Steps on setting up a Harmony 550 remote

[Keen]

I'm thinking about getting SageTV but just need to get everything straight in my head before I make the purchase.

I want to use a Harmony 550 remote control. Is this difficult to do or pretty straight forward? I keep hearing about girder software and whatnot so I'm not exactly sure what needs to be done.

If I purchase the Harmony 550 remote, what kind of IR device would be best to purchase with it? I'm hoping to control my cablebox via the serial port if SageTV supports that so I don't need an IR Blaster, just a receiver.

So to sum up, the questions are:

1) Is it simply to configure the Harmony 550 remote control to use with SageTV?

2) Do I need to purchase any software to make the Harmony 550 work with SageTV?

3) What is a good IR device (preferably cheap) that would work good with both this remote and SageTV?

I'm coming from having a Beyond TV installation so I'm only a semi-newb here

Any help or advice is appreciated.

[getstarted]

I am also trying to setup my 880 remote, i find it confusing and couldn't setup properly.

People recommended USB-UIRT mostly, other than this you dont need anything else.

[cychou]

Originally Posted by Keen

I'm thinking about getting SageTV but just need to get everything straight in my head before I make the purchase.

I want to use a Harmony 550 remote control. Is this difficult to do or pretty straight forward? I keep hearing about girder software and whatnot so I'm not exactly sure what needs to be done.

If I purchase the Harmony 550 remote, what kind of IR device would be best to purchase with it? I'm hoping to control my cablebox via the serial port if SageTV supports that so I don't need an IR Blaster, just a receiver.

So to sum up, the questions are:

1) Is it simply to configure the Harmony 550 remote control to use with SageTV?

2) Do I need to purchase any software to make the Harmony 550 work with SageTV?

3) What is a good IR device (preferably cheap) that would work good with both this remote and SageTV?

I'm coming from having a Beyond TV installation so I'm only a semi-newb here

Any help or advice is appreciated.

Harmony 550 is a universal learning control, and it is not directly supported in Sage. However using it in Sage can be very straight forward.


Below are the high level steps I used to get my system working:
1. Using Logitech online configuration to configure your HTPC as a Microsft Media Center PC.
2. Configure SageTV to use MCE remote (supported in Sage).


For this to work, your need to purchase the MCE remote (can be found easily and cheap) which comes with a IR receiver. You probably also need to install MCE driver as well depending what OS are you running.

Girder is not really necessary for basic SageTV functionality. I personally use EventGhost (replace Girder) to do more advance remote-PC customization.


Both SageTV and Harmony 550 are programmable to emulate other devices, so you need to find a common ground for them to work together. IMHO this is the easiest way to work them together.

[scat]

Keen

Take a look at the How to I made.
I connected EventGhost, SageTV, Foobar2000, and my Harmony 880 remote to my HTPC

Scat

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http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...highlight=scat

[mbowling]

I am using the MCE IR receiver with my Harmony 880.

When configuring the HTPC in the Harmony configuration wizard I selected Microsoft > MCE remote. Or something close to that. I don't remember the exact settings.

The Harmony 880 worked with no other supporting software and did not require any learning of commands.

[getstarted]

One problem I noticed with MCE is that you cannot use Microsoft wireless keyboard/mouse. I have many problems in using both at the same time.