ATTENTION! I have located the GGF1381 Service Remote!

[Bagheera]

Hello Everyone,

I hope this message finds you all in good health and spirits. I am a newbie to this forum. But have learned much recently from some very fine people. Because I have read all these posts about people that cannot find this remote, (and my needing one as well). I have been researching this day and night.

After numerous attempts at locating the Pioneer service remote, I am happy to report I have located it.

I have confirmed that this remote is the EXACT replacement remote that Pioneer is in fact using in-house.

These people carry thousands of remotes. And they offer a 1-Year FULL WARRANTY as well.

Here you go!

http://remotes.com/remotes/servlet/rs?uuid=A12207829716831&smodel=GGF1067&brand_pn=PIO...&o=c&m=GGF1381

I recieved my remote on Saturday instead of Monday.. I have tested this remote and confirmed it functions 100% in ALL service modes. This is a beautifull remote. You slide the bottom door down to gain access to the service functions, then slide the door up to conceal them. Remote comes with 4-AAA batts already installed. The door on the batt compartment slides down as well. But doesn't come off, so you don't lose it.

And customer service is wonderful by these fine folks.

There is NO LIMIT on these remotes. And anyone can buy this remote.

Price: $45.95 + shipping. Shipping is less than $8 if you live in the states, whether you buy one or 20. It doesn't matter.

They ship overseas as well. (shipping is more, but worth it.)

Or Call: 1-800-REMOTES

Ask for Jim or Barb.

EDIT: I was asked if these are "universal" remotes. The answer is "No". They are factory originals. And they will give you a full refund anytime within the 1-year warranty period if your not satisfied with it. Check out the "Just the facts section & the Warranty info on the site. It tells all.

I hope in some way I have helped some of you here. My only desire is to help the community and learn as well.

Baggy.

[Bagheera]

So, after 128 views, anyone get the remote?

Curiosity.

[orsetto]

Actually I picked one of these up when they first appeared a few months ago. I never mentioned it because the focus of most posters to this thread is to *avoid* spending serious money on an obscure single-use remote. The goal seemed to be programming an existing remote with the Pioneer service codes. On the rare occasions someone found the actual Pioneer Service Remote it was selling for about $60-80, so I figured $50 was no bargain and kept my mouth shut. It made sense for ME to buy, because I didn't already own a Harmony or Palm Pilot, and because I service a large number of Pioneers for myself and others. Previously I was using a generic learning remote that a tech friend had programmed from his own Pio remote: it worked but was prone to losing its memory when the batteries died.

Anyway, I can confirm Bagheera's report that this remotes.com unit is indeed a FULL clone of the complete Pioneer service remote. This is good and bad: good because you can access additional service modes specified in the repair manuals, bad because you can DESTROY your recorder by pushing the wrong buttons if you don't know what you're doing. This remote is sourced from a mfr dedicated to cloning obscure and out-of-production remotes: it is very sturdy and well-made but the buttons are tiny with very hard to read custom labels. Overall an excellent buy if you can afford it and can justify its cost over several repairs/upgrades. For one-time use, I'd suggest the other ideas presented here for reprogramming your existing Harmony, Palm Pilot, Phillips etc. remote.

[supanit]

i see remote . i'm not found [+10] button.
it's use for Diagnosis AAC Info, HDMI Info, Ethernet Info.

Diagnosis AAC Info [ESC] + [DISP] + [+10] + [1]
Diagnosis HDMI Info [ESC] + [DISP] + [+10] x2 + [4]
Diagnosis Ethernet Info [ESC] + [DISP] + [+10] x2 + [7]

may i been misunderstand.

and i don't know; how to use [100] button.

[highvolumeJP]

What can you access with the service remote, what are the menu options ? Can you you tweak bitrates, adjust sharpness, etc ?

[Bagheera]

What can you access with the service remote, what are the menu options ? Can you you tweak bitrates, adjust sharpness, etc ?

Hi JP and anyone else that may need this info,

While different machines have different service menus based on if they have HDD's or not, my recorder did in fact have the option for me to adjust colors, sharpness etc. The 220 has it's own color controls anyway that you can adjust without the service remote. But the service remote gave me a few other options if I had chosen to tweak the picture a bit. I however, did not elect to mess with any of that, as the picture on this recorder is so good in my opinion, why screw with perfection?

There was temperature settings and other stuff such as region coding I chose not to screw with. But believe me, if you have the right service manual for your product, and this remote, coupled with the right service disc, you can do a hell of a lot with it if your machine has the ability.

I must admit however, there were a total of 19 sub-menus in the service mode. And way to damn much stuff in there that can pretty much turn your machine into a "door-stop" if your not careful. On my machine, yes, there was bitrate info etc. But I truly don't know if it was just displayed info, or able to be adjusted. There was also the ability to format an HDD if applicable as well as adjusting HDD compatability. None of this applied to my recorder as I don't have a HDD.

I apologize if this seems a bit long-winded. But I try to answer everything with as much detail as I can.


PLEASE BE ADVISED! Working on high tech machines like this is NOT for the faint-hearted. I cannot stress enough on how easy it is to screw something up if a person is not electronics savvy. For me, purchasing the dedicated service remote was a good investment since I purchased 4 of the drives and a brand new motherboard for the 220 so I can keep it running for many years.

A universal remote is fine for many things. But in my honest opinion, when your working on a recorder like what you guy's are working on. It might be better to have a dedicated service remote that will guarantee you the ability to do the right thing with the menus. Rather than take the serious risk of pressing the wrong button on a pronto or what-have-you and possibly wiping everything out.. Just my opinion. Sometimes a universal will not function "exactly" as you need it too. Or if the batteries die, it may lose it's memory. Then what? I firmly believe that buying the dedicated service remote for these machines will still save you money in the long run. When you add in the shipping and parts and labor of repair. At $45 your ahead of the game if you decide to keep your machine for many more years to come. So, in the end, it might pay for itself in the long run.

Besides, if you decide you don't need it a few years down the road, I'm sure you could easily get your money back on ebay selling it to someone who is desperate to find one.

[highvolumeJP]

I wish I had a service menu for my Samsung R155XAC or Toshiba DR4/5 I would have no problems screwing up because I know about the terms and what they do for the most part. Basically when you are using the service menu, you are actually inside the unit's BIOS and setting the different parameters that control the video decoder chip (for capturing) and MPEG encoder. I have a Samsung big screen CRT and I have used its service menu in the past and it had tons of features - you could even enable features found in most expensive units, that are set to off - which is probably the case with DVD recorders too - it's cheaper for companies to use a unified setup only with different bios settings

ALSO be careful because there are certain settings that are different in each dvd recorder - so they require different calibration settings. The best thing to do is go through the settings and take notes of the values used !

[Bagheera]

The best thing to do is go through the settings and take notes of the values used !

This is excellent advice, and I couldn't agree more.