USB-UIRT + Harmony 680

[Nosferatu]

Hello,

I just built an HTPC and i'm trying out various PVR software packages, starting with SageTV. However, i'm completely lost on how I configure my Harmony 680 remote to work with the USB-UIRT box and SageTV! I've looked up and down the website, the forums, and a number of other sites and forums with no luck. Maybe i'm searching for the wrong things, maybe i'm just blind... but it's starting to drive me crazy.

With the Harmony 680 it doesn't send commands when you press a button unless you go to the harmony members website and configure your remote, but I don't see SageTV or USB-UIRT in their hardware database.... so i think i'm missing something here. Any help is greatly appreciated, thank you.

P.S. On an unrelated note, it's very hard to read text in Windows 2000 on my TV. I'm using SVideo out on a GeForceFX 5200 (bought it only for TV-out and it has passive cooling) to an old Mitsubishi TV (probably 15+ years old). I'm thinking of buying a new conventional 27" or 32" TV. Would this be worth spending $350-$500 on a new TV, simply for the fact its newer? I know newer TV's have 3-line digital scan filter, is this really a big improvement over a 15 year old TV (which wouldn't have it, correct?)?.

Thanks in advance.

[Crashless]

First thing's first, you should use the harmony web site, and configure (the best you can) your remote. Select your TV, reciever - setup your inputs, everything. For things that the harmony database doesn't have - like sage - create one under PVR (I think), and call it SageTV.

Next, you'll have to teach the remote your sage commands. What remote did you use before the harmony? Use this to go through the teaching process on the harmony site, and teach it every button on that remote. First time setting up sage at all? Grab ANY remote that doesn't control any of your components and start making stuff up. The harmony can't tell what button the IR code belongs to, so it doesn't matter if the remote you pick doesn't have a play/pause button, just that it has enough buttons to teach discrete codes for every button you want to use in sage.

Then, once you have assigned IR codes to all the buttons you want configured on the harmony, sych it up, and start sage.

Go to the detailed setup menu, then commands, and link commands. Now start teaching the appropriate button codes to sage paying careful attention this time to assigning appropriate buttons to the right command. (sub-note: I use the channel up/down as page up/down in sage)

Now you should be all setup.

I typed this kinda fast, so if it isn't clear, let me know what you're having a hard time with and I'll see what I can do.

As for hard to read text, what resolution are you running? With a SD TV set, I wouldn't run anything much higher than 800x600, because the TV just doesn't have the resolution to display it. If you are running that rez already, are you having problems with text in Sage, or in windows? Windows text will never display right on a SDTV, it just won't.

That said, I have an old (10+ yrs) projection set that has gradually declined in sharpness to the point where everything is really fuzzy, and I can never really get the colors to converge consistantly across the screen. If this is the case, you might want to consider having someone look at it to see if it's salvageable, or if it's time to replace it.

[Nosferatu]

thanks for your reply. I set it up under "Media Center PC" on the Harmony website, however even after I hit "Update my remote" and it downloaded the data to the remote then rebooted the remote, none of the buttons work on the remote (I select 'Media Center PC' from the Devices list on the remote). The little light on the top doesn't blink nor does the light on the USB-UIRT box, so the harmony remote isn't sending any of the commands. I'm wondering if it even downloaded any of the commands I made it learn on the harmony website?

thanks.

[phantomfsoc]

I have the same remote. What I did was when I went on the logitech web, was I set up my Watch TV button as a Toshiba Humax PVR (T800). I found that the remote from it had the most buttons. Go custumize the buttons for that remote. Rename them watchever you like. It doesn't matter what the original button did because your going to use Sages commands. Before you can do anything else you have to set up an activity for the PVR (WATCH TV or LISTEN TO MUSIC buttons on top) Update the remote. Goto Commands in Sage Setup and map each button on the remote including the LCD ones to what you want them to in sage. Thats It. (trust me it took me 2 full night to figure it all out and set it up right) but now its well worth the money.
If you need specifics PM, this was just rambling

[Crashless]

I agree with phantom. You should setup the activity buttons as that's the best feature of the remote. This should put the remote in the correct mode, and assign the right commands to the right buttons. I never go directly to device specific commands when using the remote. I have activites setup for everything that needs to be done.

I have my remote hex file if you want to try loading that. It'll have the wrong tv codes and everything, but it'll at least tell you if your remote's broken.