I am considering a Harmony remote, possibly the 670 (unless everyone argues against it here), and I want to make things easy for my wife.

One of the things she has trouble with is constantly changing the TV's input from the kid's Wii (AV1) to the DVR (HDMI1) to the DVD player (HDMI2), etc. Will I be able to program a Harmony to switch the input source to HDMI1 on the TV as part of the "Watch TV" button?

Also, how about the various special purpose buttons on my DVR's current remote, like the "favorites" button and the button that goes directly to the DVR's recordings? Will all of those buttons' functions be able to be assigned on a Harmony?

Thanks!

yes and yes

I think the harmony remotes are among the best.

I personally find the software a bit too "wizard-based" that, in the attempt to make it idiot proof, makes it annoying for power users. But, given what else is out there, and compared to programming remotes by hand, it's a minor annoyance and it works pretty good. Support is also stellar.

However, I'd consider the 890 right now (if you think RF might be a nice-to-have) feature, since the 890 refurb can be had cheap via amazon -- Check slickdeals.net, it was posted this week.

I am considering a Harmony remote, possibly the 670 (unless everyone argues against it here), and I want to make things easy for my wife.

One of the things she has trouble with is constantly changing the TV's input from the kid's Wii (AV1) to the DVR (HDMI1) to the DVD player (HDMI2), etc. Will I be able to program a Harmony to switch the input source to HDMI1 on the TV as part of the "Watch TV" button?

Also, how about the various special purpose buttons on my DVR's current remote, like the "favorites" button and the button that goes directly to the DVR's recordings? Will all of those buttons' functions be able to be assigned on a Harmony?

Thanks!

The 670 is a good choice. The button layout was designed with DVRs in mind. The three hard activity buttons (Watch Movie, Watch TV, Listen to Music) will allow your wife to select an activity without having to look at the LCD screen to find an activity. If your wife is happy, you will be happier.

You can also assign other activities to those hard buttons if you want to.

Terrific guys, thanks very much for the reassurance!

One more question: Is there a problem with these programmed buttons when the TV might be "off" sometimes and "on" other times? For example, sometimes the TV is off entirely, in which case I would want the sequence to include turning the TV on. Other times, the kids have been playing the Wii, and the TV is on. My wife comes in and wants to watch TV. If she presses "Watch TV", it will switch the input to TV, but will it then "click" the on/off button on the TV, actually turning the TV off? Or, does the Harmony know whether the TV is already on and just leave that alone? Same, of course, with "Watch a Movie", turning on the DVD player and switching input, but the TV may be off or already on at that point (if we have been watching TV, for example).

Terrific guys, thanks very much for the reassurance!

One more question: Is there a problem with these programmed buttons when the TV might be "off" sometimes and "on" other times? For example, sometimes the TV is off entirely, in which case I would want the sequence to include turning the TV on. Other times, the kids have been playing the Wii, and the TV is on. My wife comes in and wants to watch TV. If she presses "Watch TV", it will switch the input to TV, but will it then "click" the on/off button on the TV, actually turning the TV off? Or, does the Harmony know whether the TV is already on and just leave that alone? Same, of course, with "Watch a Movie", turning on the DVD player and switching input, but the TV may be off or already on at that point (if we have been watching TV, for example).

It depends, if those devices were turned on using the remote, then the remote knows what devices are on and off, and will change them accordingly when switching activities. If you, however turned any of those devices manually, then the remote is not aware of that and may get out of phase with the power off and on codes. If at all possible (some devices allow this) be sure to use the power on and power off commands rather than the power toggle command... Hope that help... and if you didnt already know, none of the harmony remotes will control the Wii as it runs on blue tooth technology...

xboxfreak, thanks!

So, since our TV has only a toggle, we just need to make sure that the TV is always turned off with the Harmony and then I can safely include the "Turn TV on" bit as part of the "Watch TV" macro sequence, and if I map a button to the TV power on/off toggle, then the "Watch TV" sequence will also be aware of that button's actions.

I am getting very excited about this. Is that weird? :0)

Also, they Harmony's have a little help button at the top of the remote.

So, if the TV is already on and you select "watch TV" and it shuts the TV off, you can hit the help button.

It will send a couple of commands automatically to fix it and the screen will display:

Did that fix the problem? Yes No

If the TV is still not on, select NO

The next screen will probably say:

"Is the TV on?" Yes No

Select No and it will turn the TV on.

xboxfreak, thanks!

So, since our TV has only a toggle, we just need to make sure that the TV is always turned off with the Harmony and then I can safely include the "Turn TV on" bit as part of the "Watch TV" macro sequence, and if I map a button to the TV power on/off toggle, then the "Watch TV" sequence will also be aware of that button's actions.

I am getting very excited about this. Is that weird? :0)

Even though your TV's remote only has a power toggle that doesn't mean discrete codes do not exist in the Harmony database. More than likely you will have discrete codes for all of your devices. If you do get stuck with a device that only has Power Toggle then just map that to a button for that activity or use the Help button if your remote has one.

xboxfreak, thanks!

So, since our TV has only a toggle, we just need to make sure that the TV is always turned off with the Harmony and then I can safely include the "Turn TV on" bit as part of the "Watch TV" macro sequence, and if I map a button to the TV power on/off toggle, then the "Watch TV" sequence will also be aware of that button's actions.

I am getting very excited about this. Is that weird? :0)

It's entirely possible you have discreet on and off power commands -- most remotes will only have the power toggle to save button space, but that doesn't mean the commands aren't available. The easiest way to find out is to set up your system in the harmony software, you'll see if the commands are in there.

Failing that, most mfr post code lists of all codes, and it could be in there. For example, I found discreet codes for "mute off" and "mute on" instead of just "mute" (toggle) ... this wasn't in the database, but I emailed them to harmony and they got added.

Wow, this is even better than I thought. I always figured folks were exaggerating at least a bit when they went on about their Harmony remotes. Now I see what they were near-orgasmic about!

If those discreet codes exist, for the TV, DVR and DVD player (all fairly new), then I can program those in without worry about the "toggle-effect". The button will simply work every time, no matter what the current status is.

xboxfreak, thanks!

So, since our TV has only a toggle, we just need to make sure that the TV is always turned off with the Harmony and then I can safely include the "Turn TV on" bit as part of the "Watch TV" macro sequence, and if I map a button to the TV power on/off toggle, then the "Watch TV" sequence will also be aware of that button's actions.

I am getting very excited about this. Is that weird? :0)

Harmony remotes are Activity based, so you do not need to program in "Turn TV On" as you would with a macro. As long as the TV is part of an Activity, the remote knows it needs to be turned on if it is not already on.

If you map a button to the TV power on/off toggle, the remote will not track that. It only tracks the commands in Activities.

As others have pointed out, many TVs have discrete power codes even though the original remote has only one button. That is the way it is with my older Mitsubishi TV. I just told the software there was one button to turn it on and one to turn it off and that I did not have the original remote, but knew which commands to use. Then I used Power On for on and Power Off for the off command.

Ah, Billy, got it.

I now have a Harmony, went and bought a 670 today and have been programming it here at work, and have a couple of questions, but I think I will ask them in a new thread. Thanks, guys!