For Harmony Remote owners - how customizable?

[razrsharpe]

Originally Posted by stanger89

That's up to you, like I said a URC is a blank slate, you build the macros and activities from scratch. They support variables, so my setup keeps track of power state and only turns stuff on if it's not. But if you've got boxes with discrete codes you wouldn't have to keep track. It's up to you.

Good to know thanks... yup URC keeps moving up in my book...

[cncb]

Originally Posted by toricred

2. What do people think of the R50?

I tried it for a little while but found the buttons on the side a little hard to locate by feel since they are recessed. Also, it does not have a time-of-day display on the screen contrary to what the product image (still!) shows. Otherwise, it has the same nice operation and customization as their other remotes.

[toricred]

I've got my plugin displaying the time of day on the TV even while watching shows so that's not a problem for me. I still need a way to verify that it has the codes for my TV. Does anybody have a way to check for device support? I guess if it could learn then I'd probably be good too. All I need is the ability to turn it on/off and switch to the right input.

I'm assuming that an Onkyo receiver and the HD200 wouldn't be a problem at all, but this is a little bit of an off-brand TV.

[CollinR]

I do not see codes for any Honeywell TVs in the URC database. However! they probably are in there under another name, if you have a USBUIRT you can learn the power command into EventGhost and google it. Most likely you will get a result from a major manufacturer and can then search the URC database for that make/model.

Also Onkyo is awesome IMHO most of their rcvrs have discrete commands for the big ones, speaker selection, input selection, DSP schemes and power. Also often back panel IR inputs. The HD200 has discrete on/off as well as in my case can power off my TV (but on back on???) via HDMI.

[toricred]

Thanks for the reply. The Honeywell TV was manufactured by Soyo. If you wouldn't mind, could you check that? Also is there someplace online I can check if I think of another manufacturer? I also would love it if there is a discrete power on/off for the TV. That way everything would be discrete.

[CollinR]

I have a generic Soyo and a DYLT032B, doesn't look like it has discrete functions.

EDIT: That was with the TX-1000 editor, it seems they are different. My MX-3000 editor doesn't have either.

[toricred]

I just installed a USB-UIRT that I don't use anymore and event ghost, but I don't understand how I can Learn a command and google it. (I've really never used Event Ghost.) Any tips on this would be helpful.

[CollinR]

Added the USBUIRT plugin from the configuration menu, then on the R pane create a folder called test and inside create a new macro, the action for this macro will be transmit IR from the USBUIRT plugin. In that configuration screen you can learn IR, just copy from that text box to google's search box. The search results will hopefully return a remotecentral.com URL from their pronto code database. Whatever device is on that page may well use the same codes your TV does.

[toricred]

Unfortunately no luck. I guess I'll just have to wait and possibly learn the codes if the Soyo codes don't work. Fortunately the only things I care about are the power on/off (Discrete if possible) and setting to the right input (shouldn't be a problem since I never change the input on this TV).

[CollinR]

I fear you may be up a creek, however there is a trick on inputs for many TVs. Do a channel up then the input button however many times to ge to the correct input. Many many TVs will jump to the TV tuner if the channel up button is pressed and this will give you a predictable location to start the input switching.

The Onkyo should have discretes but you might need help finding them.

[toricred]

The TV seems to always return to the last input it was on. Since I never change it, that shouldn't be a problem. I'm hoping to receive the R50 no later than early next week. I may ask for help with the Onkyo if I can't figure it out, but I think it will be pretty easy for my needs.

[toricred]

So I got my R50 yesterday and set it up. In general I like it, but I did have to learn all the codes for my HD200 and the TV. My problem now is that when I use any of the directional buttons 2 times in rapid succession, it repeats the second press 3 times. I either need to learn to be more patient between button presses or find a way to get it to stop this behavior. Could any of you Universal Remote users suggest a fix?

[CollinR]

On the HD200 there is a setting to help prevent this. Also if it is just the directional buttons you might relearn them. You might catch some flack as it's not PC programmable however the combination you have is hugely powerful. With the RF basestation you also have the RF aspect which is huge.

[johnwmreed]

Can these remote controls be set to always have the receiver respond when you push the volume up/down keys? In other words, whether you are watching Comcast, SageTV, or a blu-ray player when you you push the volume key on the remote control will the volume from the receiver always respond?

[loonsailor]

Yes. Pretty much any "smart" remote will do that.

[Fuzzy]

heck, most 'dumb' remotes that come with the receivers can do that.. ;-)

[CollinR]

Also that feature is called "punch through", on most remotes that support it.

[reggie14]

I got a Harmony One remote last week when it was one sale from CompUSA. My initial impressions are very good.

First of all, setup was surprisingly easy. I sort of assumed the Logitech setup wizard would either make things really easy, but with limited customization options, or really complicated, with lots of customization options. I think what it had was a pretty good compromise. The software asked me to list all of my devices and then tried to configure everything automatically. It didn't get it right, particularly when it came to setting up the "Watch TV" activity with Sage, but it did provide a good starting point for further customizations. I think I had it up and going the way I wanted in just a little over 30 minutes.

The remote itself has a nice layout. The buttons are decent-sized and spaced sufficiently far apart. They're also back-lit, which is a nice touch. It has a pretty good selection of physical buttons on the remote, although I think I would have liked to see red-green-yellow-blue buttons. It has a touchscreen that you can customize both by device and by activity.

That was something I wasn't expecting, but in hindsight makes perfect sense. It seems like most (cheap) universal remotes are very device-centric. You might have different macros for sending commands to multiple devices, or certain buttons that always, for instance, control the receiver (e.g., volume), but generally speaking if you want to control device A, you have to put the remote in the mode for device A. With the Harmony remotes, things are mainly organized by activity. So, the buttons will do different things in the Watching DVD activity compared to Watching TV. While it wouldn't sound like this would really be that different from putting the remote in DVD mode vs. SageTV mode, it's a small change that really helps usability.

With activities like Watch TV leading to close to 10 IR commands getting sent, I was a little concerned that I'd have to be careful about pointing the remote at the TV. In reality, the IR transmitter seems to be very powerful. I can point the remote any direction and it seems to work most of the time. In the event that one of the IR signals does get blocked (thus, making the remote think that things are in a different state then they actually are), the remote has a built-in wizard for trying to fix the problem (you hit the 'Help' button on the remote). Most of the time the remote can fix it without any additional user interaction by resending certain commands on the components. But, if it still doesn't work the remote will ask you questions like "Is the TV on?" or "Is the receiver set to Video 2"? etc.

There are a couple things with the remote that I'm not thrilled with. First, no matter what I do to tweak things, the remote is still a little less responsive than the previous learning remote that I used (which was just my receiver's remote). The second thing is that I wish we had a little more control over what gets displayed on the touchscreen. Sure, you can put whatever buttons you want on it, in whatever order. But, you can only put text in the button- you can't use icons. It would be really nice to have, for instance, a red icon for the Red button, instead of the blue button that says "Red" in it. It seems like it would be really easy for the remote to let you use whatever icon you want for the touchscreen buttons, since it already does something similar with favorite channels (you can configure shortcuts to certain channels and use the station logo).

[cncb]

Does anyone have any experience with the Harmony 670? It looks to have a decent layout and is pretty cheap right now.

[rick2010]

Originally Posted by CollinR

FWIW I haven't spent more then $100 on my TX-1000s, the URC code database is massive and the app is standalone with web update so you can still do stuff without access to the web. Last Harmony I swapped out it was limitied to configs based on a web app, no internet no config. BTW both were new 1 in box the other still had all the plastic on it.

If you want really flashy look at the MX-3000, super cool I set one up for my father.

I have heard that URC will not support remotes not purchased from unatuhorized resellers, and the remote will be locked out of software updates. What is up with that?