Harmony 880 Official Thread. For all info and FAQs [Text View]

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mallu2u

03-11-06, 01:56 AM

Guys:

Instead of having so many threads for Harmony 880, lets get all the info and ask all the Qs in one thread. Doesn't have to be this..but is there isn't another one, lets make it this one..and fire all the Qs. I am hoping all experienced members shall respond in this thread as well.

Objectives & Discussion Topics:

- FAQs
- Rebates
- Discounts/Deals
- Tips/Tricks
- General Help

My interest? I just got the remote today. Bought it from Costco. Liking it so far. I shall update this thead with as much information as I can find.

Logitech Link: http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/detailsharmony/CA/EN,CRID=2084,CONTENTID=9933

Manual: 880 Manual (http://209.187.238.153/movies/880_UserManual.pdf)

Logitech Forum: http://forums.logitech.com/index.html?l=EN&c=CAN

Software download link: http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/downloads/software/CA/EN,CRID=2109,contentid=10174

Customer Support #: 1.866.291.1505

Support Hours:
9AM-10PM EST (M-F)
12PM-6PM EST (Sat,Sun)

P.S: I shall soon start building this thread with 880 info and possibly FAQs.

mallu2u

03-11-06, 03:16 AM

Ok, my first Q. Has anyone successfully setup 880 with Dish Network DVRs. I have 522 and cannot seem to get it to work (do anything).

Speedskater

03-11-06, 07:59 AM

And my question is: How does the 880 do discrete codes ?

tgibbs

03-11-06, 01:28 PM

How does the 880 deal with changing output resolution of a HD video source (such as a HDTiVo) where a TV requires different inputs for different resolutions? Harmony 6xx and 5xx remotes will handle this, but it requires workarounds like Activity start macros or dummy devices. I've heard that the 8xx series supports this directly? Is this true?

mallu2u

03-13-06, 09:07 AM

I wish I could answer some of the Qs above. Guess we shall have to wait for one of the 880 owners. LOL

EricJRW

03-13-06, 12:24 PM

Q: Where is / Where can I find the manual?

A: You can download the manual after signing into the Harmony web site, there is a link in the upper left-hand corner, or, you can find it in this thread (there is a link in post #4 and also an attached copy in post #6): http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=617906

mallu2u

03-14-06, 09:11 AM

Thanks for the link Eric! So no one out there who can help with configuring 880 with Dish Network DVR 522?

mallu2u

03-16-06, 01:35 PM

Anyone has an info here on the 880 Pro? I know its coming out soon.

mallu2u

03-17-06, 10:06 AM

Updated the first post with general 880 info

RKaliki

03-25-06, 07:18 PM

Expidia

03-25-06, 07:46 PM

czzer

03-26-06, 02:01 AM

Hey guys,

I was wondering if there was a way to not turn on a device when I'm using an activity. For example when I'm watching TV and then I feel like watching a DVD I usually get up to open the tray to put a DVD in before I switch to the DVD activity. Now when I switch to the "watch a DVD" activity the remote turns off my DVD player. I know I could circumvent this problem by switching to "watch a DVD" first before I put in a DVD but I often forget to do this. So I would like to not have the remote attempt to turn on the DVD player and in effec turn off the DVD player when I use the "watch a DVD" activity. Is there any way to do this?

Thanks

Firstly, select device mode for your DVD player and see if there are discrete commands listed for "Power on" and "Power Off". If there are(and they work...check them first), go to your home page and select "More options" for the DVD player, then "Adjust power settings". Tell it you have seperate commands for on and off, then set them as the discretes you found earlier.

If there are no discrete power commands you could set the Power on command as the "Play" command. This works as a kind of discrete for most players.

Alternatively, when you put a disk in the player, press the "Power" button on the player instead of the close button. This will at least put it back in synch with the remote.

kmp14

03-27-06, 11:13 AM

Does the 880 offer any flexability regarding the icons used for the activities? All the "Watch TV" activities look similar. In their marketing, for example, the Watch PVR activity has a nice looking program grid icon, but in actual practice it is like the basic watch tv icon, accept for a little pause icon in the graphic. Also, the Devices icons are, IMO, better the activity icons. They should let you pick the icon that you want for any activity, or even better, anywhere you can see an icon. Is this posible and I am just missing it?

tokerblue

03-27-06, 11:45 AM

Does the 880 offer any flexability regarding the icons used for the activities?... They should let you pick the icon that you want for any activity, or even better, anywhere you can see an icon. Is this posible and I am just missing it?
- Unfortunately, it's a function that was never fully implemented. We're stuck with the default icons until Logitech decides to update the site to allow it. It's my biggest gripe along with not being able to sort the order of soft buttons within Activities.

kmp14

03-27-06, 12:09 PM

Unfortunately, it's a function that was never fully implemented. We're stuck with the default icons until Logitech decides to update the site to allow it. - It's my biggest gripe along with not being able to sort the order of soft buttons within Activities.

Yes! You really have to plan ahead to get the soft buttons to show where you want. On the one hand the Harmony concept is really cool, on the other, it could be WAY better.

hawkeye7756

03-27-06, 12:41 PM

I thought I'd just write a small post on my experience with the Harmony 880.

My home theater consists of:
Panny Plasma TV
Sony DVD player
Yamaha A/V receiver
Bell ExpressVu HD receiver
Bell ExpressVu non-HD reciever
Windows Media Center

I had everything controlled with a Philips Neo Pronto, and since that remote is virtualy unsupported by phillips (or so it seems), I deceided to upgrade rather than recode everything by hand into the Pronto.

The Pronto is great for flexability, so I was curious to see how the Harmony would do.

The short of it is, I got the harmony up and running in about 1 hour, controlling everything exactly how I wanted it. it was done without having to learn a single code from any of the remotes. The flexibility was good enough that I could still tweak it to handle all the tasks like switch between viewing modes, leaving certain devices powered up and others not. Everything is controlled by the Harmony, and I would say it does a better job than the pronto.

I was a little skeptical of the website loading the remote, but wow was I impressed. I would say the Harmony is at least 10 times easier to setup than my Pronto Neo was.

I would give the remote a 5 star rating out of 5 stars. I was skeptical going in, but it passed with flying colors.

TheMoose

03-28-06, 03:27 PM

I currently have the Sony RMAX4000 remote & I like it but it like all other Sony stuff has no codes for the individual inputs on Sony TV's.

I understand the Harmony 880 has these codes, are they part of the setup disc or is it a seperate download?
What other downloads are there for the 880?
How difficult is it to add these downloads to the 880?

I'm just waiting for the price to bottom out again on Buyretail.com (http://buyeretail.com/product.asp?file=BizRate&i=LOGHAR880&sku=HARMONY880) (anyone have any feedback on this company??) at one time it was $113 but it went back up to $225, the price drops every couple of days so it should bottom out again soon, right now it's $142, yesterday it was $159 so it's juat a waiting game to get the best price.

tokerblue

03-28-06, 03:42 PM

I understand the Harmony 880 has these codes, are they part of the setup disc or is it a seperate download?
- The online Harmony database has the discrete input codes. The software simply installs the “Harmony Client”.

What other downloads are there for the 880?
How difficult is it to add these downloads to the 880?
- Is there is an upgrade, you would just download a software update. There isn’t any other type of upgrade.

Arutha_conDoin

03-29-06, 12:15 AM

I've had my 880 remote now for about two weeks and love it. I'm using it on the following:
Sony KDS-R50XBR1
DirctTV H20 receiver
Denon AVR-1803
Xbox 360
Pioneer CD player
and have had really no problems with it. Sometimes when watching TV and switching over to the 360, it will not turn on the 360, but then I just go into the Device and eject the tray since most likely I would not be playing the game that is in there.

I have yet to look at the manual yet, but I was curious if there is a way to change the layout buttons on a Device? My Sony TV settings are spread all over 13 pages, and if I could I could condense it down to about two pages with the features I use the most. Anyhow I love this remote, and I think even my wife likes it. Personally it was worth the money just have to only one remote out on the coffee table again.

Yamadr6

03-29-06, 06:30 AM

Anyone knows how the range on this remote is? :rolleyes:

If I am standing about 25ft away would it still work propertly? :rolleyes:

mallu2u

03-29-06, 02:16 PM

I have yet to look at the manual yet, but I was curious if there is a way to change the layout buttons on a Device? My Sony TV settings are spread all over 13 pages, and if I could I could condense it down to about two pages with the features I use the most. .

Yes, you can do that on the harmony website and then update the remote

kmp14

03-30-06, 05:09 PM

Anyone know how to get directly into RAW learning mode on the harmony site?

gla4g

04-01-06, 01:22 PM

I got my 880 a few weeks ago and chose "Beginner Mode" in the set up wizard beacause it was Friday night, I'd already had a couple of shots of tequila ;) and that wasn't the time to go into learning mode. The process went smoothly and quickly and I was able to start using the remote for basic activities and functions in about 20 minutes. I only had 2 big issues: 1) Choosing another activity powered off my PVR which I leave on all the time. 2) The buttons on the PVR remote for FF and RR were much more convenient than the VCR-like buttons on the 880. But I suspected I could fix that and today I did. I first checked the FAQs and found instructions for both issues. The 880 has 2 buttons right below the directional button that default to Page Up and Page Down in the PVR remote config. In the default config, those buttons duplicate the Channel UP/Down function for which there's already a dedicated button. I easily changed the function to FF and RR and now the button location is a convenient as the PVR remote. I'm not doing a bunch of complicated stuff, but so far, I'm 100% a happy camper.

Pioneer PDP-ARO5U
HR10-250
Samsung DVD
Yamaha RXV 650
XBOX

klrbee25

04-02-06, 10:12 AM

grapeapeceo

04-02-06, 11:45 AM

klrbee25,

First each device has a an option to leave always on. So, you can say turn everything off
in your activity, these devices stay on. e.g. tivo. Secondly, for me, the 880 gave me discrete codes for all my devices. In the original setup, you can tell it to use toggle or descrete for turning on and off (on a device basis). I always use discrete. This appears to give you everything you need to do what you want. It doesn't matter what mode it is in, if you have discretes.

Yes, again, the 880 gives you discretes for seamingly everything. So in your activity, you say "Set Video 2", if Video 2 is the input you watch DVD on.

Let me know if you have other specific questions or this did not answer your question.

grapeapeceo

04-02-06, 12:02 PM

kmp14,

I am not sure I really understand what you are asking, but here is a way to get to raw mode:

- login to home page
- select "troubleshoot"
- select "show me more problems"
- select "device doesn't appear to receive every command"
- select "device never responds to command"
- select "yes. I've tried to teach ..."
- select "learn raw"

I've never had to do this, but is I tried it out just to see what it did.
Did this answer your question?

rgathright

04-02-06, 09:24 PM

czzer

04-02-06, 10:14 PM

Hey Everyone,

I'm very tempted to pick up an 880 from Ecost for $170. I do have a few questions though that I hope you can help me out with. I've noticed that even my MX-600 has problems with the "global" system off function. When pressed, devices that are on get turned off, but any device that was off then gets turned on. It's a real pain that I haven't found a way around. (I could do individual viewing mode "off" macros but the remote screen won't allow enough labeled macro buttons to make it logical).

1) So, how does the 880 handle the global off button based on what viewing mode you're in? (e.g. if you're watching TV with a satellite box and your DVD is off, does the dvd get turned on when you globally turn off the TV and satellite?)

2) Second, are you able to logically set up viewing mode changes on the remote? For example, if you're watching a dvd and want to switch to high def cable, can you set up visual buttons to allow for the switch over. Essentially I'd like to have DVD to TV, TV to DVD, DVD to XBox, etc....for every permutation.

Thanks in advance for your help.

This is the single biggest reason the Harmony remotes are superior to HTM IMO.

The Harmony keeps track of which devices are on or off, and what inputs are selected. When you press the "Off" button, it sends the power commands ONLY for the devices it thinks are switched on.

When you change activities, it knows which devices are required for each activity, and what inputs are required. It then makes up it's own "macro" on the fly, turnings devices on or off and changing inputs as required for the new activity, even if your devices don't have discretes.

You don't need to think of all the possible permutations for switching when setting it up. You just tell it which devices you want to use in each activity, what function you want them to perform(volume control, channel, transport etc) and what input they need to be set to, and it works out the rest itself.

JBaumgart

04-02-06, 10:31 PM

You don't need to think of all the possible permutations for switching when setting it up. You just tell it which devices you want to use in each activity, what function you want them to perform(volume control, channel, transport etc) and what input they need to be set to, and it works out the rest itself.

IMO this capability all but makes the video section of an audio video receiver unnecessary. On both of my systems where I use a Harmony I totally bypass the receivers' video inputs/outputs and rely on the Harmonys to do all video switching. Cuts down on cables and the direct connections don't hurt as far as picture quality is concerned either. When I see people on other threads fretting over upconversion and HDMI connections, I always ask why don't they just get a Harmony remote and when it comes to choosing their receiver/pre pro, just focus on its sound quality and other audio capabilities.

Devedander

04-02-06, 11:14 PM

2) Second, are you able to logically set up viewing mode changes on the remote? For example, if you're watching a dvd and want to switch to high def cable, can you set up visual buttons to allow for the switch over. Essentially I'd like to have DVD to TV, TV to DVD, DVD to XBox, etc....for every permutation.

Thanks in advance for your help.

One of my biggest problems with this remote (and it shows you how good it is that this is high on my list) is that you cannot program macros into your custom pages.

The only place you can get "macro" functionality is in the Activities page which does exactly what you ask for. It shows things like "Watch TV" "Watch DVD" "Listen to CD", and whichever one you pick, the 880 decides what you need on to do it, turns that stuff on, turns other stuff off (unless you told it not to) and changes inputs accordingly.

What I don't like is that the Activities button is in a very difficult to reach spot at the top left of the remote. This almost requiers two hands to hit if you don't ahve big hands and usually results in finger print smudges on the screen.

Once you start an activity, the only way to switch to another is to hit Activity and then choose another, had the button been in a better place (central) this would have beem much better.

My only other major gripe so far is that on your activities share custom button pages. It's hard to explain but if you get the remote and start working with your custom buttons you will find that different Activities that share a device must share it's custom buttons sometimes pushing around the location of those buttons even on to other pages.

klrbee25

04-02-06, 11:19 PM

Thanks for the input everyone. The "intuitive" nature of the remote in regards to switching between viewing modes has me completely sold. Hopefully it works as advertised. I've been using an MX-600 which periodically decides to "forget" random IR codes. This makes all the macros worthless since i have to manually go back and fix all the mistakes. As soon as my Harmony arrives, the MX-600 is going for a trip over the side of my 22nd floor balcony :).

TheMoose

04-03-06, 12:27 AM

Hey Everyone,
I'm very tempted to pick up an 880 from Ecost for $170.
I hope you haven't bought it yet!!
Buyretail.com (http://buyeretail.com/product.asp?file=BizRate&i=LOGHAR880&sku=HARMONY880)
Has it for $139 & the price is dropping every couple of days, I saw it there once for $113 & am waiting till it bottoms out again.

skellys1031

04-03-06, 06:13 PM

How is this remote doing so far operating the HR10-250?

Mine runs without a glitch of any kind.

Devedander

04-03-06, 08:38 PM

I hope you haven't bought it yet!!
Buyretail.com (http://buyeretail.com/product.asp?file=BizRate&i=LOGHAR880&sku=HARMONY880)
Has it for $139 & the price is dropping every couple of days, I saw it there once for $113 & am waiting till it bottoms out again.

Don't wait too long or the $50 rebate will be over...

Devedander

04-03-06, 08:39 PM

My Review (get out the reading glasses):

Price Paid: $113 after rebate to my door

My system:
IF SP4805 Projector
Onkyo LR522 Reciever
Motorola 6412 (I think) cable box
Toshiba 120 Hour Tivo w/DVD burner
Xbox
PS2
HTPC

Since I like it both ways (easy and fast and complex but detailed) here is my shorty review:

Well built, generally easy to use this remote handily replaces my almost dozen other remotes and actually makes me feel confident putting them in the box for storage as I won't need them but for very rarely.

Only a few programming and functionality hicciups keep this from doing everything I want and it's layout is very good and useable. For about $100 I think it's great, for the retail $300 price tag I would say they need to do some more work on it before I could really feel it's justified.

If you have lots of remotes or someone in the house who just doens't do well with complicated electronic setups this is a solid choice.

Long winded version:

I don't have the fanciest home theater and I haven't owned hundreds of expensive universal remotes but I am a techno geek and I know what I want and what its' worth... and I think the 880 has me covered.

My only other learning remote was the Harmon Kardon TC1000, and it had some short commings but was also very easy to program, the software that came with it was generally well laid out and the options were plenty. But I didn't like the LCD touchscreen (something seems wrong about looking at your remote every time you push a button) and the fact it didn't remember when stuff was on got problematic resulting in the macros only being useful some of the time and some actions actually getting harder.

I got a handful of universal remotes, some of which I really like, but none as flexible as I really wanted. Then the 880 caught my eye; it has the eye candy I like, it offers features I want, and with the rebate I got it for $113 to my door. Couldn't resist.

I have now had the remote for 5 days and I have to say that it gets a solid 8 out of 10 from me and considering the price I don't think I could have done much better.

First off what I feel are high points:

I like the peanut style remotes, and while the 880 isn't truly peanut like in how Tivo remotes are it still fits nicely into the hand.

The screen has 8 soft buttons which I feel are adaquate for most things. When they aren't more pages are available with an easy to access button. In conjunction with the rest of the buttons I think it would be pretty hard for the average user to run out of option space.

The screen is color and makes nice eye candy. Does the screen saver add any usefulness? No... but if you honestly can say you don't care about the eye candy at all I think you are lying at least a little. It could have been better quality but for what it does it does it well and I think a better quality screen would have resulted in higher cost at no real benefit.

The rechargeable batter seems like a plus for me right now. I have to get used to putting the remote on teh charging dock, but that may help me not loose it so much.

The tilt sensor, despite seeming gimmicky is truly useful. Many remotes have the backlight button poorly placed (what's the point of a backlight to help you see buttons if you can't see the button for the backlight?) with the SP 4805 being a very smarly laid out exception. As silly as it seems, being able to pick up the remote and have it light up is truly a function you will start to wonder how you lived without.

Depth of remote codes was great, everything from my SP4805 to my XM Myfi was recognized with pretty much every command I could want available (many not on the original remotes).

Oddly, many of the pluses tie into where I find the minuses:

My biggest gripe has to be the programming... I am not one to overlook the value of streamlining and having a web app I guess allows for the easiest access to up to date info, but don't lots of programs check the web for updates automatically now anyway? And what about if my internet goes down or I just don't have internet? I am hosed?

Even worse is the way it forces you through dumbe down answer trees to get anything done. I told them I was an expert at this kind of thing when I signed up and I still feel like they think this is my first remote control ever. Not to mention if I want to change something at the end of the answer tree I have to waid through half a dozen questions to get to that part.

There are ways around some of it, but I think honestly Harmony's approach of "all one way" is stupid. Get that simplified web interface up for the people who don't want to tinker with making their own macros and such, but leave me an option to go in and easily tailor everthing. Many times I feel like they dumbed it down so much it became harder for those who know what they are doing... It's like Macs and that one stupid big button on the mouse (no offense to the Mac lovers), I sit down and put two fingers on it and immediately feel unhappy.

Harmony, I think a large part of your market wants MORE options, not LESS options. Give us the simplified one AND give us the complicated one. Let us choose!

Since programming it is such a big part of using this remote at all I think that warrants a pretty big chunk of unhappiness.

As a sort of sub gripe is the custom buttons, when you hit an activity, it turns on what you want on and then leaves you with a screen of custom buttons to do things related to that. Good idea.

But the way it's implemented bothers me and yet again wreaks of Harmony deciding how I will like things, or at least deciding they will go all one way or the other with no option for the odd man out.

Every actions custom button screen shows all the custom buttons you chose to show up for every device in that action. So while I am watching cable TV there are not really and custom buttons I want from my cable box because... it doesn't do that much... so I use all 8 slots for functions from my projector.

Now when I watch my tivo I want to program 4 buttons for tivo stuff, and use the remaining 4 for projector related stuff (I give up 4 buttons worth of projector stuff).

What happens? I can either have 8 projector related buttons (pushing the 4 tivo ones onto page 2) or I can have 4 projector related settings and 4 tivo (thus 8 buttons while watching tivo) but then only 4 buttons show up while watching cable. This leaves me with 4 unused soft buttons.

Now I may be anal in that I don't want to have wasted buttons or ahve to go to page 2 for stuff... but I bought a customizeable remote because I want it customized to just how I want it. Even worse apparently it used to be how I wanted it (every action gets it's own truly unique page of buttons) but people didn't like setting up the same thing over and over... so rather than making an option like they have for devices (copy the setup for another device) they force you into just having custom buttons by device. No option to go either way, just this way or nothing.

And apparently the work around is to create dummy copies of devices so they will have their own custom pages. So I can fix my cluttered custom buttons page by having a cluttered devices page? Great.

I am kind of worried about the battery dying in a few years and how much a new one will cost... unlike the rest of my home theater I don't usually feel the need to upgrade my remote if it does what I want.

Having to teather the base to a power plug kind of sucks as it means no putting it on the coffee table or such without cables around. Also it adds (a miniscule) amount of cost to my electric bill as wall warts are notoriously not efficient. Considering the other options I think not a bad trade. I would have liked to see it take standard AAA nimh and charge those inside but oh well...

As you can see the programming hiccups are what really irks me (and it's a programmable remote that is highly touted as programmable so I think that's fair).

On the physical and functional side very little seems wrong to me. The remotes layout seems a bit more asthaetic than utilitarian but it's a tradeoff for eye candy. The way the buttons are laid out I can only comfortably opperate the center group of buttons. The top (including soft buttons) leave me reaching or even two handing it sometimes (I do have smaller hands) and the bottom ones mean I have to hold the remote so far down it feels like its going to fall out of my hand.

Also the placement of the activities button seems odd, way up at the top left... aren't most of us right handed? And going to be hitting that with our right thumb? As it is I really have to reach to hit it with my right thumb, often leaving a big thumb print on the screen in the process. It seems that button is important enough and oft used that it should be much more central. I guess I can remap it to one of the central buttons but that hardly seems how it should be.

A few tweaks here and there (I will contact customer support about my desires but I won't be crushed if they don't address them and I don't see that Activities button moving) and I think this remote could be totally awesome. As it is, it feels me like the step right before the killer app. So close!!! Soooooo close!!!!!

Logitech:

Keep up the streamlining for the noobs but give us tech minded people our down and dirty options too!

Get away from web only programming! Yes we appreciate immediate access to the newest database possible, but I think mostly programming will be done in short bursts every now and then, MUCH better suited by downloading todays newest stuff as an update and giving me fast access for the rest of the 24 hours. There is a reason tax dcouments are updated once a year, no need to make me go to the IRS building EVERYTIME I do anything tax related.

Keep the updates to firmware comming giving us more options like customizeable Activities images etc and I think I would be hard pressed to give this less than a 9.5 out of 10.

TheMoose

04-03-06, 10:54 PM

Don't wait too long or the $50 rebate will be over...
What rebate?? I haven't seen that.

Devedander

04-04-06, 02:37 AM

What rebate?? I haven't seen that.

Here ya go...

Once my rebate comes in I will have got mine for $113.

rgathright

04-04-06, 12:09 PM

Mine runs without a glitch of any kind.

Did you have to program each key separately via the learn mode?

rgathright

04-04-06, 12:10 PM

TheMoose

04-04-06, 12:54 PM

Here ya go...

Once my rebate comes in I will have got mine for $113.
Thanks for that!

At the price can get it after the rebate I may go ahead & pick it up even though I already have the Sony RM-AX4000

TheMoose

04-04-06, 12:55 PM

Now it is up to $147!!!
I don't know why the price bounces around so much on that site, I'm patient & have till 4-25 till the rebate expires so I'll keep watching it.

lcohen999

04-04-06, 02:01 PM

Its close enough so I thought I would add it

Harmony 890
Panasonic TH-42PHD8UK
Harmon Kardon AVR 435
SA 8300HD
Paradigm 5.1
Oppo DVD
XBOX (no remote)

The most important thing...my wife loves this remote, that long has paid for itself.

I need to tweak the keys for my H/K, everything else seems to be working perfectly, I love this remote!

Devedander

04-04-06, 02:05 PM

I don't know why the price bounces around so much on that site, I'm patient & have till 4-25 till the rebate expires so I'll keep watching it.

If it drops low enough I will get a second for the bedroom.

screxer

04-04-06, 04:24 PM

Is there a way to further program activities to change a receiver's volume at an activity startup? For example, when I choose "Watch a DVD", it will turn on my TV, switch TV source to 7, turn on the receiver, switch receiver source to DVD, and turn on the DVD player....from there, I usually then turn up the receiver to -25 or -20 for reference listening. When done watching, I just turn the system off....however, the next time I choose an activity (for example, Watch Tivo) everything will turn on, but for a short period I will be getting blasted from reference level volumes because I forgot to turn it down the last time I watched a DVD. Is there a way to program a default volume level the remote should set the AVR to for each activity?

lcohen999

04-04-06, 04:33 PM

I guess that would depend if your reciever can accept direct volume input....

Good idea though

Devedander

04-06-06, 11:38 AM

The 880 is available for $70 or less AR today only... check around the websites...

mallu2u

04-06-06, 12:12 PM

k found it but the coupon has already been used up...I get that error :(

tgibbs

04-06-06, 12:21 PM

rgathright

04-06-06, 12:41 PM

k found it but the coupon has already been used up...I get that error :(

ditto - I called and they said the coupon was not any good.

What's up? Is this any good or not?

rgathright

04-06-06, 01:14 PM

It will not take the coupon at all now!!!!!!!!!!!

otzdig

04-06-06, 01:21 PM

Devedander

04-06-06, 01:51 PM

It may be used up. I ordered it this morning with no problems, got the confirmation and everything.

I heard that there's a set number of times the Dell coupons can be used. For example, once the coupon for this remote is used 1,000 times it's used up. Someone else may be able to confirm/debunk this, though.

Mike

This is true, many of their offers work this way.

There was supposedly a way to order from EPP rather than Dell Home that would still let the coupon work as of about half an hour ago... might be dead that way now too...

rgathright

04-06-06, 01:56 PM

Try this - I just ordered it.

Try this link:

http://www1.us.Dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/dod?c=us&cs=6009&l=en&s=eep

Then click the link at the bottom which says:

If you do not know your member ID, you can enter the store by clicking here.

You will see the remote advertised on the next page.

Or try entering code: 34FZT9JNB4QZ2M

rgathright

04-06-06, 02:13 PM

Just received my confirmation!!!!!!!

mallu2u

04-06-06, 02:25 PM

did not work either! redeemed!

mallu2u

04-06-06, 02:28 PM

guess its my bad day!:(

klrbee25

04-06-06, 11:46 PM

In regards to the volume question...you'd be better off checking your receiver settings. Higher end models will allow you to select a default value for whenever the receiver is turned on. The receiver goes to the default setting each time it's turned on again. I set mine (a Rotel RSX-1056) to 50 which gets me started, and then i just bump it up to 60 or 70 at my leisure once things are on.

BTW, got my 880 today. This thing is amazing! It's funny, I'm actually a bit bummed that I don't have to program all the macros myself which would give me a reason to fiddle with it more right now :).

rgathright

04-07-06, 06:28 AM

My 880 was shipped yesterday and is to be delivered today. Will get to play around with it this weekend.

acribb

04-07-06, 05:11 PM

Question:

In the 880, can you have two sets of Favorite Channels, for two different devices? For instance, Favorite Channels for a Sony DVR and favorite channels for another tuner, such as your TV Tuner, or another HD box?

Thanks.

SDChargerdan

04-07-06, 06:56 PM

Adam, you can have favorites for each Activity that you setup for each device.

vgs86

04-07-06, 09:31 PM

Can somebody tell me if following devices support discrete power-on and power-off fucntions?

Pioneer AV Receiver (VSX-D1014TX-K)
Accurian Satellite (16-3499) (HDTV receiver)
Apex DVD VCR (ADV-3800)

Thanks,
- Vikas

vgs86

04-07-06, 10:36 PM

Aaaarggggg

This is extremely painful :-(

I spent an hour with CSR so that I can add room light controller but after a little tweaking, the whole thing is messed up again.

Can somebody explain to me how the custom buttons are mapped? There are 4x2 buttons on the screen. Do I have more than 8? Do I have pages like I have on device menu for Activiy menu? I tried what I thought the most intuitive i.e. pick up a corresponding key from each device but apparently, it does not work like that.

The cycle time to make a change on the web page and then download and then try it is driving me crazy.

For example, on my Harmony screen, on "play a video" activiy, I have four soft keys marked "EJECT, CLEAR, ASPECT, ROOMLI" but on the custom button lable on my Harmony home page only "Aspect, RoomLight" has been set up.

Please help!!! I already made 3 calls to CSR. Harmony needs 24x7 customer support!!!

- Vikas

bokingwen

04-08-06, 01:59 AM

I have a direct TV H10 receiver I can use the DTV remote to change the volume (using the Yamaha code) but I can't use the 880 to change the volume. I figure it is probably beuase I have to enter the code on the DTV remote and I dont think or see an option on the 880. How can I use my 880 - DTV receiver mode to change volume for my Syntax LT37HVS?

Thanks.

rgathright

04-08-06, 06:32 AM

Just received this remote yesterday. Set it up to charge all night. Got up this morning and it did not charge.

What has to happen to make this charge?

Lew_b

04-08-06, 09:56 AM

Just received this remote yesterday. Set it up to charge all night. Got up this morning and it did not charge.

What has to happen to make this charge?
While I've never had a problem getting my 880 to charge, there have been others who have complained about problems with the cradle.
When you placed the 880 in the cradle, did it beep and go thru a series of pictures of the 880 on the LCD display ? If not, Id say that the remote is not making good connection with the contacts on the base.
First things I'd do:
Make sure the battery is installed correctly.
Make sure nothing is covering the contacts on the cradle or the remote.
Make sure the charger is plugged in and getting power.
Carefully place the 880 in the cradle until you hear the beep and see the pictures. You might need to jiggle it a bit to get it to make contact.
So a search for posts about the 880 and the cradle.
Call customer support and have them work you thru the problem.

rgathright

04-08-06, 10:46 AM

I got it working and have programmed everything, but one thing has me confused. I have the Directv HR10-250 and it does not have a power on or off. Now when I turn everything on or off with the 880 it turns this receiver off or on. How can I set this remote up to where it will not turn the HR10-250 on/off? A lot of times we record after we go to bed at night.

JBaumgart

04-08-06, 02:05 PM

Texas7108

04-08-06, 05:29 PM

I got a question in regards to the 880 for Home Theatre use, but first a little background info:

My projector (Z4) is ceiling mounted about mid way in the room, the IR sensor eye is facing forward towards the screen. All the other components controlled by the 880 are in the rear of the room.

When I select the "watch DVD" activity from the rear of the room the projector does not power up but the other components do. And conversely, if I stand in front of the projector it will power up but the components in the rear will not. The component rack is located inside the room with glass doors but I leave them open.

I have researched and found things like "emitters," "extenders," and even some sorta of IR to RF something or other. Not to well schooled in this area and don't want to procure the wrong parts.

I saw this at audioholics and was wondering if this might solve the issue, could not determine if it required a hard wire "eye" on the projector and would be required to run back the component rack, which I can't do??

http://www.audioholics.com/productreviews/avhardware/WirelessRFRemoteControlExtender.php

Any thoughts or other suggestions would greatly be appreciated!!
Thanks - Cory

rgathright

04-08-06, 06:57 PM

Harmony's programming does allow for any device to be left on (or never turned off). This is what I do with my DVR, a Motorola 6412.

So would I need to reprogram the remote with the computer or on the remote itself to not turn the Tivo off and on?

MitchBart

04-08-06, 07:57 PM

So would I need to reprogram the remote with the computer or on the remote itself to not turn the Tivo off and on?

The Tivo's don't power off they go into "standby". They still record scheduled programs. I let my 880 make the HR10-250 go into "standby" on power off and its never been a problem.

MB

73ChargerFan

04-08-06, 11:08 PM

Texas, perhaps the 890 will work for you. It uses both IR and RF. and I think the RF receiver is an IR emittor so that you can point in one location and it will opperate also in another.

I programmed my new 880 a few days ago, and have a problem. I set up the "Watch Videos" activity for my MCE HTPC, which only has audio out to my receiver. The volume buttons, however, insist on operating the TV, which is useless. How can I program it to control the volume using the receiver?

czzer

04-09-06, 02:28 AM

For your "Watch Videos" activity, select "customize", then "Change behaviour of buttons".
You can then map any function to any button you want.

rgathright

04-09-06, 07:58 AM

The Tivo's don't power off they go into "standby". They still record scheduled programs. I let my 880 make the HR10-250 go into "standby" on power off and its never been a problem.

MB

OK - I will just let it do whatever it does when the light goes off being it will still record.

Thanks,

Now I have a new question.

1) Will this remote work with the remote for the MyHD card for my HTPC? This remote has to be pointed toward a "receiver" box.

Davew0670

04-10-06, 08:49 AM

lcohen999

04-10-06, 09:18 AM

I have had no probems with almost the same setup (except for the samsung)

Everything works as it should. Try calling Harmony support, I guess

kyris

04-10-06, 12:01 PM

czzer

04-10-06, 08:11 PM

MY wife bought one of these at release and it was nothing but problems. The remote would not go to the correct input on my tv, turned off my harmon kardon rec. complteley off out of stand by and would not turn it back on. I had to set the input EVERY single time with the help feature. It wasnt worth $2 much less $250.

Last week I decided to give it another try since there was a rebate and the price was better. Having same exact problems. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know! Here is what I have

Panasonic TV (PT-50LC13)

Harman Kardon AV Receiver (AVR-130)

Scientific Atlanta PVR (Explorer 8300HD)

Samsung DVD (DVD-HD931)

Microsoft Game Console (With DVD) (XBox 360)

Did you try the "troubleshooting" link on the webpage. All your problems are addressed there.

Basically, if inputs aren't selecting properly, you will have to increase some delays. This is a problem with your TV, not the remote.

If the power commands aren't correct, re-learn them from your original remote.

wrd222

04-10-06, 09:43 PM

Re: Streaky Screen

Mine is streaky as well. The wierd thing is that the streaks go away when the "USB Connected Message" is displayed. Perhaps it displays certain colors better than others. I tried a green background and it looks horrible. Also, when the backlight light dims on its way off, about halfway the streaks seem to disappear.

wrd222

04-10-06, 09:47 PM

Has anyone had any problems with the remote spontaneously rebooting? I have the latest firmware (4.0 I think). Sometimes it will be stable for a week or more, sometimes it will reboot two or three times a day. It is a royal pain as the remote comes back up and thinks everything is off and the assistant comes back on again.

Also, anyone notice what the default time is when it reboots? It isn't 12:00 :D

geoWorm

04-10-06, 11:45 PM

Has anyone had any problems with the remote spontaneously rebooting? I have the latest firmware (4.0 I think). Sometimes it will be stable for a week or more, sometimes it will reboot two or three times a day. It is a royal pain as the remote comes back up and thinks everything is off and the assistant comes back on again.
:D

I had the same problem. Seems the battery compartment allows the battery to move around and allows for a loose connection. Use some electrical tape or something to wedge the battery for a tight fit.

Cheers

wizard2

04-11-06, 07:47 AM

Harmony's programming does allow for any device to be left on (or never turned off). This is what I do with my DVR, a Motorola 6412.

Sure it does. My sat.reciever is left on all the time.

Under the device More Options-Adjust Power Setting-I Want To Leave Device On All The Time

jvgillow

04-11-06, 09:16 AM

I received my Harmony 880 on Friday and I've spent the weekend fiddling with. It seems like a great remote but the screen on mine is quite streaky and it looks as if the contrast is set too high. You can see it on the picture below around the edges, particularly on the right hand side. Is this normal?

The 880 that I bought for my dad at Christmas time had an awful screen that actually looked a little worse than that. I took it back to the store and exchanged it for another unit which had a perfect screen. I guess they had a bad batch or something.

JBaumgart

04-11-06, 10:57 PM

Sure it does. My sat.reciever is left on all the time.

Under the device More Options-Adjust Power Setting-I Want To Leave Device On All The Time

Please check my post again - I says that the Harmony DOES allow this.

Expidia

04-11-06, 11:39 PM

Just received this remote yesterday. Set it up to charge all night. Got up this morning and it did not charge.

What has to happen to make this charge?

I noticed mine was not re-charging over the last few days and I've owned it for a month. No pictures when placed in cradle.

I took the battery out and put back in which reset it. Also took a pencil eraser and rubbed the contacts on the cradle and the remote. I think this removes oxidation or oils from one's hands.

Charging OK now, had to re-synch my watch "TV in Stereo" activity setting though with the help key.

lensterman

04-12-06, 08:46 AM

I purchased an 880 from Costco around March 21. The remote sometimes will appear to reset when I press a keypad key? It does not matter if I press a guide key or a numeric key? Somehow when it happens the screen will go blank, then testing is display then the remote starts over again?
Has anyone else had this problem?
I am going to call tech support at 9.

Lenny

zoma4

04-12-06, 10:20 AM

Sure it does. My sat.reciever is left on all the time.

Under the device More Options-Adjust Power Setting-I Want To Leave Device On All The Time

Thanks! I've been looking for this. I love my 880, but the web interface isn't always straightforward to be able to find what you want.

Bud-man

04-12-06, 10:31 AM

dichtegs

04-12-06, 10:36 AM

Love my new 880. I have it set to turn on all my devices with a single button press, but I would then like it to autimatically default to the screen with my favorite channels, rather than the other, less used TV options that appear (apsect ratino, etc). Is there a way to do this? Thanks so much.

zoma4

04-12-06, 11:45 AM

I just bought this from Dell last week, havent had time to fool with it, i saw the screen icons like PVR VCR..etc can those be changed yet?, otherwise i'm returning it, who the hell still uses a VCR?
I want DVR instead of PVR also

You can rename any activity as you please. I don't know about the icons though. Got mine from dell last week too -- it was a great deal, and every day I use the remote I like it more and more. Even have it controlling my air conditioner. :)

zoma4

04-12-06, 11:49 AM

tokerblue

04-12-06, 01:01 PM

avguy78

04-12-06, 02:02 PM

I have a 659, but I'm having problems getting the TV to turn on with the Activity buttons. I have gone through the troubleshoot and talked with their support but the problem still persists. The TV is a Pioneer HD533, new from about four years ago. Does anyone have any suggestions for me? I've tried tweaking the delay settings but to no avail. I'm not sure what else to do. Thanks.

tokerblue

04-12-06, 02:26 PM

I have a 659, but I'm having problems getting the TV to turn on with the Activity buttons... Does anyone have any suggestions for me? I've tried tweaking the delay settings but to no avail. I'm not sure what else to do.
- Have you tried changing the number of repeats? Can you also post exactly what you are using for your delays?

avguy78

04-12-06, 04:53 PM

- Have you tried changing the number of repeats? Can you also post exactly what you are using for your delays?

How do you change the number of repeats, and what is that?

My delay settings are:

Power On Delay: (I've tried 10000ms(default) and 500ms)

Inter-key Delay: 100ms

Input Delay: 1000ms

Inter-Device Delay: (I've tried 500ms - 3000ms, but no luck)

tokerblue

04-12-06, 06:29 PM

The sticky thread about "Harmony Response" has information on how to do it. Some TVs need a certain number of repeats for their Power On commands.

You should also try setting your TV delays to default and see if you can turn on/off your set in the Device mode.

czzer

04-12-06, 07:20 PM

The power-on delay is invoked AFTER the power command is sent, so it won't be that.

I would try re-learning the power command from your original remote, but do it in RAW mode and hold the power button down a bit longer when you are learning it.

geoWorm

04-13-06, 12:42 AM

kyris

04-13-06, 04:21 PM

The 880 that I bought for my dad at Christmas time had an awful screen that actually looked a little worse than that. I took it back to the store and exchanged it for another unit which had a perfect screen. I guess they had a bad batch or something.

Yep, I just got my replacement through today. It's not perfect but it's a lot better. Kudos to Amazon for sending out a replacement straight away (with 2 day shipping) FoC, and just asking me to send one of them back within 30 days.

~Ky

stevepas9

04-14-06, 03:06 PM

xmltok

04-14-06, 05:16 PM

I have problems using my channel favorites with the harmony. I need to use long 003501 type of codes to pick my local hd channel on my dish network receiver. The harmony doesn't send the leading zeros and i then end up with channel 350. :mad:

Bud-man

04-16-06, 09:47 AM

I finally got time to set it up, do i like it...No, too confusing,to me not worth all the hassles, going back to dell tommorow.

BirdKey

04-16-06, 12:00 PM

I searched this thread for Escient Fireball and didn't get any hits. Has anyone used an 880 for a Fireball?

TrendyGUy

04-16-06, 12:54 PM

I was wondering if anyone has used this remote with a Cablevision DVR Cable box?

mallu2u

04-16-06, 06:17 PM

Mallu2u. After scanning this thread, I didn't see an answer to your original question - has anyone got the 880 working with Dish Network DVR. YES and YES

880 working with the 508 and Vip622 DVRs.

I've heard from others that 5xx series work pretty much to same as others. You might want to try a 508, 501 as your model number...

One other gotcha, did you change the remote ID code? The Harmony may not work until it's set back to ID1.. Happened to me.

Hope this help, Steve

Steve: Thanks for the reply. Did you try the remote with TV1 or Tv2? See after research I found out that harmony 880 shall NOT work with TV2 since Dish TV2 remot e is based on UHF and 880 cannot send UHF. Therefore I need to install a RF extender. TV1 works fine in my home as well since that is IR based. Apologize if I was not clear. Try 880 on TV2 and report back please.

acribb

04-17-06, 10:29 AM

acribb

04-17-06, 10:51 AM

I just received my Dell Harmony 880. Unfortunately, it is defective. Pressing certain buttons, mostly the 1, 4, 7, and + buttons, all on the left side, don't yield an ir signal (evident from the ir flashing indicator not flashing on the remote) unless you press them very hard.

I don't know where to return it to, Dell or Logitech.

Who would get me a remote back faster, i.e., i wouldn't have to first return and then wait for my new one.

If Dell would first send me a new one back, and then I could return one to them, that would be my preferred method.

No since getting a refurb from Logitech right out of the gate.

Nevermind - I finally got a hold of the right department at Dell after numerous shuffling between different department CSRs. They are going to send me out a new one 2 day and then I can return the defective one in that box. Way to go Dell.

zoma4

04-17-06, 02:21 PM

I just received my Dell Harmony 880. Unfortunately, it is defective. Pressing certain buttons, mostly the 1, 4, 7, and + buttons, all on the left side, don't yield an ir signal (evident from the ir flashing indicator not flashing on the remote) unless you press them very hard.

I don't know where to return it to, Dell or Logitech.

Who would get me a remote back faster, i.e., i wouldn't have to first return and then wait for my new one.

If Dell would first send me a new one back, and then I could return one to them, that would be my preferred method.

No since getting a refurb from Logitech right out of the gate.

I would try Dell first. They'll probably get you a new one right away. Logitech may need to spend some time with warrenty procedures. You should be covered with a return policy from dell. I don't know if they cross-ship.... they do with computer equipment, so you could probably get them to do it with the remote. Be aware that they'll charge you for a second 880 until they get the first one back.

HardDrive

04-19-06, 04:10 PM

The only complaint I have with this remote is that I can't go from a device screen to an activity screen without activating that activity. Let me explain.

I like the way the programable buttons can map to any active device in an activity screen. Being able to change my TV's picture mode from the Watch DVD screen is very convenient. But there are times I need to go to a device not involved with the current activity, like to program a recording for my DVR. To do this I use the Device key and select DVR, then do my thing. Now I'd like to go back to the Watch DVD screen, but the only way I know to do that is to use the Watch DVD activity, which would turn all the Watch DVD devices off! So instead I go the the DVD device screen, and loose all ability to control other active devices from the programable buttons.

Is there some way to jump back to the activity screen? Or do I have to do something more radical, like use all discrete power on/off codes for each device (not sure they are available for all devices) so that I can run the activity start without having everything turn off?

Thanks,

HDD

fondoo

04-19-06, 07:20 PM

czzer

04-19-06, 07:58 PM

cherry ghost

04-19-06, 10:04 PM

Just press the "Device" button twice.

This will work, but the way he was doing it should also work. Pressing the activity you were previously in should not turn anything off.

acribb

04-20-06, 12:58 AM

Nevermind - I finally got a hold of the right department at Dell after numerous shuffling between different department CSRs. They are going to send me out a new one 2 day and then I can return the defective one in that box. Way to go Dell.

Just got the replacement from Dell. The screen on this remote is VERY washed out looking, very much on the top area and the right area. A completely 'whiter' screen than the first remote I just returned that had buttons that physically wouldn't work correctly. I must have the worst luck. What now? My third remote from Dell? What a pain......

noremacyug

04-20-06, 03:03 AM

i just bought a used jvc g1000 projector that doesn't have a remote with it. rather than buying a remote for the projecter (approx $45) i thought perhaps i should just get a nice universal and throw a few remotes i have now in the drawer. so, my question is, will the 880 handle my g1000 right out of the box since i wont have a remote to use for learning functions

thanks.

kyris

04-20-06, 03:08 AM

DHT

04-20-06, 10:13 AM

Thought I would post this just in case someone else has this problem. I just got my 880 and after charging I tried to do the initial setup last night. The remote came with software version 4.4 and I was using Windows XP for the setup. I was having a lot of problems trying to get the remote to communicate with the website after I installed the software on my computer. Finally, it did communicate and I tried to load the settings into the remote. I would then get a pop up box saying that the binary file was the wrong size and the remote would never load up. After that I couldn't get the remote and the website to communicate any more. Anti virus and firewalls were disabled so that wasn't the problem. Tried several things and even reloaded the software on my computer but the same problems kept occuring. Finally I called tech support and went through several steps with the tier 1 tech with no luck. He transferred me on to tier 2 support and the girl knew of this connectivity problem. Some people seem to have this issue with the 4.4 software. She said that version 5.2 software fixes these issues. She e-mailed me the 5.2 software and I loaded it into my computer. The communication issues were resolved and I was able to load my settings into the remote. Now all I have to do is tweak the settings to my liking.
Life is good. :D

HardDrive

04-20-06, 05:52 PM

HardDrive,

I believe that if you press the "Activities" button twice that it will return you to the Activity that you were in when you went to the Device menu.

Thanks, I did not know about this feature. I'll try it tonight!

HDD

mallu2u

04-21-06, 12:14 AM

DHT:

Can u please PM me where I can get v5.2 software? Would really appreciate it. Thanks

HardDrive

04-21-06, 06:13 PM

HardDrive,

I believe that if you press the "Activities" button twice that it will return you to the Activity that you were in when you went to the Device menu.

Also:

Just press the "Device" button twice.

I verified that both of these work. :D Thanks guys, very good to know about both.

HDD

Knuteski

04-21-06, 07:07 PM

Hey guys,

I was wondering if there was a way to not turn on a device when I'm using an activity. For example when I'm watching TV and then I feel like watching a DVD I usually get up to open the tray to put a DVD in before I switch to the DVD activity. Now when I switch to the "watch a DVD" activity the remote turns off my DVD player. I know I could circumvent this problem by switching to "watch a DVD" first before I put in a DVD but I often forget to do this. So I would like to not have the remote attempt to turn on the DVD player and in effec turn off the DVD player when I use the "watch a DVD" activity. Is there any way to do this?

Thanks

I’ve actually got a better (IMO) solution for you. It’s what I use and it seems to work well. I set up an additional activity using the standard “Watch a DVD” setup that I called “Play DVD Just Loaded”. Then I added the following commands...1) A 2 second delay (without it, my DVD player was not getting the 2nd command) 2) “Power Toggle” to the DVD player (since it was turned off by the normal command) 3) “Play” to the DVD player. What’s interesting but nice is that you’d think the Harmony would properly log all of power commands to the DVD player but it doesn’t. So, it still thinks the DVD player is on and will thus still turn it off when you change activities.

Knuteski

04-21-06, 07:13 PM

How do you change the number of repeats, and what is that?

My delay settings are:

Power On Delay: (I've tried 10000ms(default) and 500ms)

Inter-key Delay: 100ms

Input Delay: 1000ms

Inter-Device Delay: (I've tried 500ms - 3000ms, but no luck)

I'd bet any money your problem is the number of repeats...I had the exact same issue where the activity button wouldn't turn on my receiver but the power button under the Receiver's Device menu would work. Anyways, here's how you do it (from the Logitech site) except that you should increase the number of repeats...
When I press the Volume or Direction buttons, they move by two or three steps. How do I ensure that they only move by one step?

-Click on More Options beside the appropriate Device on your Harmony home page.
-Select Troubleshoot.
-Select Show me more problems.
-Then choose My Device doesn't appear to receive every command correctly.
-Choose My Device responds too much to some commands. For example, volume up increases the volume too quickly.
-Change the number of repeats to 1. The default is 3. Lower the number if the commands are repeating unnecessarily. Raise the number if the device does not respond to the commands.
-Click Save.
-Update your Harmony Remote.

rbils

04-22-06, 01:13 PM

UPDATE: For some reason, after my last remote update, these buttons finally just went away. Totally bizarre. Sorry for wasting your time!

For the most part, I have my 880 working the way I want it to. I do have one problem/question concerning custom buttons for the LCD screen. I have a watch DVR activity set up which uses my TV, Series 2 Tivo, and Denon AVS-2807 reciever. The problem has to do with what shows up on the LCD screen:

Page 1:

1: A 2: B
3: List 4: Clear
5: E 6: Tivo
7: LiveTV 8: ThmbUp

Page 2:

1: ThmbDn 2: Effect
3: Aspect

What I have on the actual custom buttons page looks like this:

1. List
2. Tivo
3. LiveTV
4. ThmbUp
5. ThmbDn
6. Aspect
7. Effect

I don't really want the A, B, or E options on the menu, but I can't seem to figure out how to get rid of them. They don't show up in the custom buttons section for the LCD, and they don't appear to be coming from any other devices. Is it possible to get rid of those "custom" buttons on the LCD?

geoWorm

04-22-06, 01:26 PM

I don't really want the A, B, or E options on the menu, but I can't seem to figure out how to get rid of them. They don't show up in the custom buttons section for the LCD, and they don't appear to be coming from any other devices. Is it possible to get rid of those "custom" buttons on the LCD?

What is in the other columns of the activities custom button section?

The Activities feature can control more than one device, the A, B, & E is probably an option for another device connected with that activity.

Cheers

rbils

04-22-06, 01:51 PM

Thanks GeoWorm. After my last remote update, the buttons magically disappeared. I don't know why they didn't do that on subsequent refreshes, but at this point, I'm not going to question it!

73ChargerFan

04-22-06, 02:09 PM

There is about a page of posts (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7525600&&#post7525600) on the HP 1080P DLP owners thread discussing how to get the Harmony 880 to work with these sets. The Harmony web site defaults to using on-screen menus to change inputs, but the HP supports discrete codes for this after it gets a firmware upgrade to D36.

Rasire

04-23-06, 04:03 PM

kyris

04-23-06, 04:28 PM

I've got an ancient Mitsubishi projection TV, that (as far as I know) doesn't allow for direct input selection; you've got to keep pressing the "Source" button on the remote until the input you want shows up. Does anyone know how the Harmony would handle this?

It should handle it fine. Assuming the TV is in the Harmony database it will know how many inputs there are and in what order. From that the remote can automatically 'press' the source button the required number of times to get to the required input.

~Ky

JBaumgart

04-23-06, 04:31 PM

I've got an ancient Mitsubishi projection TV, that (as far as I know) doesn't allow for direct input selection; you've got to keep pressing the "Source" button on the remote until the input you want shows up. Does anyone know how the Harmony would handle this?

On my set you also have to cycle through the inputs using the manufacturer's remote, but for each Activity the Harmony always manages to find the correct one. You might want to call Harmony Tech Support to make sure your's would operate the same way.

zstokes

04-23-06, 05:50 PM

Hey folks,

I bought an 880 for my in-laws and they are technophobic. I'm trying to setup a custom Activity - is this possible? Here's the scenario:

They have an HD DishTV reciever (Echostar 6000U) and a gen2 TiVo. To watch HD content, they have to switch between SD/HD on the sat receiver, and change the Video input on their TV. What I'd like to do is setup Watch HDTV and WatchSDTV Activities. Is this possible? If not, is there something I'm missing here?

Thanks,
Z

jvgillow

04-23-06, 05:59 PM

That's easy enough. When you do the setup for "Watch HDTV" and "Watch SDTV" make sure you specify the right TV input for that activity.

Assuming that the SD/HD button on the satellite receiver is a toggle function, you need to pick one of the two activites to customize with a special infrared command at activity start and stop. During the activity setup on the web interface you can tell it you want to add extra commands and have it send the infrared "SD/HD" button command at the start of the activity and also at the end of the activity. That way the satellite receiver always returns to the same TV mode.

zstokes

04-23-06, 06:24 PM

Thanks Jeremy - I'll give that a shot.

Z

RCMinRTP

04-24-06, 07:01 AM

Ok I have a 880 and it seems to be ok. My problem is that I can never get past the Test Drive.
Congratulations, you have finished setting up one touch access to these activities:

At the bottom I get Order Now and Convert radio buttons. But then I press Convert I just end up in a endless LOOP. Over and over.

Login Information
Complete the following information: (page 2)
What is your level of knowledge (so we can better assist you)? (page 3)
Complete the following information: (page 4)
Connect the remote using the USB cable provided.Click Next to continue.(page 5)
Connectivity Successful Communication with the Harmony 880 has been confirmed. (page 5) [Next]
Takes me back to the Dang http://members.harmonyremote.com/EasyZapper/ProcessWelcome/Welcome_TestDriveShow.asp
Page. This is very worrisome to me. It's not as if I am not use to installing software and hardware as I make a good living doing this. But this has me pulling my hair out.

If I click on the Logitech Harmony Remote in under Start > Programs it only opens a icon in the Information Tray (Windows XP Pro) and I have 3 options About... | Preferences... | and Exit .

The software is version 4.4.0

I took the test drive before buying the remote to see if it supported my devices and decided to buy it.

Is there any newer software?

My system is:
Win XP Pro with Service Pack 2 :confused:

Chiahead

04-24-06, 04:03 PM

tokerblue

04-24-06, 04:20 PM

Ok I have a 880 and it seems to be ok. My problem is that I can never get past the Test Drive.
- I spent 5 minutes trying to convert my Test Drive into a full account. Instead of wasting your time calling tech support, I would create a new account from scratch. It's a lot easier.

Stryker412

04-25-06, 02:17 PM

The 880 is on sale using two codes from Dell:

http://www.dealcatcher.com/index.asp?v=8&m=610&c=63359&o=1

$154 + free shipping

NeedAName

04-26-06, 04:13 PM

Is anyone using this with the MOXI DVR? I have that with charter cable, and its in the databse, but I'm just wondering how well it works with it.

tokerblue

04-26-06, 11:31 PM

Is anyone using this with the MOXI DVR? I have that with charter cable, and its in the databse, but I'm just wondering how well it works with it.
- I haven't seen too many mentions of that particular DVR on the AVS site at all. Even if the Moxi DVR isn't fully supported in the Harmony default profile, there isn't any reason you can't learn IR commands from the original remote. Once you set up the device, you can then tweak the response time/repeats to get the Harmony to function virtually identically to the original remote.

PhatheadWRX

04-28-06, 04:02 PM

Just got my harmony 880 and I love it but my "play Xbox" activity is giving me problems... everything turns on correctly and right inputs, but for me to have any control I have to go to Devices then Xbox for the remote to work

Seems like the Activity is not ending on the correct device?

Should I need to go in and add each Xbox code into the activity?

PhatheadWRX

04-28-06, 04:16 PM

nm, got it all working... now just need to tweak timings and repeats. I removed the devices and re-added, ect...

anyone have any timing/reset advice for any of the goodies in my sig :D

Gai

04-29-06, 12:43 AM

Just got a new iMac intel duo core...what worked with a G4 before now is dead on an intel Mac ,c'mon Logitech update it already.

amtalx

04-29-06, 12:45 AM

Ive somehow managed to work my way up to eight remotes so i figured its time to get a solid universal remote. From what ive seen this is the premier as far as universal remotes go. But before i make the plunge there are some questions i cant seem to find the answer to. For one, a problem ive had with other universal remotes is that the functions that i really need arent available. For example will the harmony remote be able to emulate the "Guide" button for a digital cable box? And will i be able to control my On Demand services? Also for something like my xbox remote, is there any way that i can program the "Display", "Title" and "Back" buttons? Im a heavy xbmc user so i will actually need all of the buttons on the remote. Thanks for any help.

cherry ghost

04-29-06, 01:54 AM

PhatheadWRX

05-03-06, 02:52 PM

Is there any way to have a cusom for one activity and not the others?

On my watch TV I would like an option for Input so I could get to the others without Devices/ect... also on my Xbox activity I would like to add a Reciever InputTV.

When I try to add either, it adds to all activities that have the TV or reciever and it moves my other important customs down? (at least in Xbox and Xbox 360)

kmp14

05-03-06, 03:55 PM

Learn the commands directly in each device you need it in. For example, if you want the tv's PIP button available in a couple of activites, learn the command in each device for the activities in question. It is repetitive, but gives you more flexibility.

PhatheadWRX

05-03-06, 04:33 PM

That will not work for the tv input because like I said TV and Reciever is all that is on and all my other activities have TV, so input will be added....

However if I could learn my Reciever's discrete TV input to my Xbox that may work, but have no clue how get the discrete setting.

Oh well, I may just use the device tabs which are pretty easy. I rarely use either command in question

NeedAName

05-05-06, 08:56 AM

Well, just ordered from Buy retail. They are down to $140 down. Hopefully there won't be any issues with them.

orijonl

05-05-06, 04:29 PM

PhatheadWRX

05-06-06, 09:55 AM

PhatheadWRX,

I see that you are an XBMC user. One thing you might be interested in that I've been planning to do (when I have enough free time) is to replace my Watch DVD, Play CD, and Play Game activities with dedicated My Videos, My Music, My Weather, and My Programs activities that would have the extra commands to turn on the Xbox and navigate to the appropriate page. I have been planning to add that XIR remote kit (to turn on the Xbox), anyway.

I have XIR and love it (try and get the version 2 beta, has more features)! Also with the XIR is very easy to set up with the 880. Just go to device more options, power, "I have an on and an off button" then set the button to what you set in the XIR software (I do menu for on and 0,0 for off).

Sounds good about the game activities. I would just try to add some RCA 5 protocols then map them to XBMC.ActivateWindow(MyPictures/Programs/Music...) in keymap.xml

To map keys from other remotes using the RCA 5 protocol, you may add <universalremote> blocks
In this case, the tags used are <obc#> where # is the original button code (OBC) of the key
You set it up by adding a <universalremote> block to the window or <global> section:
<universalremote>
<obc45>Stop</obc45>
</universalremote>
To find out the OBC's of your remote, try enabling the <showremotecodes> tag in XBoxMediaCenter.xml

bacevedo

05-08-06, 01:20 PM

I just wanted to update anyone that has an 880 and has issues with the LCD screen being washed out and white smears or blotches on it.

I got my 880 back in December for Christmas and had emailed tech support back in January about the screen being washed out. They said they would send out a new one, but I held off because I was concerned I would just get another one with the same issue. With a 1 year warranty, I figured I had plenty of time to wait and see what popped up in the forums.

Well, not much had been posted in the forums about this lately. The last things I had seen were people saying their replacement remotes had the same problem, and another person saying he had seen every remote he installed have the same issue. I decided to take the plunge and see what the current status was.

A few weeks ago I contacted them again becaue the screen seemed to be getting worse and I figured it had been enough time for them to either figure out the issue and fix it, or for the affected batch of remotes to be sold out. The person I spoke with on the phone said that the issue was known by Logitech, it had been fixed and that the new remote won't have the problem.

They sent me a new one last week and the screen is perfect. Absolutely no fading and the contrast on the screen is much better. The blue on the top is a deep blue, not a faded blue like my last remote. Also, channel logos and the activity graphics are much easier to see. It's almost like the earlier remote had the contrast set way too high and it was "blooming" because the whites were so high and it washed everything out.

It also looks like the new remote came with the "new and improved" charging cradle, however, it hardly works when compared to my original cradle that seems to be the older design. (The new cradle has the smaller charging pins and they seem firmer - the old cradle has the bigger pins that aren't quite as springy.) I am going to keep the old cradle, as I can lay the remote in it and get it to charge every time without having to fiddle with it. The new cradle is so touchy that if I barely brush by the remote it stops getting a charge. It seems that the new cradle has a lot of play in it - I can "wiggle" the remote and move it around quite a bit. In the old cradle, I really can't move it around much when it is laying in it - it doesn't have as much play.

One thing that is interesting is they want me to ship the old remote back in a USPS bubble envelope (to keep my costs as low as possible) with the charging cradle and usb cable. However, they don't have any of my credit card info - what would they do if I didn't ship it back? Now, I am an integrous person and I am going to ship it back, but I was surprised that they shipped me a new remote without a way to charge me if I didn't send my old remote back. I guess they could bill me, but I doubt they would actually send it to a debt collector for a remote that is broken and probably costs them 50$ to make. It would cost them more to try and collect on it.

So if you have issues with your LCD - call Logitech and get a new one - it will most likely work. I can tell you that the new screen makes the remote a pleasure to use.

Bryan

MakGeek

05-08-06, 02:42 PM

bacevedo - Thats GREAt news, if in fact the problem is fixed.

One more topic, that no one brings up all that much, when can we expect a firmware/software update? Any insiders frequent this forum?

ginigma

05-08-06, 04:18 PM

So if you have issues with your LCD - call Logitech and get a new one - it will most likely work. I can tell you that the new screen makes the remote a pleasure to use.
BryanBryan,
Can you please post an update in a couple weeks to let us know if in fact the LCD issues don't return after a bit? This is good news. Thanks for the info.

bacevedo

05-08-06, 06:01 PM

ginigma - I will post back in a few weeks. You can bet that every night I get home from work and go to the use the remote, I look at the screen to make sure it doesn't start acting up! So far so good - it's been about a week now.

I also took some pics of my old remote next to my new remote. I'll get them posted here. I also took close ups of the different cradles so people can see them more clearly.

Bryan

EvertonB

05-09-06, 05:48 PM

Hi

I can't download the 5.2 update. Can someone please email it to PM a link to me or something as I can't post my email address yet as I'm a newb on the forums. thanks

got the remote today and spent 3 hours setting it up. Been worth it and I've now ditched six remotes!

d0nkss

05-09-06, 09:26 PM

I have had this remote for a while now, since it was on sale at Dell. For 80 bux it can not be beat. I have not posted before but many of the things on here have helped me greatly. I recently went to download the newest version of the software and it told me that the file was not found. After looking at the locaiton listed in the window and checking the source code I decided to try a different link. If anyone needs the software please PM me. I would post it but I am not allowed to yet I guess.

I was able to download the software and install it no problem. I can't believe they forgot the capitalize words in their link. I will email them and tell them to change it also. If this was posted already sorry for wasting the space.

Thanx again for help found here.

geoWorm

05-09-06, 09:39 PM

bacevedo

05-10-06, 01:17 AM

What does the 5.2 software give you? I am downloading it now, but I am not sure why I would want to use it.

Thanks,
Bryan

runninkyle17

05-10-06, 02:12 AM

I have got a quick question the 880. I was looking to get some type of IRextender or possible an RF extender because the IR sweet spot on my Westy TV is somewhat annoying to me.

I was looking at the Next Generation RF extender that actually is in the form of a battery. I was just wondering if anyone has any experience with this product and if it would work with the 880 at all?

I have a feeling that it won't work, but I figured I would ask.

EvertonB

05-10-06, 03:26 AM

Thanks for the clues!!! Installed the software now. I love this remote. Following the advice on the forum I've got all my timings down to 0ms apart from my stupid Hitachi TV - the thing is flying now. I love it!

Anyone know what new features 5.2 offers? I hope it allows the ordering of the custom actions as I hate having no control

czzer

05-10-06, 04:45 AM

runninkyle17

05-10-06, 10:24 AM

It won't work with the 880 as the 880 uses a proprietry rechargeable battery. The RF extenders only work with AA or AAAs

Thanks for the quick reply. Does anyone have any advice on a good IR repeater or IR extender that will eliminate the "sweet spot" in my living room. It doesn't have to go through walls or anything, just be able to work at about 12 ft max at angles up to 75 degrees or so. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

NeedAName

05-10-06, 03:37 PM

Mine was just delivered. Won't be able to set it up til i get home. So, I'm downloading the 5.2 software.

Here's my devices
Hitachi 57s715
Pioneer VSX-1014tk-x
Sony DVP-ns975v DVD player
Xbox 360
MOXI for cable and DVR

Anyone with any of that stuff got any tips? Or does the logitech DB have everything i need?

sknight1

05-12-06, 08:06 AM

It also looks like the new remote came with the "new and improved" charging cradle, however, it hardly works when compared to my original cradle that seems to be the older design. (The new cradle has the smaller charging pins and they seem firmer - the old cradle has the bigger pins that aren't quite as springy.) I am going to keep the old cradle, as I can lay the remote in it and get it to charge every time without having to fiddle with it. The new cradle is so touchy that if I barely brush by the remote it stops getting a charge. It seems that the new cradle has a lot of play in it - I can "wiggle" the remote and move it around quite a bit. In the old cradle, I really can't move it around much when it is laying in it - it doesn't have as much play.

Bryan

Is there any way to differentiate a "new" version from the "old" version, e.g. different UPC code?

I was planning on purchasing an 880 and would like to know beforehand that I would be purchasing the "corrected" version.

Thanks!

JBaumgart

05-12-06, 09:20 PM

I don't recall the question above was ever answered: What benefits does the 5.2 software update provide? Unless there is something tangible, the old adage "If it ain't broke...." comes to mind.

bacevedo

05-13-06, 05:34 PM

Is there any way to differentiate a "new" version from the "old" version, e.g. different UPC code?

I was planning on purchasing an 880 and would like to know beforehand that I would be purchasing the "corrected" version.

Thanks!

The part numbers are the same. The only real way to tell the difference is that the charging pins are different.

I'll try and post my pics soon.

And yeah - what does 5.2 get us? There really isn't much "client" software. It basically consists of the USB driver for the remote and the Plug-In that communicates with the remote on the website. What else is there to it? Everything else is on the web site.

Bryan

steev

05-14-06, 01:50 PM

steev

05-14-06, 01:54 PM

Hi all,

I am considering this remote (or the 890) as a replacement for my remotes. I also have an old Marantz Mark II universal remote which is huge, ugly, clumsy, and my wife hates it. On the other hand, it is extremely configurable. It does take eons to set up though.

Can anyone say how the harmony 880/890 compares to that Marantz remote?

TIA!

Forgot to mention my kit:
Marantz AVR 8000 AVR
Pioneeer 4360 PDP
Pioneer DV-626D DVD player, possibly to be replaced with the Oppo
Time Warner Scientific Atlanta 8300HD DVR
(Some other minor stuff floating around...)

shawngr

05-14-06, 04:52 PM

I just loaded the 5.2 software and found it now has a "client" typre front end that does not use the browser, but does connect to the web to get your profile and settings. Kinda nice.

emailists

05-15-06, 02:44 AM

I read a few pages back that there is talk of a Pro model 880 or 890? Any more info on it as I can;t seem to find any on the web.

Also if I wanted to put my cable box inside a soundproof box - (I hate the hard drive spining)
should I then order the 990 (which is over $100 more) or just get the 880 and an IR wired repeater or similar to go in the box?

SpineRep

05-16-06, 07:05 AM

If anyone is interested, I have a brand new 880 that I need to sell! I would be willing to take 125 and I pay shipping for it. PM me and let me know.

goshockers

05-16-06, 03:40 PM

What is the difference between the 880 and the 885?
NewEgg pricing has the 880 at $220.00 and the 885 at $179.99

Also, is the only difference between the 880 and the 890 the RF?

Thank you

goshockers

05-16-06, 04:44 PM

I found the answer to my first question..885 although it can be bought here seems to be more for SKY (uk satellite customers) with different buttons.

Since I answered my first one I have added another.
I have two Direct Tivo unites...one is Hughes HR10-250 (hd) and the other is a Philips one but I have a problem.. I have to cover the IR on one so I can use the other. Any way around this?

and my other ? is still the following:
is the only difference between the 880 and the 890 the RF?

ddubois

05-17-06, 12:23 AM

One thing you might be interested in that I've been planning to do (when I have enough free time) is to replace my Watch DVD, Play CD, and Play Game activities with dedicated My Videos, My Music, My Weather, and My Programs activities that would have the extra commands to turn on the Xbox and navigate to the appropriate page.
I attempted to do this, but without success. I added a 'Pictures' activity that does this:

When you start the Generic Activity Activity, the remote will ensure your system is set up as follows:
Device Status / Actions
Westinghouse TV Westinghouse TV is on
Microsoft Game Console (With DVD) Microsoft Game Console (With DVD) is on
Other All other devices are off
TV TV is set to "YPBPR1"
Game Console (With DVD) The remote pauses for 10000 milliseconds
Game Console (With DVD) "DirectionLeft" command is sent to the Game Console (With DVD)
Game Console (With DVD) "DirectionLeft" command is sent to the Game Console (With DVD)
Game Console (With DVD) "DirectionDown" command is sent to the Game Console (With DVD)
Game Console (With DVD) "DirectionDown" command is sent to the Game Console (With DVD)
Game Console (With DVD) "Enter" command is sent to the Game Console (With DVD)
Game Console (With DVD) "Enter" command is sent to the Game Console (With DVD)
Game Console (With DVD) "DirectionLeft" command is sent to the Game Console (With DVD)

But what I get when I press this activity button are these issues:
1) The appropriate devices sometimes turn on/off correctly, but sometimes don't, and I have to start over. (I think this may be merely because I am not pointing my remote down towards the Xbox enough, but I have my doubts. Someone mentioned earlier in this thread seeing different behavior between a device under the activity macro, and a device as it responds to the devices menu. Does anyone have timing/repeat recommendations for the Xbox 360?)
2) The Xbox does not change blade (the intention behind the DirectionLeft commands), but after a bit of delay (10000 might be too long), the selection cursor does move down within the Xbox live page.
3) The LCD will be blank with no 'soft keys' active that I can use to operate anything.
4) The directional pad buttons will have no effect. I have to manually select the Xbox with the Device screen, and then they will function properly.

Obviously, I'm not certain I have set the commands correctly, but everything seemed logically correct when I was setting it all up.

I have been planning to add that XIR remote kit (to turn on the Xbox), anyway.
What is XIR?

PS: I have a Xbox-media related question that has nothing to do with remotes. When I connect to the computer for pictures, the array of folders presented is hugely bloated by the existence of the My Music directory I also shared with Windows Media Connect. My hypothesis is that whatever process that looks for pictures is indisciminant between the My Pictures and My Music shares, and is seeing the album art JPGs. This isn't as bad as it could be, because all the pictures I want to look at are within subfolders that begin with numbers, and thus are near the top of the list, but is still not desirable. Is there a fix for this that still allows the music to be listened to?

PhatheadWRX

05-17-06, 12:15 PM

I set up custom buttons to work with XBMC:

You can just paste the following code in your XMBC\keymap.xml in the <global> section (before the </global>)

<universalremote>
<obc74>XBMC.ActivateWindow(MyPrograms)</obc74>
<obc71>XBMC.ActivateWindow(MyVideos)</obc71>
<obc186>XBMC.ActivateWindow(MyMusic)</obc186>
<obc144>XBMC.ActivateWindow(MyPictures)</obc144>
</universalremote>

Then in your Xbox activity add some custom buttons to the following:

My Programs - Random
My Videos - InputNext
My Music - Replay
My Pictures - Zoom

Then the soft buttons up to that say My Pics will take you directly to the My Pictures screen...

Oh and XIR is an IR eye and PCB board (http://cheaplpc.com/xir/default.asp) that will allow you to turn on/off and eject your xbox with remote sends (XIR 2b will allow you to program).

ddubois

05-17-06, 03:05 PM

I was totally confused by the XIR website you linked, until I realized that its for the Xbox, and not applicable to the Xbox 360. Everything in my prior post was meant for 360. Sorry for any confusion.

I have no idea what to do with the XML you posted, but I'm guessing it doesn't apply to 360 owners.

Maybe I shouldn't kill myself trynig to get this to work when I'm going to be re-installing with Windows Media Center Edition (using XP Home currently) whenever it finally arrives in the mail, and will need to futz with it all again.

nitz369

05-18-06, 01:15 AM

Okay this problem has got to be easy, I am sure someone else has run into this.

I have having an issue switching between devices and what the buttons do.

For example:
Everything is OFF
Press Watch TV for TV
Every once in awhile I need to change something on the Reciever
I press Devices, then Receiver
Change what needs to be changed
Ready to start flipping channels again
Need to get back to TV function for remote
So press Watch TV
Satelite turns OFF

I want to be able to be doing an activity and be able to switch to my reciever functions, then have the remote act exactly as it did before I pressed the devices button, if I press the Watch TV activity button again things turn off that shouldn't be because the remote thinks they are off and it is turning them on.

Tried:
Just using the devices button to switch back to tv functions, but then can't control the reciever volume.

Tried #2:
Changing settings so the devices stay on when they are not in use, this doesn't work because at some point certian devices need to be turned off!

Do I make any sense???

cherry ghost

05-18-06, 01:32 AM

nitz369

05-18-06, 01:44 AM

Wow, do I feel dumb!

Thanks for the help!

cherry ghost

05-18-06, 02:03 AM

Wow, do I feel dumb!

Thanks for the help!

You're welcome

Codeman

05-18-06, 11:09 AM

Things should not be turning off when you go back to "Watch TV", but since they are, try pressing "Device" twice to get back.

The same thing can be done by pressing the Activity button twice, which I find a bit more intuitive.

PhatheadWRX

05-18-06, 02:57 PM

chrishicks

05-19-06, 10:41 PM

can anyone point out any place that has a deal on this remote currently? thanks

kushc

05-20-06, 12:13 PM

What is the difference between the 880 and the 885?
NewEgg pricing has the 880 at $220.00 and the 885 at $179.99

Also, is the only difference between the 880 and the 890 the RF?

Thank you

According to Logitech, there is absolutely no difference between 880 and 885. I bought the 885 and saved $$.
kush

TheMoose

05-20-06, 01:12 PM

can anyone point out any place that has a deal on this remote currently? thanks
Buy retail.com (http://buyeretail.com/product.asp?file=BizRate&i=LOGHAR880&sku=HARMONY880) Has it for $136 right now, but I've seen it there as low as $113.

Mac11700

05-20-06, 02:12 PM

I didn't realize this forum was even here :o but now that I do I'll be asking my questions for my 880 here..

I will say that I spent a grand total of 3 hours on the phone with the techs at Logitec today..and now have a remote that works with my A/V system..I will be having to go back in a set up the Toshiba XA-1 to be always on..( to help with the long boot time it has)..but other than learning the controls I now have it is working great...

My new system is as follows

Sony KDS-R60XBR1
Pioneer Elite VSX-74TXVi
Direct tv H20
Toshiba HD-XA1KN
Monster HTS 3600

I'm running everything with Monster Ultra 800 HDMI cables thru the Elite...My initial problem was having the 880 set up to trigger the Elite to output everything thru the HDMI 2 setting on it..My remote wasn't updated to do this...and after several hair pulling hours on my own..I gave up and called the C/S support first thing when they opened...Those folks are some of the best support people around..They stayed on the line and walked me thru it testing everything after they set up my update download...and while doing the actual test on the components making double sure everything worked as it should.Great customer service they give...I'm impressed...

As with the rest of this site..I see you all here are most helpfull as well...and this is just great thing too...

Thanks

Mac

sknight1

05-20-06, 07:00 PM

According to Logitech, there is absolutely no difference between 880 and 885. I bought the 885 and saved $$.
kush

IIRC the 880 is intended for the U.S. market and the 885 is for the European market. I'm not sure, but I think the 885 has (two??) more buttons than the 880 also.

emailists

05-21-06, 07:37 AM

Forgive this novice question, but using the 890 on my samsung 710 projector, the arrow keys to navigate the menu don't work, but instead are mapped to keys next to the lcd (and not very intuitive)

the samsung is listed as an availble pre set - any idea why this would be programmed so poorly, and the best way to deal with it.

czzer

05-21-06, 08:19 AM

On your home page, select Activity -> Customize -> Change behaviour of buttons.
You can map any command to any button you want.

(You can also change the button mapping for device mode if you want, but don't bother too much as you should never need to use device mode).

kushc

05-21-06, 11:54 AM

Buy retail.com (http://buyeretail.com/product.asp?file=BizRate&i=LOGHAR880&sku=HARMONY880) Has it for $136 right now, but I've seen it there as low as $113.

Careful with that place, mixed reviews on reseller ratings: http://www.resellerratings.com/seller8648-p3-s1-d1.html#reviews

(also note the $18 ground shipping)

Could be ok, but sounds too good to be true.

kushc

05-21-06, 11:57 AM

IIRC the 880 is intended for the U.S. market and the 885 is for the European market. I'm not sure, but I think the 885 has (two??) more buttons than the 880 also.

It functions perfectly here in the US, and I found that having the two extra hard buttons a nice bonus!

emailists

05-21-06, 02:49 PM

(You can also change the button mapping for device mode if you want, but don't bother too much as you should never need to use device mode).

thanks

Shyzaboy

05-21-06, 05:23 PM

Careful with that place, mixed reviews on reseller ratings: http://www.resellerratings.com/seller8648-p3-s1-d1.html#reviews

(also note the $18 ground shipping)

Could be ok, but sounds too good to be true.

I had no problems with them. Of course, you should always factor in the cost of shipping and look at the total deliverd cost. Still, including the shipping, I couldn't find another source with a better price....

merita06

05-22-06, 06:11 AM

Just bought an open box Harman Kardon avr 630 w/o the remote for a great price at CC. Will harmony 550 perform all the functions of the original so that I can setup the receiver or do I need to buy a new remote from Harman Kardon. Thanks

Codeman

05-22-06, 08:20 AM

ronin22

05-23-06, 11:50 AM

Hi all

I started a new post with this question so i apologise for the double post. I have the Onkyo S780 HTiB and I'm trying to have the 880 learn on of the buttons but it's not working. There is a button marked "OR-EQ" on the bottom of the S780 remote that dosen't show up in the device section of the 880 so I went through the learn process (tried raw also) and the dialog box said it was successful. but when I look in the device section of the 880 remote I can't find it. Anyone have this system that can help? Thanks, appreciate it

Codeman

05-23-06, 04:31 PM

I posted a possible cause over in your new post. Good luck!

ronin22

05-23-06, 07:29 PM

Thanks!

miked2023

05-24-06, 02:17 PM

buy retail is out of these - any other recommendations? thanks.

agh98

05-25-06, 08:01 PM

I just called Logitech for a copy of the Intel Mac Beta, which they (after cautioning me) were willing to supply. However, the email they send me lacks any attachment.

Could someone be kind enough to email me a copy of the universal binary beta? I'm dying to use my new remote!

Thanks,

Adam

Deesnider

05-25-06, 09:15 PM

I have a Barco 708 with no remote. Does anyone know if the 880 will work with this PJ?

hungarianhc

05-25-06, 10:34 PM

I just called Logitech for a copy of the Intel Mac Beta, which they (after cautioning me) were willing to supply. However, the email they send me lacks any attachment.

I want/need this too!

czzer

05-25-06, 11:45 PM

I have a Barco 708 with no remote. Does anyone know if the 880 will work with this PJ?

It's listed in the Harmony database, so it "should" work OK. Unfortunately, you couldn't guarantee it though until you actually try it, unless someone else on here actually has this combination.

MakGeek

05-26-06, 09:21 AM

I want/need this too!
Add me to the list

MakGeek

05-26-06, 09:22 AM

HIDEF Lifestyle

05-26-06, 10:24 AM

I have a Barco 708 with no remote. Does anyone know if the 880 will work with this PJ?

If you would like we would be happy to send out an 880 for you to test with your Barco 708.

Feel free to give us a call or shoot us an email.

HTcoveter

05-26-06, 11:45 AM

If anyone is interested, I have a brand new 880 that I need to sell! I would be willing to take 125 and I pay shipping for it. PM me and let me know.
I'll buy it, if it's still available! I sent you a PM.

HTcoveter

SpineRep

05-26-06, 11:52 AM

Its Sold,Thanks

bacevedo

05-26-06, 12:50 PM

MakGeek - The remote still looks perfect.

I would say to definitely give them a call and get a new one out. It looks like the problem has been fixed (at least on my remote). One thing that seems to be different is that the battery life seems a little shorter. I assume this is because the display is being driven correctly and maybe takes a little more juice than the broken one.

Also, I still have the old remote. They haven't contacted me to return it yet. I don't think they are even expecting it back. They never gave me any info on where to even send it. They just sent me my new remote, and I assumed they would send a follow up email to verify it was working ok and where to send the old remote back to. I'll probably contact them to find out where to send it to.

MakGeek

05-26-06, 01:58 PM

bacevedo - thanks, ill call them today

Whitl

05-26-06, 03:18 PM

Codeman

05-26-06, 05:18 PM

Can the 880 handle an address code other than one, I have 2 satellite receivers that are made by the same manufacturer currently one is set to an address of 5 and the other one is set to the default of 1.

It's possible that the Harmony database has the codes already. If not, you would need to teach the 880 each IR command from the sat remote, and you'd have to do it once for each sat receiver. The later is definitely possible, but hopefully the former is available.

If no one chimes in with a definite yes or no, you could call Logitech tech support and ask them.

LDBecker

05-28-06, 01:52 PM

Can the 880 handle an address code other than one, I have 2 satellite receivers that are made by the same manufacturer currently one is set to an address of 5 and the other one is set to the default of 1.

Just to chime in on this... When I was programming my Dish 721, the 880 setup asked me to point the Dish remote for it at the 880 so it could tell which language/codes to use. This is fairly new and really helpful because I had a LOT of trouble setting up my 676 a while back. The Harmony people were able to sort it out pretty quickly, though, but it had me going for a bit.

So, I can say it works with multiple Dish receivers, but don't know about other brands...

Larry

retiredmxer

05-28-06, 09:39 PM

bacevedo

05-29-06, 01:31 AM

I am finally getting around to uploading my pictures. My wife thought I was crazy for taking pictures of my remote! :) I told her it was for the greater cause.

Sorry for the large sizes, but I didn't want to lose any detail.

You can see in this one how the left remote has some white streaks on the right and bottom of the screen (it actually looks worse in person). Also, the top bar is a darker blue on the new remote.

Remote (old washed out one on left vs. new one on right) (http://members.cox.net/bjacevedo/remote/100_4129.jpg)

These are some shots of the charging base. The base on the left is the one that came with my new remote. It looks like it is the "improved" design with the smaller charging contacts. However, I am keeping the older base (on the right) because it works A LOT better than the new one.

Charging Base (new on left vs. old on right) (http://members.cox.net/bjacevedo/remote/100_4131.jpg)

Another Charging Base (new on left vs. old on right) (http://members.cox.net/bjacevedo/remote/100_4133.jpg)

Bryan

czzer

05-29-06, 03:24 AM

Hey everyone

I've read through this thread, but didn't see anything to help.

I'm trying to get my Harmony 880 to turn the lights off when I run the 'play a dvd' activity.

I have the Lutron lighting as one of my devices, and it will turn them off from the device menu just fine. I've added the command 'turn of all lights' to the activity, but it doesn't do it. I've checked the delay as well.

One thing I've noticed when looking at the list of commands read when the activity is run. There is a line that says 'light controller on' that I have not added. I think it is getting added by default when I add the 'turn lights off' command. I'm wondering if this is causing the problem? Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks for the help!

Blake

First of all, go to "Power settings" for the Lutron device and tell it "This device has no power buttons"

You can just add the "Lights off" command to the "Play DVD" activity start sequence by re-running the activity setup wizard, and when it finishes select "These settings are correct but I want to add more control" Run through the questions again and you will get a screen where you can add IR commands to the start sequence.

A possibly more elegant way would be to go to "Change button behaviour" for the "Play DVD" activity. For the "Play" button, select "Lights OFF" from the drop down for the Lutron device, and for the "Stop" button, select "Lights ON"(Leave the DVD player device commands as is).
This way, the lights will turn off when you press play, and come back on when you press stop.

retiredmxer

05-29-06, 09:49 PM

Thanks czzer

Changing to 'no power button' did the trick.

I appreciate the help.

Blake

HTcoveter

05-30-06, 09:13 AM

can anyone point out any place that has a deal on this remote currently? thanks
$153.40 today at http://www.ehqonline.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=108-0001. Very new company - fewer than 20 ratings in the last 6 months on resellerratings.com. Hopefully there will be better deals for Father's Day. I'm still holding out.

Lee Lang

05-30-06, 10:40 PM

Has anyone found the 880 to be slower when scrolling quickly up and down guides and menu screens? On every component I have I will press the direction keys either up or down several times quickly and then I'll have to wait for the remote to "catch up" to what I've done. I have talked to customer support both tier 1 and tier 2 and we adjusted the inter-key delay down to 0 and the inter-device delay down and it did improve the problem but did not solve it. With the original remote as well as another universal remote I am demoing they both send the commands as fast as I can push the buttons. Anyone else experience this sluggish behaviour from the 880 and if so how did you fix the problem?

tokerblue

05-30-06, 11:37 PM

With the original remote as well as another universal remote I am demoing they both send the commands as fast as I can push the buttons. Anyone else experience this sluggish behaviour from the 880 and if so how did you fix the problem?
- There's a sticky post labeled "Harmony Slow Response?" that has tips on how to fix your problem. It most likely is due to the number of repeats you are sending.

BTW, it would help to list what devices you are having issues with.

ALRUI

05-31-06, 08:43 AM

dirtydan

05-31-06, 10:28 AM

Hi I looked at this on the Logitec site & Im curious - how does the remote learn the codes? Is it the point old to new & learn or are the codes downloaded from theri site? I kinda thought they were downloaded via USB but I didnt see a list of supported devices which would be nice to view. Thanks:-)

I don't think there are any unsupported devices, if there are, you can make the 880 learn from any ir device remote. You should go to Logitech site and run the demo, I was able to sign up for an account and set up most all my devices, even though I didn't have the remote at the time, when I got my remote I went to my account, signed in and was able to hook up the usb cable and with a few more tweaks I downloaded the progamming. If your interested in doing this you must download and install the 880 software client.

HTcoveter

05-31-06, 03:20 PM

$153.40 today at http://www.ehqonline.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=108-0001. Very new company - fewer than 20 ratings in the last 6 months on resellerratings.com. Hopefully there will be better deals for Father's Day. I'm still holding out.
Electronics HQ deal is history. Best deal today (5/31/2006) seems to be the AVS Forums Power Buy. http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7718439#post7718439

ALRUI

05-31-06, 03:35 PM

I don't think there are any unsupported devices, if there are, you can make the 880 learn from any ir device remote. You should go to Logitech site and run the demo, I was able to sign up for an account and set up most all my devices, even though I didn't have the remote at the time, when I got my remote I went to my account, signed in and was able to hook up the usb cable and with a few more tweaks I downloaded the progamming. If your interested in doing this you must download and install the 880 software client.
Thanks Dan - Sounds like they dont provide a "supported" list until you sign-up then - no problem but it seems they should list the devices in a PDF or something. Anyway Thanks for the input:-)

dirtydan

05-31-06, 06:26 PM

Like I said, you can go to web site and do the demo and it will list all your componets complete with model #s

eaadams

06-02-06, 06:49 AM

The 880's buttons dont light up but the 890's does?

tivoboy

06-02-06, 08:44 AM

my 880's light up just fine.

tokerblue

06-02-06, 10:02 AM

anger

06-03-06, 12:36 PM

nice, just pulled the trigger on the 880 from dell with the coupon KKQ33MTM5RH$W7, which makes the price very nice with free shipping.

sale ends today or tomorrow or after 3500 users which ever comes first.

i love the test ride on the logitech site, found all my components in no time !!!! very very good idea and im hoping the product works out as well as the concept!

anger

06-03-06, 12:37 PM

Like I said, you can go to web site and do the demo and it will list all your componets complete with model #s

everything is there, and i mean everthing...

anger

06-03-06, 12:40 PM

Thanks Dan - Sounds like they dont provide a "supported" list until you sign-up then - no problem but it seems they should list the devices in a PDF or something. Anyway Thanks for the input:-)

go to 880 test drive, this sold it for me, well i can always send it back :) (http://members.harmonyremote.com/EasyZapper/New/Main.asp?WebProcessAction=Start&ClassId=PrNewUser%2EProcNewUser&RelativePath=ProcNewUser%2F&ReturnUrl=%2FEasyZapper%2FNew%2FProcNewUser%2FEnd%2Easp&AccountType=TestDrive&DealerId=&PackageId=&PackageReturnUrl=)

eaadams

06-03-06, 12:57 PM

The dell deal was a good one. That is what got me to buy. But it is also availible from a number of AVS su[pporters at an equaly competitive price. Also there was a forum power buy. And if none of that works ecost.com had it also.

I would not pay more than $170 for it though.

tivoboy

06-03-06, 01:03 PM

yeah, 75$ after rebate was nice!

eaadams

06-03-06, 01:21 PM

What? you paid $70 for an 880. no way

tivoboy

06-03-06, 01:32 PM

no,
I paid 75$ after rebate, that was the dell deal when this whole 880 craze started back in Feb.

RCMinRTP

06-04-06, 04:23 PM

Actually, my Harmony 880 is working great with all my components (except one). That component is a Sony 5 Disk CD changer (model # CDP-C601ES).

The problem is that the remote for that Sony doesn't have a power on/off button. This is the only component I have like this. So, I can have the 'remote' learn like I did with the others?

Any ideas how I can get the Harmony to recognize a device that have no power on/off on the remote? Thanks.... !!

This is not a huge problem for me...just a nagging one? Anyone else have such a problem? Wives not included :D

Bluewookie

06-04-06, 04:45 PM

I think that the sony cd changer doesn't have any IR power commands, so there is nothing that the Harmony can learn. I have a Sony CDP-CD335, and it has the same shortcoming.

TheMoose

06-04-06, 04:54 PM

I have that same CD Player & the power button on the player is the only way to turn it on, I don't know why Sony did it like that but that's the way it is.

My Sony RM-AX4000 recognized the remote so all the functions work but just no power.

beekeeper

06-05-06, 06:56 AM

blazeblaze

06-05-06, 11:33 AM

It was the USB hub. It seems that the remote and site need a dedicated USB port. Since I hooked it up to a port on my computer, have had zero problems with downloads. I tagged the USB cable so I know it is just for the remote.

Good to know. Was your hub a powered hub (did it have it's own power supply)? I know some devices are picky about that sort of thing. I just got a notice that my Harmony 880 shipped and should be here tomorrow, so I'll keep an eye out for this issue. Thanks.

eaadams

06-05-06, 12:59 PM

The frequency that a USB plug on a router does not work and you have to plug directly in is obscene. I hate that too.

AV Land

06-05-06, 09:28 PM

I had a lot of problems when I first used the usb interface with the Harmony site. The remote would update fine and then would not. I thought it was my browser (Firefox then- Sea monkey now) but it was not.

It was the USB hub. It seems that the remote and site need a dedicated USB port. Since I hooked it up to a port on my computer, have had zero problems with downloads. I tagged the USB cable so I know it is just for the remote.

So if you are having problems with downloads or with the site, it may be your USB hookup.

I use a hub (powered) and never had any problem with the 880 (I've had a lot of problems with other devices such as game controllers until I plugged them in directly but never the 880 and I must have changed my configuration a hundred times). Guess it might depend on the hub or the computer implementation of USB...

LDBecker

06-05-06, 11:59 PM

First, my equipment...
Pioneer 59txi Receiver, Monoprice 5in/1 out HDMI switcher, Dish 622 HD receiver (HDMI), Pioneer 79avi DVD player (HDMI video to HDMI switcher, i-Link audio through receiver), Sony XBR 960 TV (HDMI input used)

I can't for the life of me figure out how to do these two things:

1) I want to add a PVR selection on the activity "Watch PVR" so that I can directly access PVR recorded shows from the main screen without scrolling through 3 or 4 screens to get to it. I had it on the setup for my 721 (now retired to another room), but I can't get it on this. Right now on that screen are "aspect" (TV) and Effects (or something like that dealing with receiver sound field - doesn't seem to work), and A and B -- I have no idea what those are for... On the 721 I successfully added a PVR item to that initial screen, but I can't find how to do it...

2) I have the 79AVI DVD player playing video on HDMI and audio on i-Link on the receiver, and it won't switch right away. The receiver stays on the SAT input. It flashes "Check Link" but won't make the link until I hit the Help button on the 880. The first thing it tries usualy makes the i-Link connection on the receiver, but I have to go through the help screen every time.

I'm wondering if the order is wrong (receiver first then DVD player) or if there are timing or repeat issues with i-Link? Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Larry

czzer

06-06-06, 12:34 AM

LDBecker

06-06-06, 03:48 AM

For 1) Select "Customize" for the "Watch PVR" activity, then select "Change behaviour of buttons". You will get a screen where you can assign any funtion to any button you want(almost). LCD "soft" buttons are down the bottom.

For 2) I'm not sure...it might be something to do with the order devices are powered up...I think that can be an issue with HDMI. Best thing to do is contact tech support who can define the order devices are powered up in. You might also have to increase the power on delay for the receiver, but tech support can do that for you at the same time(ask to speak to tier 2 support if you don't have any luck with tier 1)

Thanks, czzer! I was trying to adjust the devices rather than the activity. Adding the PVR function button was a piece of cake, but I still don't know what the A and B buttons are for -- not listed on the screen and they seem to do nothing.

I'll check the i-Link function tomorrow when I can reach tech support.

Thanks again!

Larry

beekeeper

06-06-06, 07:10 AM

Good to know. Was your hub a powered hub (did it have it's own power supply)? I know some devices are picky about that sort of thing. I just got a notice that my Harmony 880 shipped and should be here tomorrow, so I'll keep an eye out for this issue. Thanks.

Own power supply.

lambretta76

06-06-06, 09:45 AM

FYI - this remote is currently $109 shipped after a $20 mail-in rebate at Dell, as seen over at dealnews.com.

http://dealnews.com/deals/Logitech-Harmony-880-Universal-Remote-Control-for-109-shipped-after-rebate/121426.html

HTcoveter

06-06-06, 10:51 AM

Apes

06-06-06, 10:56 AM

One Day only!!

Dell Home has the LOGITECH Harmony 880 Advanced Universal Remote for $109 after $120 Coupon savings and $20 rebate w/ free shipping

Apply Coupon Code LWLCHHGG9Q7C9W at check-out for $120 off (expires 6/7/06 8:00 am CT or after 3000 uses)

Good luck! I already bought one for $150 through the AVS Forum Power Buy at HI-Def Lifestyle. Oh, well.

This pisses me off so badly. Last night I won a "questionable" 880 off ebay, already paid for it and everything, then saw the Dell offer on slickdeals this morning.
Almost tempted to try and get out of the whole ebay buy so I can get a new one from dell. :mad:

nadroj81

06-06-06, 11:09 AM

Anyone controlling a scientific atlantan 8300hd cable box? I have the delay set to zero however when I hit fast forward, play etc the box or remote is responding slowly. Additonally when entering channel numbers it takes about a second per number to appear on the cable box. Anyone experience the same problem and/or have a resolution

Stryker412

06-06-06, 12:57 PM

If any of your friends/co-workers want to get a Harmony 880 here's a killer deal:

Use Dell coupon LWLCHHGG9Q7C9W to get $120 off this remote at Dell Home. Free shipping. Send in the rebate to save an extra $20.

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=A0466823

Expires tomorrow 6/7

blazeblaze

06-06-06, 01:06 PM

Yea, that's a better deal than I got from them 2 days ago. I think I can use the $20 rebate though. I tried calling dell for pricing protection...but they said I couldn't get a refund for the difference. It is not worth it to me to return it to get another one at the new price to save $20...especially since mine is supposed to be delivered today...I can't wait!

Stryker412

06-06-06, 01:49 PM