Remote
Choosing Cmd > Remote in Sue Center will bring up a dialog with which you can control a television or DVD player.

This works just like the hand-held remote that comes with a TV or DVD player.
Sue Center effectively implements a ‘universal remote’.

Before this magic can happen, however, you do need to do three things:

  1. Purchase a special hardware device called a USB-UIRT from usbuirt.com. (In case of curiousity … the mouthful of USB-UIRT is an acronym for Universal Serial Bus - Universal Infrared Receiver Transmitter.)

  2. Install the driver for the USB-UIRT following the instructions on the above web site.

  3. Do a one-time configuration of Sue Center.
The configuration takes a bit of explanation.

The procedure outlined below will teach Sue Center what infrared signals your devices expect. When you point your remote at the USB-UIRT and press a button the device is in receive mode. You grab the signals so sent and put them in a file. Sue Center reads this file and is thereby enabled to send the appropriate signal and mimic the remote button's press.

On the desktop you will see 3 icons:

Double-click on ‘SueCenter Data‘ to open the folder:

See the two circled files named lrnhelper and Remote-codes.txt.
Double-click on lrnhelper (the USB uirt icon - ‘lrn’ is an abbreviation for ‘learn’) and you will see the ‘Learn Helper Utility’:

Click on the ‘Learn an IR Code’ button:

Set your remote 2-3 inches from the USB-UIRT thusly:

For purposes of demonstration we will teach the USB-UIRT how to turn the power on and off. Press the Power button and hold it for a second or two. The red light on the USB-UIRT will glow indicating that is receiving the signal.

This is what happens in the dialog:

Release the button and you will see:

All those numbers (46 groups of 4!) represent the infared signal to turn the power on and off. Select the entire sequence of numbers and press control-X to cut them:

Keep the ‘Learn Helper Utility’ open (you’ll use it again). Go back to the ‘SueCenter Data’ folder and double click on ‘Remote-codes.txt’. The text file will be opened in Notepad:

Position the cursor after the space following ‘Power1’ as shown above.
Now press control-V to paste the sequence of numbers.
The display will scroll far to the right but you can scroll it back to the left and you will see:

Repeat the above pressing, releasing, cutting, and pasting for all the buttons you wish to use and you will have something like this:

This completes the configuration of the codes file.
Save the Remote-codes.txt file and exit Notepad.
Launch Sue Center, choose Cmd-Remote, and you will have remote control of your TV/DVD via Sue Center.

You can also add a second remote or alter what labels or functions appear in a remote dialog. Details of that further configuration are on this page.