Official Logitech Harmony 650/600 remote thread - Page 17

Trying to choose a first Harmony, and I can't decide between the 700, 670 and 650.
Some newbie questions:

- On the 650 when the battery dies do you loose your programming? Is there an easy way to restore it after putting new batteries?

- I see comments on this thread about how the 670 was better for X or Y reason. I don't really care about rechargeable batteries, color screen and icons, so should I just pick up a 670 instead of the new ones?

- What other choices than Logitech Harmony are available? I only need to control a TV, a DVD box and an AV Receiver, nothing fancy.

Hey guys, looked around the forum a bit and could find/missed what I'm looking for so I have a quick question.

Picked up a 650 today at a great price for a BF promo from BestBuy. I've used Harmony's for some time so I'm familiar with the interface and usage but one thing I cant figure out/change.

Can I remove, or at least move, the "commands" section from slot 1 of page 1 on my 650? I will never use it and would love to throw and extra favorite on page one?

You get favorites or commands but not both at the same time. If you can live without an icon, simply make a sequence for your favorite channel and add it to your commands. That's what we do on harmonys that don't have favorites.

Programming last through battery changes and is easy to restore regardless.

If you want more than 8 devices and don't care about colored buttons (very important to me since most devices have them these days), then go for a 670.

Just about any $15-$20 universal remote can control 3 devices just fine. Something like the RCA RCRP05B can usually control absolutely every function of any device and can do plenty of activities (macros). It's even programmable from a PC like harmony with an optional cable.

We just purchased a great room set up with a Pioneer Elite VSX-53 as the AVR. I'm using a Harmony 650 as an interim remote. The remote worked fine on my main system (Meridian) so I expected the VSX would be simple. Not so. After setting up the remote, the unit will turn on the AVR, the TV (Panasonice Plasma), and the STB or Oppo - then it seems to send another signal and the AVR switches off.

If I use the VSX remote to switch the AVR stays on. If I use the Harmony help function the AVR stays on. I've been through all the Harmony "help" options, changed the order in which the units turn on/off, etc. I've been through the VSX-53 manual in depth and tried changing various settings. No luck. The only setting I have not changed is the Harmony key delay and since I couldn't find any reference to that subject in the Pioneer manual I left it untouched.

The VSX appears to use a toggle on/off rather than discrete commands (argh)...so short of buying a different remote, any suggestions?

Harmony database should have discrete on/off. I'd just try a different model like the VSX-51 first and see. Also make sure all devices have HDMI CEC turned off. Otherwise you can have harmony support add the following hex codes to you profile.



You can also learn discrete on/off from a one-for-all or cable remote. Let me know if you want to try that and I'll post the procedure.

I think the OP's question was whether the "commands" soft button could be moved to a different position, i.e. the last page. Or can it be removed all together?

If you check the "Show these channels..." box on the OP's screen shot, you get all channels and zero commands. So no commands can be added/moved/deleted in that case. If you uncheck the box, you get all commands and zero channels. If you want a mix of channels and commands, you have to uncheck the box and make a sequence for each channel and put it in any spot you like. Any command can be moved to any position or removed altogether. Note that this only works with the 7.7 software.

Thanks - I'll give it a try tomorrow and post my results.

gordon

I just purchased a harmony 650 & I am having a few problems.

I am controlling a Sony tv
Sony hts370 (Audio)
At&t Uverse stb (wireless box by cisco)

I need to know the correct order to power these on. What happens is when I hit "watch tv" sometimes the tv will show no input & will have to reset the uverse box to get a picture. I know this is an hdmi issue with the order I am turning these items on.

Standard HDMI turn-on sequence is:

1. Sink (Display) first... then
2. Repeaters (switches, AVRs, etc), then
3. Source turns on last.

This ensures that the source sees the correct EDID information.


Unfortunately, there are enough idiosyncratic devices out there that experimentation should always be done if the above does not result in correct handshaking.

thanks for the reply. I will give this a shot when I get home from work.

You may also have to increase the Power on Delay for the TV to make sure that it is ready to accept additional command and that the hdmi port is active.

mdavej - HDMI was on and that was the root cause of the problem. Thank you so much!

Back to listening and watching!

gordon

Quick question about editing an existing activity-‎

Have a question about the input on my Watch TV activity- I want to switch from using HDMI 4 to ‎HDMI 2- is there an easy way to do that with my current activities, all of which are now using HDMI 4? ‎

Everything will stay exactly the same in all my activities except using the HDMI 2 input instead of 4.‎

I am hoping I can just change a setting without having to create a whole new activity.‎

Customize your activities, run the setup wizard again and pick the new input. You'll have to do this for every activity that now uses HDMI2. There are other ways, but that's the easiest.

Could use some help here. My 650 controls the tv, avr and cable box. the usual channel surfing, volume adjustments works but not 100%. I some times lose control of the avr and can't change the volume. I have to go to Devices and select 'AV Receiver' to get control of the volume. but now I don't have control of the cable box. Is there a simple fix to get both working again. What I do is turn off and on all three devices to get control of the channels and volume.

thanks...

Hi all. Hoping someone has run into this and can shed some light. I received a 650 for my birthday today and set up my devices. It works very well except for the Tivo. We have a TCD 652160. The 650 controls it just fine as long as I hold it within about 3 feet of the Tivo. When I pull it back to a normal distance it becomes 10% hit, 90% miss. Any advice would be appreciated thanks!

Hi All. Working with my 650 - and all is going well from basic controls. Now that I am trying to customize it a bit - I am stumped by a few things.

1) Order of Activities. How do I control the order of activities? I have 4 setup. Watch TV, Watch Movie, watch Computer, Media. The first 3 are separate inputs on the TV, the 4th is a USB connection on the TV. The first to are connected to the physical buttons. The last two are on the activities menu. When I click the "More Activites" button to show the available activities, why do the "Watch TV" and "Watch DVD" show up on page 1? They have physical buttons. I want the other two to be on Page 1, as they don't have physical buttons. I don't see any rhyme or reason to the order. I created a new account from scratch and tried setting up the "Watch Computer" and "Media" first, that didn't help. Any thoughts?

2) Order of "More Buttons" for an amplifier. I changed the order of the additional buttons in the Amp device. They don't change on the remote. Again, I started a new account from scratch and it doesn't change the buttons in the device. Any thoughts?

Thank you,
- Ron

See sticky tips thread for reordering devices (requires new config via stand-alone 7.7 software. It's impossible via myharmony). 2nd issue could be your are reordering in device mode and expecting change in activity mode. You must manage each seperately.

Thanks mdavej. I had found that comment and tried, but I was not able to get connected. I gave it a few more tries and added a pwd to my config. That was the trick to get logged in. The web interface is faster than the local app - which is surprising and it has more options.

I was able to reorder the activities just fine.

I still can't re-order the device menu. That is - hitting the "device" button and choosing the amplifier - it won't let me change the order. I bypassed that by including the options I want in the activity rather than the device. I think that will work.

Merry Christmas,
- Ron

Can the Harmony 650 do macros? Say for example can it be programmed to get to a particular screen on my Direct TV DVR with one button push?

No

I have an issue I can't seem to resolve. I have an activity for "Play Wii". When I push it the TV switches and the display says "Input-1", which is the correct input but their is no video from the Wii. If I then press my "Input-1" button on the remote it "refreshes" the same input and gives me the video. Any reason why the input command would work fine on its own but not in the macro?

got a 650 for Christmas and set it up using the myharmony site per the instructions. Setup was smooth and easy using that interface. But the remote was very laggy on the cable box menu screens (comcast motorola dcx-3501/rng200n). After some research, I downloaded the 7.7 software and re-setup my remote. Wow, it's like a different remote now, no lag on the menu screens whatsoever. Tons of more options with the software. Just wanted to point this out to any newbies like me who used the myharmony site.

Hello everyone. I have a simple question as I have been looking into a remote. On the 650, does it have "back lit" buttons?? I was at the local BB store the other day as the salesmen told me that both the 650 & 700 dont have back lit buttons as only the H-One had it. I have the Harmony 520 remote now but the buttons are getting wore out as you can see the numbers anymore as why I need to replace it soon.

That salesman is an idiot. The 600/650/700 are all backlit.

Thats what I could only assume!! They did not have one in stock so I could not check it out. THank you very much for the info!!!

Yes, the 650 does support Macros, in a limited fashion. They're just not called macros, they're called sequences. Under an Activity, select "Customize Buttons", then Click "Add Sequence" at the bottom left. You can build a macro with up to five steps, and it can only involve the devices included in that activity.

Perhaps the salesman is only about "one half of an idiot" : The activity buttons are NOT backlit on the 600/650/700, even though the other buttons are backlit.

Regards