Harmony 880 Official Thread. For all info and FAQs

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

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?

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

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

Yes, just press the device button and then DVD. This allows you to control any device with out disturbing your current activity.

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.

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?

- 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.

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.
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.

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.

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 (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.

- The online Harmony database has the discrete input codes. The software simply installs the Harmony Client.


- Is there is an upgrade, you would just download a software update. There isn't any other type of upgrade.

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.

Anyone knows how the range on this remote is?

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

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

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

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.

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.

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?

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

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.

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.

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.