How to program a 30


Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

I am a Comcast Xfinity subscriber, and yesterday I got upgraded to the company’s X1 cable box. I am enjoying the modern interface of the channel guide, the improved search functionality, and the potential to record four shows at the same time while watching a fifth. What I am not enjoying is the lack of a 30-second skip button, which I was able to program on my old remote.

I have come to rely on my 30-second skip button to zip through commercials and find it’s a necessity this time of year for watching football and October baseball. It’s almost always the right amount of time between plays for an NFL game (except for two-minute drills and when the Chip Kelly-led Eagles are playing and have the ball), and between pitches during what can be excruciatingly slow playoff baseball games.

The XR2 remote for Xfinity X1.
Matt Elliott/CNET

After some searching, I found a code that worked for the X1 box and its accompanying XR2 (version U2) remote. While the process is easier than what my old cable box required, it requires a bigger sacrifice. On my old cable box, after a lengthy process, I was able to reassign a useless button as a 30-second skip. With the X1 box and XR2 remote, the process to reprogram a button takes only two steps, but you are forced to sacrifice the five-minute skip ahead button. And as a strange side effect, the five-minute skip back button changes to a 15-second skip back, leaving you with two 15-second skip back buttons on the remote.

At any rate, here is the quick, two-step process:

Step 1: Press the Exit button three times

Step 2: Press 0030

Now, when you use your remote, you’ll find that the page up button, which previous skipped ahead five minutes, now skips ahead 30 seconds. And the page down button now skips back 15 seconds, even though the Replay button near the top of the remote also skips back 15 seconds.

I tried other amounts of time, thinking I could enter 0045 for a 45-second skip, 0100 for a one-minute skip, or 0202 for a Chuck Woolery two-minute-and-two-second skip, for example, but none worked. I was, however, able to return both the page up and page down buttons to five-minute skips by entering 0500 in the second step.

While I don’t like having to sacrifice my five-minute skip buttons, my viewing habits have me skipping ahead 30 seconds more than skipping forward or backward in five-minute increments.

Are you an Xfinity X1 user? If so, have you found any useful hacks for the XR2 remote? Please comment below.

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How to program a 30

My Comcast DVR died last week, so down I went to my local Comcast office to exchange it for a new box. Although I lost weeks’ worth of Modern Family (which, inexplicably, isn’t offered On Demand), my DVR’s death came at a good time because Comcast recently received a new fleet of cable boxes and sent me home with the Motorola RGN200N.

My new Comcast, er, Xfinity cable box, the Motorola RGN200N.
Photo by Matt Elliott/CNET

Years ago, I had programmed a 30-second skip button for my old Comcast DVR on my old silver remote. It was a simple process:

1. Press the Cable button at the top of the remote

2. Press and hold the Setup button until the Cable button blinks twice

3. Type in code 994 (the Cable button will blink twice again)

4. Press (but do not hold) the Setup button

5. Type in code 00173

6. Press whichever button you want to be your 30-second skip button (the Cable button will blink twice). I used the A lock button, which is right below the 15-second back button.

Unfortunately, the above process did nothing for my new Motorola RGN200N cable box and the new dark gray Comcast remote. After visiting various AV forums and through a little trial and error, I found a way to program a 30-second remote with my new equipment. It’s similar to the above process, but with the added step of switching to Aux mode briefly.

The new dark gray Comcast remote.
Photo by Matt Elliott/CNET

Follow these steps:

1. Press the Aux button

2. Press and hold the Setup button until the Aux button blinks twice

3. Type in code 01376 (the Aux button will blink twice)

4. Press the Aux button again

5. Press and hold the Setup button again until the Aux button blinks twice

6. Type in code 994 (the Aux button will blink twice)

7. Press (but do not hold) the Setup button

8. Type in code 00173

9. Press the Cable button

10. Press whichever button you want to be your 30-second skip button (the Cable button will blink twice). I used the A lock button again.

Now, you’ll have have a 30-second skip button while in Cable mode on your remote and can skip commercials and 30-second timeouts during the Final Four games this weekend with the press of a button. One last note: If you previously programmed the Aux button for your receiver or another component, you’ll need to reprogram it after setting up the 30-second skip button.

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