Official Logitech Harmony 900 thread - Page 32

I have about six devices (AVR, Projector, Lights, Blu-ray, PS3, Cable, HD-DVD player) I will need to control. When you say lack of sequences, what exactly does that mean? Can you give an example

A sequence is like a computer macro - one button press executes several commands. For example, one button to turn off a light, then turn on the TV, then turn on the AVR, etc. You can see that in some cases, an activity in Logitech speak can emulate a sequence.

please stop
you're going to confuse him

all harmony remotes use a feature called activities
activities are a "fluid" set of commands that are sent, and they change based on what the current activity state of the remote is. for instance if you're already watching tv and press the activity for watch a movie, the remote will know what devices are already on based on the remote setup for the watch tv activity

sequences (known as macros to the rest of the world) are NON fluid strings of commands
to some they're not that important, to others they are nice tricks to do things like turn closed captions on/off in one press or string together a play/pause command and a lighting command so that you can start/pause a movie and adjust the lighting at the same time. sequences exist within activities and logitech has always limited them to 5 commands.

NOTE: The Harmony 900 does not possess "sequencing" functionality and setting up this device requires a home internet connection.

I purchased the Harmony 900 to control a Panasonic Receiver (via RF), Panasonic Plasma TV (via RF), Samsung LCD TV (via RF), Playstation 3 Slim & Logitech PS3 Adapter (via RF), TiVo HD (via RF) and Logitech Squeezebox Radio (via IR). The remote communicates by RF to the IR Blaster approximately 15 feet away through our basement floor. It may function at an even greater range but I haven't tested it beyond 15 feet. The RF works fine despite being located in close proximity to my Draft N Wi-Fi Router.

I have long dreamed of owning a universal remote with RF functionality as I have my Playstation 3 connected to both of my televisions simultaneously through a Monoprice HDMI 4x2 Splitter. My Plasma TV is with my entertainment system is on the upper level of my home, and my LCD TV is all by itself on a lower level. I previously had to turn on the LCD television in the basement BEFORE I turned on the PS3 (due to a quirk of my LCD TV's HDMI handshake) or I would get a "snowy screen" on the LCD which consequently required me to power down the PS3 and restart in the proper order.

FYI: I bought a Steren 12Ft 2.5mm-2.5mm Male to Female cable from Amazon in order to extended the reach of one of the IR Blasters that came with the Harmony 900. It works beautifully.


Pros:
-I only have one remote on my coffee table!

-The Harmony 900 turns on/off all of my AV Devices simultaneously, and automatically sets them to the correct inputs, with the push of a single button.

-Good ergonomics (i.e. feels great in the hand).

-"Less technologically skilled spouse" friendly.

-The physical "Help" button and "Guided Help" feature of this remote have quickly resolved most issues that have come up.

-The re-charge cradle is a fantastic way to keep the remote from getting lost as it always has a home when you are finished using it.

-Our PS3 Blu-Ray viewing experience has become a dream by comparison to using the Dual Shock 3 Controller as a remote (FYI, the Harmony 900 does require the Logitech PS3 Adapter...sold separately...to operate the PS3).


Cons:
-There have been a few occasions when the Harmony 900 hasn't successfully shut down my PS3 when I turn off an "Activity" associated with the PS3. This is fairly quickly resolved with the "Help" and "Guided Help" features.

-The clock on the remote has inexplicably changed to the wrong time on two different occasions during the last 3 weeks. However it is easy to change it back.

-The setup process wasn't bad for me, but I could see how someone who isn't tech savvy could experience some problems and frustration during the setup and install process. Some of the Harmony setup software isn't particularly intuitive.

-The Harmony 900 (and the Harmony One from past experience) can have problems powering on/off a device using the Activity function if you manually power on/off a specific Device that is linked to an Activity. Try to stick to Activity functions when powering on/off whenever possible.

-One day the Harmony 900 turned on my PS3 whenever I turned off my "Listen to Digital Music" Activity (which is NOT supposed to include the PS3). This was resolved by re-synching the Harmony 900 with the PC Harmony Software by USB.


Overall:
I love, love, love this remote. The benefits definitely outweigh the quirks.

Got ya... so besides the activies you can't do a macor (sequence). That is just like on my 880.

I am in the market for a Logitech Harmony but not sure which model number to get.... I was hoping someone on this forum might be able to help.

I recently bought a SONY 46 inch XBR10. If you aren;t familiar with SONY LCD's it is a super thin panel LCD which comes with a compnent box that streams 1080p wirelessly as long as the TV and box are within 30 feet of one another. I thought this was awesome since I wanted to hang the TV and the wall and hide everything else in a nearby closet.

After having it for a week I have run into some issues that was hoping someone might be able to help me with.

I bought this TV since it transmits 1080p wirelessly. Meaning I can have my blue ray player in a closet and it will wirelessly broadcast the ultra-high definition blu ray signal onto my TV. I have tried this and it works great. The problem is this. My cable box uses Infra Red (IR). So the cable box needs to be in the direct line of site with the box. Therefore I cannot put the box in the closet and control the TV simply using the SONY remote. ONLY THE CABLE REMOTE CAN CHANGE THE CABLE CHANNELS. I was surprised to learn about this since, I remember back in the day having a television that got cable without even having a cable box. In my college house we only paid for one box and we spliced the coaxial cable line like 6 times and every TV got pretty much every channel. Why can't we just control the TV with bypassing the box these days. I can understand in the case where you have an HD cable box or a DVR built in plus movies on demand but for basic simple cable theoretically this should work.

I digress. So I was given 2 ideas to get around this problem of having my cable box in the closet or cabinet and an infrared cable remote.
1) An idea I was given for this was to get an IR-Repeater which would put this little box under the TV and it would relay my cable remote signal into the closet where to cable box is.

2) Another solution was to get an RF-remote (about $400) and it would send radio waves onto a repeater plugged into the back of my cable remote.

The problem with all of this is that, you need so many different remotes. With the blu ray player and surround sound I am up to 5 REMOTE CONTROLLS! I know someone is going to tell me to use a universal but in my experience universal remotes might be able to turn devices on and off and adjust volume if you are lucky but they will not control the distinct functions on each system which nowadays is vital. for example on my new XBR10, I have YouTube, Netflix and Amazon to watch movies in real time. No universal remote will have this function as far as I know.

the harmony 900 is a universal remote that will have those functions

To expound on Branditos statement a little, many higher end and a few low end universals can be programmed for every possible function for every device. Harmony is probably one of the easiest to set up and use in this regard thanks to the online database of commands, pc based setup, and pages and pages of configurable soft buttons. Every harmony can do this, not just the 900.

Either the IR repeater or RF solution will work fine. RF is more idiot proof since you never have to aim at all, but it's more expensive.

Did you know that if your Panasonic TV has Veria link that it can turn on/off the PS3 Slim via the HDMI cable?


Or you could buy one of these. I use this and it works great.

your 880 actually supports sequences. only the 900 and 1100 do not support them

Thanks for the feedback, but I was really underwhelmed with what I read online regarding the "Viera Link" features ability to control my PS3 and TiVo (not to mention the receiver which only has optical input capability).

I also ruled out the nyko product quickly after reading that it would hog up a USB port and wouldn't be able to power up the PS3.

Thanks though!

I used to have the Nyko -- it worked OK, but no on/off, and some of the missing commands include Subtitle, which I really wanted. I just bought the Schmartz PS3IR-500. It does require a powered USB slot to make the on/off feature work, so I just used a small USB power adapter (the one that came with my iPhone). I didn't have much time to play with it last night when I set it up, but so far it seems to work as advertised. Not bad for a $40 product.

My issue with the Nyko is if you use the PS3 to play/stream media. In that case you aren't already next to it putting in a disc since you aren't using one. Also, I don't want to leave my PS3 on and would rather spend the money on an IR to Bluetooth converter. I was one of the first to order the IR2BT when it was first released...

Edit: Looks like you deleted the post that I replied to.

I just got a harmony 900 and had it set up for 13 devices. It was working great until I added my iMac and Macbook to it as devices. Then when I placed it in the charger it rebooted then died. I have not been able to get it back. Now it is a paperweight. I contacted support and they are sending me a new one. My question is did adding my imac and macbook to the remote do anything? Is this a known issue? Is there something I should avoid when getting the new one?

Any replies would be great. I miss the remote!! Can't wait for the new one to get here.

Thanks.

Is that because the Viera link only turns on/off the PS3, and doesn't control any other functions? I have Viera link only on my TV, I don't have a Panasonic AV receiver.

I just bought the 900 and everything works great except for not having enough emitters. Has anyone added another harmony blaster and mini blaster to their 900? I have 6 components that need to be controlled on different vertical shelves.
I called sales and tech support and both seemed uncertain on availability/compatibility of these blasters. On the product replacement page for the Harmony 900 they have for sale an IR shelf emitter for $2 and a receiver for $10.
Neither tech support or sales knew for certain if these were the main blaster and miniblasters. For the price I ordered both to try them out vs. buying an adapter, a splitter and extra ir emitter.
I will let you know next week if these work if no one else has tried this setup.http://buy.logitech.com/store/logib2...|downloads||dd

ask them for the part number, the part numbers from your link all seem to be the same which can't possibly be correct. the part number for the main blaster ends in 55 not 53.

Looking at the confirmation email I received the SKU's are different

Product SKU Product Name Qty Ordered Amount
993-000191 IR Shelf Emitter 1 USD 2.00
993-000188 Receiver for Harmony 900 1 USD 10.00

those are what they use to sell them, the part numbers are different.

Hi, Just a heads up. I have been using my Harmony 900 for about 2 weeks and love it. Only tricky thing I came up with was that I have an Epson 6500 UB projector that was giving it some trouble. The default method for power off is to send the "power toggle" command then wait and then send it again. This particular projector has a problematic feature that if the hdmi signal turns off in between the two "power toggle" commands it will not turn off the projector. In order to fix this I had to go into the harmony software and change the power off settings for the projector to use the "power off" command instead of the "power toggle" to turn it off. Works great after making that change.

considering the list price on the old extender system is 100, I doubt that 10 gets you the new blaster system

let us know though
since I was in the beta test I did get an extra blaster to test
in addition to that, I'm using a 2.5mm to 3.5mm mono adapter and the. the old style blaster tip cables to control more devices with blaster tips directly on the ir receivers of the devices...given my bedroom setup, I had to do it that way

I figured it was a pretty amazing deal for what it was listed at so I decided to give it a shot. Hopefully at least I get a mini blaster for $2 that I can hook up to a splitter.

A problem has emerged with my brand new 900 within the past week. My Panasonic Plasma TV (model number TH-42PX60U) is controlled by RF and it works perfectly EXCEPT when I am turning it on with an Activity. When I press any Activity associated with the Plasma TV the other devices (all controlled by RF as well) in the activity power on , but the Plasma does not. Pressing the help button (repeatedly), and following the Guided Help option, does not turn on the Plasma. Trying to power on the Plasma using the "I Know How To Fix" function does not turn it on. If I break out of the Help area and go to "Devices" and press the "Power" soft button the Plasma does not turn on. If I press the "On" soft button (located immediately adjacent to the "Power" soft button) the Plasma does power on and the 900 controls the Plasma perfectly from that point forward.

I have used the Harmony Desktop Troubleshooting function to increase the delay from 500ms to 2000ms with no change.

I also used the Troubleshooting function to "teach" the remote the "Power" IR signal from the original remote for the Plasma with no change.

Is there anything else you Harmony Gurus would suggest that I try, or is it time to call support?

Thanks so much for your help!!!

DrLink, the soft on button powers it on every time? Which button powers it off, the On button or the Power button? If it is the power button, it would seem that your tv has dedicated buttons for both on and off.

You have to run thru your device set up wizard and indicate this when it asks you if you have power toggle(same button) or dedicated buttons. You will then specify which button turns on and which button turns off. Best of luck.

oman321, the soft button (under Devices) does indeed work every time. When I switch back to the "Current Activity" the hard power button turns the TV off just fine.

The original remote control for the plasma only has one power button...but in the Device soft button menu there are "Power," "On," and "Off" buttons (appearing in that order from left to right).

Are you saying that (within the Harmony Desktop software) I can go into the Device settings and specify using an "On" command vs. the current "Power" command?

Thanks for your assistance, btw.

DrLink

I had kind of like the same similar situation except it was with the DVD unit. Hit activity and everything comes on except the DVD unit (post).
I end up having the 900 learn the Power button on the orignal DVD remote.

you've confirmed that the soft button 'on' works for turning it on. if the tv is already on, and you press that command again, does anything happen? (in short, is it a true discrete command?) when working in the device area on the remote, does the 'power' command always work to turn off the tv, but never on? is there another command labeled 'off'? does that command function as a true discrete or a toggle?

in the desktop setup...device tab, settings for the tv, adjust power settings.

there you will be able to select the correct power settings...likely you'll need to set it up as separate commands for on and off...select on for on and either off or power for off.

these device level power settings feed the activity usage

What am I missing? I just got a Harmony 900 and have a "Watch TV" activity set up. On the watch tv screen, I'd like to have my Lutron dimmer as soft buttons...lights up and down...simple. Problem is when I add the soft button, the lutron device isn't in the drop down. If I go back and add the Lutron as a device to use on the Watch TV activity, it's then listed in the dropdown but then the lights always turn on when you hit the Watch TV button. I just want the device available in the watch TV activity...I don't want it automatically turned on. How can I do this?

Go to device settings and set the light device to always on. This way it will think it's already on when you enter the activity and you will have the commands available.

Perfect...thanks. I've been using URC's program for years and can't figure out the easier to use Harmony software.