Macro Planning, Overview, Making Reliable Macros

Setting Up Your RC3200

4.Macro Planning

Overview

A macro allows you to send a sequence of commands using one single button. You can for instance, switch on your TV, select the external input, switch on your surround receiver, select the DVD input, switch on your DVD player and begin play. All this can be done be pressing a single “Watch DVD” button on your RC3200.

Basically, you can assign any button as a macro button. However, it is recommended that you use the reserved macro buttons in the Macro Group since they are conveniently labeled with popular Macro titles. However, any button (except those on the Home pages) can be reprogrammed to be a Macro.

Making Reliable Macros

If your entire system is new to you, practice using the RC3200 manually for a few days before programming any macros. You’ll find that your home theater requires many operations that require multiple steps to do. You have to decide whether to use a Macro or simply teach everyone how to do the procedure manually. Some macros will behave very inconsistently and are extremely frustrating to casual users. An example is turning on a non-Marantz home the- ater system.

Marantz builds components that are “macro-friendly”. Instead of a single “power” button, the remote controls have a discrete “On” and a discrete “Off” button. With a Marantz system, you can record a Macro that is very reliable from a series of “On” commands.

However, many other brands turn on and off with a single “Power” button. The RC3200 cannot “look” at your components to see if they are on or off. So, if you recorded a macro intended to power up a non-Marantz component with a toggle power command, it wouldn’t be very reliable. Here’s an example:

Your spouse goes out to the local video store and rents a video- tape. When he/she gets home, they pop the tape in the VCR (most VCR’s automatically turn on when a tape is inserted). Your spouse touches the macro button you programmed to power up the sys-

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