New Logitech Harmony Touch - Page 4

Yes, this is the remote I'm waiting for, I'll have to hang on to my 890 a little longer (2nd 890 actually). I'm excited for either a successor to the 900 or 1100. Ill have to pass on the touch. Any rumors on these successors??

Good info, so thanks for that. I'm not apposed to using activities, I just don't want to scroll through 6 screens to turn up the volume, then scroll back to have player control.

Can you have more than one "Watch a movie" activity? Say I'm watching tv already and want to watch a movie. I don't want to turn the tv off by hitting the macro. Could I set up a 2nd "Watch a Movie" that doesn't power the tv on/off?

I may just pick up the remote and have a go at it, see if it will work for me.

If you are already in an activity, I.e. Watching tv, then the standard activity for watching a movie will work correctly for tuning all equipment to correct inputs and turning off any unused devices in the new activity if you so choose. It knows which activity you are in and what it needs to change to get the desired outcome. No need for setting up multiple activities for the same thing.

So if I hit "Watch TV" and it merely turns the TV on, then after an hour decide to "Watch a Movie", it will remember that the TV is on and only start-up the other devices? But if nothing is on and I "Watch a Movie" it will start up everything? That's pretty nifty and I'll definitely be checking it out.

Aaaaand, Amazon is out of stock. Boo.

Yeah, this is how all Harmony remotes work. I've owned like 5 of them over the years and currently use a One and 900. I had a 1000 but disliked the touch.

In any event say you have a TV, receiver, bluray player and set top box. You hit watch TV, it turns on the tv, sets it to the correct input, turns on the receiver to the correct input and turns on the set top box. All of the hard buttons are now configured for set top box control along with programmable soft buttons. Then you want to watch a BD and choose that activity. It then will change the tv and receiver inputs as needed, turn on the bluray player and turn off the set top box. The hard buttons now control the BD player. When you are done you hit power and it turns off the remaining devices but doesn't do anything dumb like turn the set top box back on.

Some people complain this isn't enough control, but for me its perfect and allows the woman to operate it. The online set up is a breeze, I just wish it better supported multiple remotes. Right now I have to use 2 separate accounts.

I've heard that myharmony now supports multiple remotes as of last week. As you already know, the stand-alone software does not.

I have had the Touch since Monday and I am starting to become more of a fan. For reference I am a long time Harmony user and the Touch will be replacing a 900.

For those worried about accidental screen touches the first touch wakes the unit up and turns on backlighting similar to movement on the 900. There is a learning curve on swipes not accidentally issuing a command. Also I find reaching the contols at the top to be reatively easy even with small hands. I have more of a problem reaching the lower rows but these are seldom used at least by me. I like the fact that you can customize the screen commands without going to your computer. Deleting or adding commands from any device is a simple task. You can also reorder commands from the unit itself.

The Touch is shorter than a One or 900 and has a weighted base. This appears to be where the battery is located however the battery does not appear to be replaceable. I am not sure if this is good or bad based on prior battery problems on other Harmony models.

Yep. Once you wrap your head around "activities" its a pretty sweet deal

I don't know why my in-laws can't figure that out. It never fails, if they're watching TV, the remote will be all out of whack. One time they were setting the time on the remote, when trying to change channels

HERE's a good solution for skip fwd and skip back as well as other Touch tips from the Logitech forum.

While you can do this it requires an extra step since both commands are already on screen and available once the remote wakes up. I have played with gestures but I am not sure how they are best used for me.

Are the changes eventually reflected in the web page on the computer, or can/will they be overridden if the configuration is changed in the software?

The touch synchs with the web page when first connected thus any changes made on the remote are transferred to the web.

how can I get favorite channels to work on both bedroom and livingroom watch tv activities,when I'm in the livingroom watching tv and I go to fav and press a favorite it cuts off my tv in the livingroom

Assuming you have set up 2 separate activities I would suggest carefully reviewing your set up for each one. Its possible something is reversed.

yes I have seperate activities.it won't let me set up favorites for both.only for one.When I try to setup for the other activity it tells me it will erase all current favorites.What gives?

I would call tech support

So you guys like this over the one ?

Can someone please confirm what the DVR button does? Is it for the list of your recorded shows?

Thanks

Yes it takes you diectly to the list of recordings

Now that I have used it for a while I do prefer it to the One. I will say it has a different feel and takes some getting used to but it has many great features like adding and removing commands from the screen without going to your compuer.

Can you provide comments on two specific points of thumb operations:
- reach to the transport keys at the top of the remote and operation by feel without looking at the remote
- use of Gestures for skip forward and skip back functions

Feedback of power of the IR signal and speed of sending IR commands compared to the One would also be great.

I have no problem reaching the transport keys despite having small hands. Its easy to slide your hand up slightly to feel the keys. Remember the Touch is shorter than the one. The weighted base also makes it easy. I find reaching the bottom keys to be more awkward but if you need to they could be added to the screen.

I do not use gestures. Its an extra key stroke, The skip keys are on the screen and easily accessed.

The speeds feel at least similar to the 900 and One but I was never concerned with that.

It does require a little time to get used to the feel as it is different but at this point I am comfortable with it.

I haven't used this function, but is it possible that the message is a generic message, just alerting you to the fact that your updates will replace what you have currently? Have you actually tried doing it, and seen that it erases the favorites on your other activity?

There are hard buttons for Fast Forward and Rewind but not for Skip Forward and Skip Back. Completely different functions that are frequently used when watching recorded TV programs and wanting to skip over comercials and to skip back a number of seconds as provided by the PVR.

I understand. You asked about the skip keys. They are on the screeen with one one push necessary. Gestures(accessed on the screen as well) require one push to access then an action swipe.

right now the answer is no. I have a lot of little things that are bothering me about this remote.
You can't rename devices only activities. I get this remote is activity based but I constantly need the remote for other devices so Having to read my tv as Samsung PN59D8000 may make sense to me but why should my wife have to learn each model#.
Another thing is with the one if you click on a device from an activity you can click activities and it goes back to your current one. Here you can't do that, you have to click home to get to the activity and then click the activity again. Sure this thing is basically one big touch screen with minimal buttons but why do I have to backtrack so much just to get to where I was. There are plenty more things that are getting on my nerves (only 5 gestures, really?) but the remote itself is nice. I hope for updates to address this but seeing as how little the one received updates I'd say it ain't gonna happen
Edited by whackawookie - 10/15/12 at 11:35am

I would think 5 gestures is most that is practical. left,right,up, down and tap. I suppose you could do diagonals too but that would introduce many errors on such a small screen.

Nah, you could definitely add more gestures. If you've ever used a synaptics touchpad then you would see a whole range of gestures; rounded, curved, custom, heck even if multi touch was supported that could open a whole new range. For a remote that boasts the feature it really should be more thought out instead of so limited.

Can you not input custom gestures? Like on my phone, I can set a gesture in the shape of the letter N and it'll do whatever I set it to.

I picked up the new harmony touch remote. I only had an older model of the 720. I cann't compare to the harmony one. I must say that I am very impressed with it. its much faster then the older remote for sure.

Jacob