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Harmony 700 - Page 3

post #61 of 594
11/23/09 at 9:42pm
I have a workaround for the six device limit. The trick is to combine the devices. I combined my TV and A/V receiver devices by doing this:
  • Delete the receiver device.
  • Go into the settings of the TV device and learn infrared commands.
  • Create a new set of commands called RcvrPowerOn, RcvrPowerOff, RcvrInput1, RcvrInput2, etc. Learn those commands from the A/V receiver's remote.
  • Learn new TV volume and mute commands from the A/V receiver's remote.
  • In the settings for the TV, go to adjust power settings. Tell it that your device needs more than one command to turn it on and add the RcvrPowerOn command. Do the same for the off command.
  • For each of the activities, review the settings. Say the settings are correct, but you want to add more control over options. Go all the way to the last screen and add the RcvrInputWhatever command to the list.
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post #62 of 594
11/25/09 at 3:24pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jsevinsk View Post
I have a workaround for the six device limit. The trick is to combine the devices. I combined my TV and A/V receiver devices by doing this:
  • Delete the receiver device.
  • Go into the settings of the TV device and learn infrared commands.
  • Create a new set of commands called RcvrPowerOn, RcvrPowerOff, RcvrInput1, RcvrInput2, etc. Learn those commands from the A/V receiver's remote.
  • Learn new TV volume and mute commands from the A/V receiver's remote.
  • In the settings for the TV, go to adjust power settings. Tell it that your device needs more than one command to turn it on and add the RcvrPowerOn command. Do the same for the off command.
  • For each of the activities, review the settings. Say the settings are correct, but you want to add more control over options. Go all the way to the last screen and add the RcvrInputWhatever command to the list.
I've been doing something similar with Devices by adding learned AV Receiver Volume and Mute controls to them.

Recently, I combined by Karaoke and HDTV together to get a functioning "Sing Karaoke" activity. I didn't use any advanced power handling, I just added a On/Off button to the screen for the Karaoke Player.

 

Logitech Harmony 700 CHT Setup ACTIVITIES.pdf 232.4892578125k . file
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post #63 of 594
11/26/09 at 8:46pm
I have a couple questions about this. I have just got this remote and I'm having problems figuring out how to lock volume to use only my receiver when volume up/down is pressed and also on the activities for Watch TV when it asks what input does the tv have to be on I don't get an option for the correct input. Just a few channels and my blue ray input. I have run through "source input is missing" and it still won't show it.
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post #64 of 594
11/26/09 at 10:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by brandonnash View Post

I have a couple questions about this. I have just got this remote and I'm having problems figuring out how to lock volume to use only my receiver when volume up/down is pressed and also on the activities for Watch TV when it asks what input does the tv have to be on I don't get an option for the correct input. Just a few channels and my blue ray input. I have run through "source input is missing" and it still won't show it.

If you have some of the standard tv or receiver you should try first to enter your manufacturer name and model number. It usually can figure out which input can be used.

If you really have to setup your device by hand, the volume setup will be done when you setup the activity. For example you setup your tv device and teach it all the needed buttons, then setup your receiver. Then add an activity like 'Watch TV' and it will ask you what device you use to control the volume and you just need to tell it use the receiver.

If something goes wrong you can always delete the device or activity and start again.
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post #65 of 594
11/27/09 at 9:07pm
Any way to tell when the battery is completely charged? Mine said "low" again today, which seems really soon from my last charge. It never says "charged" or anything, just the same blinking charging icon ....
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post #66 of 594
11/27/09 at 11:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by tranle View Post

If you have some of the standard tv or receiver you should try first to enter your manufacturer name and model number. It usually can figure out which input can be used.

If you really have to setup your device by hand, the volume setup will be done when you setup the activity. For example you setup your tv device and teach it all the needed buttons, then setup your receiver. Then add an activity like 'Watch TV' and it will ask you what device you use to control the volume and you just need to tell it use the receiver.

If something goes wrong you can always delete the device or activity and start again.

So I pretty much have to use the activities buttons to get it to do this? I like having the activities, but I really prefer to switch myself (tv, receiver, etc). All I want is if I press the TV button and press volume up it will turn the volume up on my receiver.
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post #67 of 594
11/28/09 at 12:21am
Quote:
Originally Posted by black_macleod View Post

Any way to tell when the battery is completely charged? Mine said "low" again today, which seems really soon from my last charge. It never says "charged" or anything, just the same blinking charging icon ....

I had to leave mine a whole night to have it completely charged.
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post #68 of 594
11/28/09 at 12:34am
Quote:
Originally Posted by brandonnash View Post

So I pretty much have to use the activities buttons to get it to do this? I like having the activities, but I really prefer to switch myself (tv, receiver, etc). All I want is if I press the TV button and press volume up it will turn the volume up on my receiver.

The whole logitech harmony remote uses activities better because it can remember the state for each device. I usually put in the activities the mapping the mapping for all my commonly used buttons. You can also create sequences which are combination of button across multiple device.
For the less used button you can always switch back to device mode.
Each of the activities have a startup and shutdown sequence that you can customize. For example my Watch TV does: turn on tv, turn on comcast, turn on receiver, put tv on hdmi1, put receiver on tv input, turn on amplifiers. This is just too much to ask the people in family to remember and not to forget to turn everything off when they are done watching tv.
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post #69 of 594
11/28/09 at 8:30am
Quote:
Originally Posted by tranle View Post

I had to leave mine a whole night to have it completely charged.

I looked while it was charging, and a message said "unable to charge batteries" so I put in a support email to Logitech.

Of course the remote is working fine now :-/

I wish there was a button to check the battery status.
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post #70 of 594
11/28/09 at 8:54am
Quote:
Originally Posted by black_macleod View Post

Any way to tell when the battery is completely charged? Mine said "low" again today, which seems really soon from my last charge. It never says "charged" or anything, just the same blinking charging icon ....

Try cleaning the contacts with an eraser or some light abrasive. Also repeatedly depress/exercise the contacts to make sure they spring back and make contact. I have the remote in a vacation house and leave the remote in the cradle for months at a time and end up with the same problem.
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post #71 of 594
11/28/09 at 10:28am
Quote:
Originally Posted by tranle View Post

I had to leave mine a whole night to have it completely charged.

Quote:
Originally Posted by feisty1 View Post

Try cleaning the contacts with an eraser or some light abrasive. Also repeatedly depress/exercise the contacts to make sure they spring back and make contact. I have the remote in a vacation house and leave the remote in the cradle for months at a time and end up with the same problem.

Ok thanks!

Just wondering, can you use regular AA batteries in this remote? Without plugging it in to recharge of course :-)
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post #72 of 594
11/28/09 at 4:17pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by black_macleod View Post

Ok thanks!

Just wondering, can you use regular AA batteries in this remote? Without plugging it in to recharge of course :-)

I think yes, those are just low discharge Sanyo Eneloop rechargable AA.
The things that I don't know, is that when you plugin the usb to program it, it may also try to charge it although it does not show it.
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post #73 of 594
11/29/09 at 12:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by tranle View Post

I think yes, those are just low discharge Sanyo Eneloop rechargable AA.
The things that I don't know, is that when you plugin the usb to program it, it may also try to charge it although it does not show it.

I don't think so ... as I know I wanted the remote to charge off my laptop but it won't, only off the included power brick.
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post #74 of 594
11/30/09 at 11:00am
This is the email I got about my battery problems. I didn't know there was a Safe Mode, so this might help someone else in the future:

I am sorry to hear that you have experienced some difficulties with your Harmony remote. It is possible a firmware upgrade in Safe Mode will resolve the issue. Please update the firmware on the remote and then re-update the configuration to the remote. To do so see below:

Try placing the remote into "Safe Mode". If you are not able to do this please continue to the next section.
1. Remove the battery from the remote.
2. Hold down the "Off" button on the remote and plug the remote into the USB cable.
3. Continue holding the "Off" button until the remote says "Safe Mode"

Update the firmware on the remote.
1. Login to your account through the Harmony remote software.
2. Click 'Downloads' and then select 'Firmware'
3. Follow the prompts to upgrade the firmware on the remote.
* Please note continue the Firmware upgrade process even if the software says you already have the latest firmware

Once you are finish, please update the remote with the configuration on the account by Clicking update remote.
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post #75 of 594
12/4/09 at 6:58am
I've just purchased the following:
- Denon AVR-590
- Panasonic DMP-BD80 BluRay
- Samsung LN-46B630

I'm curious to know if the Harmony is able to make TV setting changes or receiver tweaks while watching a Blu-Ray (changing color settings, etc) or Cable. Are these settings buried in the LCD menus? I like to change the EQ and color settings depending on the movie or cable show.

I've seen all the online demos and info that it can control over 200k devices, but I haven't seen any real world tests. Also, without buying the remote and checking, I'm at a loss.
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post #76 of 594
12/4/09 at 7:10am
Quote:
Originally Posted by chschmit View Post

I've just purchased the following:
- Denon AVR-590
- Panasonic DMP-BD80 BluRay
- Samsung LN-46B630

I'm curious to know if the Harmony is able to make TV setting changes or receiver tweaks while watching a Blu-Ray (changing color settings, etc) or Cable. Are these settings buried in the LCD menus? I like to change the EQ and color settings depending on the movie or cable show.

I've seen all the online demos and info that it can control over 200k devices, but I haven't seen any real world tests. Also, without buying the remote and checking, I'm at a loss.

The best way to do this is to add buttons to your activity for the functions you wish to control. So for instance, when you create an Activity for "Watch TV" you might add devices like TV, Cable/Sat box, and Receiver. While you are configuring the Activity you tell the software which device controls things like changing channels (TV or Cable/Sat box depending on your setup), changing volume (Tv or Receiver depending on your setup) and the hard buttons on the remote are programmed accordingly. In addition there are soft buttons (the LCD) that are programmable as well. Both the hard and soft buttons can be programmed to control any device in the Activity. So what you would likely do is add buttons to the LCD pages that allow you to change the EQ settings on the receiver even though most of the hard buttons will be for your TV or Cable/Sat box.
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post #77 of 594
12/4/09 at 7:35am
Quote:
Originally Posted by chschmit View Post

I'm curious to know if the Harmony is able to make TV setting changes or receiver tweaks while watching a Blu-Ray (changing color settings, etc) or Cable. Are these settings buried in the LCD menus? I like to change the EQ and color settings depending on the movie or cable show.

In addition to what In2Photos stated, if the function you want is not directly accessible through the remote you can also create a sequence which will automatically send a series of key presses. For example, open the menu on the tv and navigate through the menus to the setting you want to change.

Chances are, anything you want to on your receiver will be directly accessible in the remote but depending on what you want to do to your picture it may or may not be.
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post #78 of 594
12/4/09 at 9:13am
Quote:
Originally Posted by chschmit View Post

I've just purchased the following:
- Denon AVR-590
- Panasonic DMP-BD80 BluRay
- Samsung LN-46B630

I'm curious to know if the Harmony is able to make TV setting changes or receiver tweaks while watching a Blu-Ray (changing color settings, etc) or Cable. Are these settings buried in the LCD menus? I like to change the EQ and color settings depending on the movie or cable show.

I've seen all the online demos and info that it can control over 200k devices, but I haven't seen any real world tests. Also, without buying the remote and checking, I'm at a loss.

Let me also add this to the TV part, as I own a Samsung as well:

Its easier in the long run to properly calibrate each input on the TV for the source (for me, Moxi cable box, PS3, Wii, Computer) ... then my Harmony remote switches to the correct input (HDMI 1, HDMI 2, Component, etc) which are already calibrated -- hope that made sense
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post #79 of 594
12/4/09 at 11:23am
Quote:
Originally Posted by chschmit View Post

I've just purchased the following:
- Denon AVR-590
- Panasonic DMP-BD80 BluRay
- Samsung LN-46B630

I'm curious to know if the Harmony is able to make TV setting changes or receiver tweaks while watching a Blu-Ray (changing color settings, etc) or Cable. Are these settings buried in the LCD menus? I like to change the EQ and color settings depending on the movie or cable show.

I've seen all the online demos and info that it can control over 200k devices, but I haven't seen any real world tests. Also, without buying the remote and checking, I'm at a loss.

All any universal remote, harmony or otherwise, can do is automate what you can do manually with your other remotes, with a few smarts mixed in like delays and state tracking. You program it to do all those button presses for you. Sometimes there are discrete commands so you can take shortcuts like for input selections, but not for the settings you're talking about. If it takes 10 button presses to dig through the menus to change those settings, then you'll add those steps to your harmony activity to do the same.

That being said, if you expect to be able to assign such a long macro to one button you can press anytime while watching a blu-ray, for example, then harmony can't do that. It can easily do it when you first turn your devices on or off, but you can't program a button to do it during the activity unless it only takes 5 steps. Most other universals don't have this limitation. But most other universals don't automatically do device state tracking like harmony. So you have to decide which feature is most important.

As other's have said, I'd try to make life easier by finding a way to avoid tweaking settings like that every time I changed sources.

I've been able to make harmony do just about everything I need, and I've thrown some pretty complex stuff at it. A few of my most complex activities have a dozen or so additional steps at the beginning and end. I have to break up my complex macros (sequences) into several 5 step ones or one big raw learn from another remote that can play back macros really fast.
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post #80 of 594
12/5/09 at 8:05am
Don't you find the Harmony remotes fairly limiting?
I mean you typically demand a lot of functionality our of your remote.

Aside from the JP1...
How come you haven't considered other UR that (among other things) offer better programmability?

Quote:
Originally Posted by mdavej View Post

All any universal remote, harmony or otherwise, can do is automate what you can do manually with your other remotes, with a few smarts mixed in like delays and state tracking. You program it to do all those button presses for you. Sometimes there are discrete commands so you can take shortcuts like for input selections, but not for the settings you're talking about. If it takes 10 button presses to dig through the menus to change those settings, then you'll add those steps to your harmony activity to do the same.

That being said, if you expect to be able to assign such a long macro to one button you can press anytime while watching a blu-ray, for example, then harmony can't do that. It can easily do it when you first turn your devices on or off, but you can't program a button to do it during the activity unless it only takes 5 steps. Most other universals don't have this limitation. But most other universals don't automatically do device state tracking like harmony. So you have to decide which feature is most important.

As other's have said, I'd try to make life easier by finding a way to avoid tweaking settings like that every time I changed sources.

I've been able to make harmony do just about everything I need, and I've thrown some pretty complex stuff at it. A few of my most complex activities have a dozen or so additional steps at the beginning and end. I have to break up my complex macros (sequences) into several 5 step ones or one big raw learn from another remote that can play back macros really fast.
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post #81 of 594
12/5/09 at 8:08am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jalyst View Post

Don't you find the Harmonys fairly limiting?
I mean you typically demand a lot of functionality our of your remote.

Aside from the JP1...
How come you haven't considered other UR that (among other things) offer better programmability?

Not really ... I mean what I want it to do is switch everything to the correct inputs for MediaX and control the volume on my receiver, work my cable box .... AND MOST IMPORTANT make it easy for my GF to do the same.
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post #82 of 594
12/5/09 at 8:13am
no I was asking mdavej

Quote:
Originally Posted by black_macleod View Post

Not really ... I mean what I want it to do is switch everything to the correct inputs for MediaX and control the volume on my receiver, work my cable box .... AND MOST IMPORTANT make it easy for my GF to do the same.
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post #83 of 594
12/5/09 at 8:16am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jalyst View Post

no I was asking mdavej

I answer for all men with women in the house!

(ps - just joking. my gf is very tech savvy)
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post #84 of 594
12/5/09 at 8:25am
no comment, my gf is hovering around ;-)
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post #85 of 594
12/7/09 at 10:47am
Quote:
Originally Posted by chschmit View Post

I've just purchased the following:
- Denon AVR-590
- Panasonic DMP-BD80 BluRay
- Samsung LN-46B630

I'm curious to know if the Harmony is able to make TV setting changes or receiver tweaks while watching a Blu-Ray (changing color settings, etc) or Cable. Are these settings buried in the LCD menus? I like to change the EQ and color settings depending on the movie or cable show.

I've seen all the online demos and info that it can control over 200k devices, but I haven't seen any real world tests. Also, without buying the remote and checking, I'm at a loss.


To followup, I've since purchased the remote and it controls all of the devices perfectly, and the activities allow the cross-control of the devices I was looking for. It took a bit of navigating through the interface to find that I have to change the Activity Settings, Change commands, Additional commands...for them to show in the LCD when I switch to the Devices mode on the remote.
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post #86 of 594
12/7/09 at 10:49am
How do I change the order of the Activies on the LCD screen?

It only shows two activities per page, and seem randomly sequenced. I can seemingly change the order of every other command and feature, but i'm puzzled as to how to change the activities.

I'd like the ones that aren't already triggered by the top hard buttons to be listed first (ie, Listen to Tuner, Play Wii, etc).
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post #87 of 594
12/7/09 at 3:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jalyst View Post

Don't you find the Harmony remotes fairly limiting?
I mean you typically demand a lot of functionality our of your remote.

Aside from the JP1...
How come you haven't considered other UR that (among other things) offer better programmability?

Hmm... I guess it's mainly because I'm a tightwad. Even my harmony was only $30, and it get's the job done. I've bought a few high-dollar remotes, but I always end up selling them. I don't mind spending a lot on my HT components, but I just can't justify spending a lot on a remote. I mean, it's just a remote. A cheap one does what I need, even if I have to jump through a few hoops (ok, a lot of hoops) to make it work. At the end of the day, I still push one button to watch a DVD or whatever, and it works. That's enough for me.

And yes, I do find harmony very limiting, especially coming from JP1 where I had complete control of every function, every subroutine, every single bit in my program. I despise the harmony software. But I've gotten used to it and found workarounds for most of my issues. So I think I've gotten my $30's worth.
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post #88 of 594
12/8/09 at 11:17pm
thanks, now you're making me 2nd guess getting an mx-980 when a One is prolly more than enough

Quote:
Originally Posted by mdavej View Post

Hmm... I guess it's mainly because I'm a tightwad. Even my harmony was only $30, and it get's the job done. I've bought a few high-dollar remotes, but I always end up selling them. I don't mind spending a lot on my HT components, but I just can't justify spending a lot on a remote. I mean, it's just a remote. A cheap one does what I need, even if I have to jump through a few hoops (ok, a lot of hoops) to make it work. At the end of the day, I still push one button to watch a DVD or whatever, and it works. That's enough for me.

And yes, I do find harmony very limiting, especially coming from JP1 where I had complete control of every function, every subroutine, every single bit in my program. I despise the harmony software. But I've gotten used to it and found workarounds for most of my issues. So I think I've gotten my $30's worth.
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post #89 of 594
12/10/09 at 8:20am
Is there a way to add discrete codes to this remote if they are not in Harmony's database?
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post #90 of 594
12/10/09 at 8:33am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jimsfield View Post

Is there a way to add discrete codes to this remote if they are not in Harmony's database?

Two ways: email logitech support the pronto hex, or teach them from another remote. I prefer the latter. I've added several discretes to my harmony using my JP1 remote. In most cases you don't even need a JP1 cable. Just enter the codes. Only takes a few seconds. JP1 remotes can be found for as little as $6.50 shipped on ebay. Another advantage of the JP1 route is you don't have to depend on someone else to find the discrete codes. You can find them yourself.

EDIT: Nevermind. Since you're a URC guy, I see now that was a rhetorical question. So the real answer is it's a PITA to add discretes to harmony. How do you add them to URC?
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