Selecting an A/V Source
When the RC-8 is in the
Audio/Video mode
, you may route an A/V source to the default zone, by simply
pressing the appropriate “Source–Select” button; a Vaux keypad behaves the same way. As you select a
different source device, the keypad buttons, change to the IR control page for the device you have just
selected. For example, pressing the “CD” button will select the CD source and route it to your zone; now,
pressing “Play,” “Pause,” and “Stop” will control the CD component using learned IR commands. Pressing
“Laser” will route the Laser instead of the CD; now, pressing “Play,” “Pause,” and “Stop” will control the
Laserdisc. Pressing “Off” will shut your zone off.
Besides the standard Source-Selection, there is an explicit method available for selecting sources — using
the
On
and
Off
buttons. Pressing the “Off” button turns off the zone. The “On” button may be used to
switch a Source device to the zone you are in, to another zone, or to the whole house.
Sending an A/V Source to another Zone
A full-blown Aris system setup will have a Vaux remote control or keypad in each zone, configured for the
Default-Zone that it resides in. In this case all zones behave identically — using the remote control or
keypad in the zone, you will select a source, control it, and turn it off. For less-frequently used zones, you
may want to share a remote control among zones. One way to do this is to re-program the remote’s
Default-Zone each time you change zones. Another way, to share the remote control, takes advantage of
the RC-8’s
"temporary zone"
feature.
Zone-x-ON will send the RC-8’s “Current-Source” to another zone.
As an example, let’s say you have pressed CD to
select the CD in the zone you are in (i.e. the default zone stored in the remote) — the RC-8’s Current-
Source is now CD. If you wish to also route the CD to another zone, you press Zone, a digit corresponding
to the desired zone, and then press ON (e.g. Zone-4-ON).
You may turn off any other zone, regardless of the RC-
8’s Default-Zone or Current-Source, using Zone-x-OFF.
Zone 0 is used to select whole-house mode (all zones)
. As an example, you may press
Laser
to select the laserdisc
(in the zone you are in), and then press
Zone-0-ON
to also send it to the entire house. Likewise,
Zone-0-OFF
turns off the entire system (all zones).
For a multi-controller Aris installation, Zone-0 will affect all controllers.
The above examples required first selecting the source in the zone you are in, in order to change the RC-8’s
Current-Source before sending a Zone-x-ON command.
If you wish to explicitly send a specific source to another
zone, without affecting the zone you are in, you use Shift-Device first.
By first pressing
Shift
, then a source-device
button (e.g. Shift-Laser), there is NO Source-Select command transmitted by the RC-8, just an internal
change of the RC-8’s Current-Source. Then you may send a Zone-x-ON command to route the source to
the zone of your choice. For example, you are in zone 3 (and your RC-8 is set to a Default-Zone of 3), and
have pressed CD — the CD is now playing in zone 3. You also wish to send the Tuner to zone 5: press
Shift-Tuner, then Zone-5-ON. Zone 3 is undisturbed. Note that the RC-8’s Current-Source is now Tuner.
You may select a Tuner preset, etc. — you should then press CD to restore control of the CD player in your
zone (you could also press Shift-CD, but since the CD is already playing in zone 3, the Source-Select
command you send when pressing CD is ignored). Yes, this is a bit confusing at first, but at least you have
this option for controlling a little-used zone that does not have its own remote control or keypad.
Shift-Device is also handy under other circumstances when you do not want the Source-Select command
transmitted. For example, you may not want to control a different IR device (e.g. rewind the VCR while you
are watching the Laserdisc) — Shift-Device provides a way to do this.
36
