live with the WDTV Live SMP going off in standby mode (which is partially on) in order to retain the resume feature on videos but I really want to turn the hard drive completely off when not in use. I accomplished this quite easily by only connecting the hard drive to the X-10 power controller and the WDTV Live SMP to a regular power outlet.
However, it is really a pain controlling the operation of the WDTV Live SMP with the macros I created on the URC MX-450 remote control without discrete on & off power buttons. Most electronic devices DO have this feature. Cannot understand why Western Digital still uses ONLY a combo on/off switch.
To: Techflaws On the surface that is true. It appears that most devices only have a single on/off combo switch. However, most electronic devices used in entertainment systems do include separate on & off IR frequencies in addition to the IR frequency for the on/off combo as well as other hidden IR frequencies that allow for other functions that are not available on the original remote control. For example, I can switch HDMI connections directly on my Samsung HDTV instead of going through the Samsung menu system requiring addition key strokes. When you program a URC remote control such as mine and other high end remote controls, you obtain additional functions that are not available on the original remote control. Users can use these additional functions in macros for full automation of their entire entertainment system.
Interesting but I think dual functions have their use. I have a digital SAT tuner that has two keys to switch from TV to radio. Why not one that simply cycles through? If TV is on the keypress switches to radio and vice versa. Same goes for the ON/OFF switch.
If you ever created macros for a high tech remote control such as those made by Universal Remote Control (URC) or Harmony you would realize how important separate (discrete) on and off power buttons are.
An example would be a macro that turns on multiple devices such as a TV, a receiver, the WDTV Live SMP unit and an external hard drive. You hit the macro button to turn on all of the above devices above but one device (the receiver for example) does not turn on. The receiver may be less sensitive to IR signals than the other devices or maybe you were not holding the remote control correctly. If you had separate on and off IR signals you could just hit the macro button again to turn on the one device that did not originally turn on without affecting any of the other devices. The OFF device will turn on while the ON devices will stay on.
With a combo on/off IR frequency, hitting the macro button again would turn on the off device but also turn off the on devices. The macro would be useless, requiring that you turn the receiver on separately.
I suggest that you go to the forum Remote Central. They could further explain the importance of separate discrete IR frequencies (such as separate on & off buttons) for use by programmable remote controls.
I see what you mean, still I guess you can’t make one for everyone. It also annoys me that there’s no best practice evolving with these things. On my few remotes here I’ve already seen 3 positions for the BACK key.
