Home Theater Hacks

Hack #89. Disable NetCommand for Faster Response

For users with a NetCommand remote control and Mitsubishi TV, certain functions can be extremely slow. Disabling NetCommand can help out, and it's easy if you know the right code sequence.

I recently had to recalibrate a Mitsubishi TV set on which I had already recentered the picture [Hack #31] once before. That first time, it took forever to get the fine convergence done; however, it was time-consuming because I had to wait for the TV to respond to the remote, not because it was an overly complex task.

When I came back to calibrate the set again, I realized the TV's remote control had NetCommand (http://www.mitsubishi-tv.com/netcommand.html), which is, of course, enabled by default. NetCommand, unique to Mitsubishi TV sets, attempts to control all your devices with a graphical user interface, all through the TV. Although that sounds pretty cool, it results in most commands taking a while to execute, as one command might attempt to perform multiple functions, on multiple devices, throughout your system.

When you're calibrating your TV, or working with one particular unit, this extra functionality doesn't help you; in fact, it can drastically slow you down (like my calibration attempts the first time around). The easy fix is to just turn off NetCommand. Go into another room, so your TV won't pick up commands, and follow this sequence:

1. Press and hold the Power button.

2. While holding down Power, press 0, then 0 again, and then 0 once ...