New Harmony 670 for DVRs - Page 2

I programmed my 670 to have the A-B-C buttons all on the right side screen optionable when the PVR is on. My programmable screen buttons setup for Scientific Atlanta 8300HD is:

Sleep-------C
LiveTV------B
List----------A

List is recorded shows. I use "sleep" a lot. I put the most used buttons lower/closer to the middle of the remote.

On the 8300HD, the pvr fwd/ffwd-rwd/frwd seemed redundant, so I use them for skip forward/skip back.

Is the remote supposed to turn off when not in use? Mine always has something on the display. It seems like a waste of battery power to me.

There's always something on the display, yes.

I haven't had any battery issues in 2 months.

LCD w/o backlight consumes virtually no power vs. transmission of IR commands & the backlight. Shutting off the LCD wouldn't extend battery life any noticeable amount.

Anyone have any idea how to program this thing with discrete input codes, so I can change my Samsung HLP5663w inputs without having to cycle through each input. It takes too long and sometimes the remote messes up, it would be nice for it to be able to change directly to the correct input. I've been looking everywhere and found the codes to my tv, but not sure how to program this remote with them. thanks

Dale

(1) try "device" mode, see if any of the codes there work.
(2) try different model #s of Samsung display that are similar to your set. E.g. different size, or previous year's model, again try the codes provided in device mode.

If (1) & (2) fail, contact Harmony tech support so they can add the codes you found to the DB. There's no way to enter say Pronto hex codes directly through the web interface; Harmony has to do it.

Then go through the wizard, adjust inputs, say you jump directly to inputs & point it to the appropriate codes for each input.

Got my remote for Xmas and I am on my 3rd set of batteries. They seem to last 3 weeks. I had mine set at 15sec all buttons glow and chanced to 10sec limited buttons. I think the fact that I have programmed a button to skip 30 seconds for my DVR may be the reason I am going through batteries so quickly. Half the shows we watch are on the DVR and commercial skipping is constant.

I plan to go to radio shack and get a battery charger with rechargable batteries. The quick charge unit goes for $40 with 4 AA and 4 AAA batteries.

I have everything programmed and working on my 670, except I can't get it to select inputs perfectly. If I play 360 (input 9) and turn the system off with the remote and then later hit "watch TV" it won't select input 7. I have tripled check that I have the inputs set up right. Any suggestions?

Does "Help" fix it?
If so, try increasing the Power On Delay for the TV.

"Help" does fix it, but I shouldn't have to use it every time. I will try the delay suggestion.

Haven't had that problem with two different TV's. I would call tech support. Hold times are short and they are very helpful.

I went ahead and bought a 670 after being told what I was told above. Unfortunately, I was apparently given incorrect information.

After trying, I contacted tech support again and went to 2nd level when 1st level could not figure out how to do it. They then went to even higher levels and have now informed me that it isn't supported at all.

I'm waiting to hear back from them to find out what they are going to do about it.

why would you rather use a-b buttons for commercial skips when the 670 already has commercial skip buttons with the other transport buttons?

but more importantly...
doesn't it seem like logitech is completely missing the "dvr" button on all of its remotes?
if you want to bring up the menu for your recorded show list. i've had to hijack another button or use one of the soft-buttons on the lcd for it. seems kind of silly to me.

I have , Direct Tv HR10-250 (HD TIVO) and a Samsung DLP, {I also have a Yamaha receiver and a Toshiba DVD player}....my question is how many devices do i have?should i set up th eDVD player as a Cd player too? Is my Directv HD Tivo player the set top box?Do i set up the PVR also?

Just set up each thing once. The HD TIVO is a PVR. The DVD player is just that. You can set up different activities, but you only need each piece of equipment in there once.

For instance, if you set up an activity to 'listen to music' you can have it turn on your dvd player and receiver.

Question:

Is there a way to have certain devices already selected when I use an activity button? For example, if I press 'Watch TV,' the Tivo is already selected as the device I want to control.

I'm using a NAD HTR-2 right now, but not for too much longer. It's not too useful now that I've got a DVR and a Sanyo projector which have too many 'weird' buttons for me to remember how I've mapped them.

I ordered the Harmony 670 from dell.ca yesterday -- they've got them for about $100 off right now. I'll post again later if I've got something to rave or complain about

Question about the 670. MIne should be in tomorrow and it may be a few days before I get a chance to set it up. In the mean time I have a question or two.

What is the difference in an Activity and a Macro?

If I set up an activity/macro to watch a dvd that would turn on the tv and turn on the dvd player, what would happen if the tv is already on? Would it just turn the dvd player on or would it turn the tv off and then the dvd player on?
Probably a dumb question but i wasn't sure.

thanks for the quick reply.
Do you (or anyone else) know if there's a good guide to what I would need to turn off/on/dim lights, etc.?
i also have a fan that already has a remote. Can I just teach the harmony to do all of it's functions?

I've had a 550 for 7 months and yesterday I returned it for the 670 and glad I did.

I would describe the 550 as the "Paris Hilton of Remotes". Comes from a good family, looks very good, but once I got to know it better it really started to drive me crazy. The button size and layout was such that I never did get comfortable with making selections without first looking to make sure I was on the right button. In the end, the volume down began to stick on me and Circuit C gave me a store credit which I used toward a 670 (rebate this week on the 670 is $60 so it will end up costing me less. Also, kudos to CC for this no questions asked transaction).

My initial impression of the 670 is great. It feels good to hold, for the most part the buttons are well placed and have a solid feel. And of course it controls everything in my system perfectly, just like the 550 did.

My biggest concern in making the switch turned out to be a very pleasant surprise. I just knew I would have to go through an entire new setup with the 670, but the Logitech software allowed me to transfer all the settings I had for the 550 to the 670 with only one button needing to be re-mapped. The "Prev" button didn't do anything so I just went back into the software and mapped it correctly. The change over took about 20 minutes including this fix.

I can find only two things I need to tweak. First, since the 670 doesn't have a DVR button (still don't know why Logitech left this one out) I have a soft button mapped to "PVR" but will be looking to see if there is a better hard button to use. Second, the "Sound" and "Pic" buttons currently serve no useful purpose for me. Unless someone can tell me their real purpose I'm likely to use one as the "DVR" button. Suggestions?

Setup: Panasonic 42" plasma, Dish VIP622, Yamaha Receiver, Samsung DVD

Hey guys, I'm trying to help out my coworker who owns one of these but doesn't know much about how to setup. I'm not familiar with the Harmonys (don't shoot me, I'm a URC guy). Can the 670 do "punch thrus"? Or rather, maybe it's a button mapping issue. What he's trying to accomplish is when selecting "watch cable", the macro sets the tv to the right input, turns on cable box, turns on receiver, sets receiver to right input. All that works fine. Where the catch is that he needs the channel buttons to control the dvr/cable box, but the volume controls to change the receiver. Is that possible with the Harmony 670? Thanks in advance!

Easy! He just needs to set up that activity so that sound is set up as coming from the receiver. This is basic Harmony activity use 101.

P.S. Isn't that like making a Mercedes mechanic work on an Acura?! Some URC owners seem to think Harmony remotes are straight from the devil's own workshop!

I kinda thought it could do that, but had no idea how. Hey, I'm not gonna insult the Harmony remotes. They are just two different trains of logic, and my mind works like URC, so I understand them better. . .I bought a low-end Harmony at Sam's Club for my elderly mom a couple of years ago and spent hours trying to get it to work correctly--it now sits in a drawer unused. . .hmm. . .maybe I should put that remote on ebay!?!?

P.S. I drive an Acura. . .

Hey guys,
I see that Amazon has this remote for 77.00 but other retailers such as BB have it at 149.99. There has got to be a catch to the amazon price, right?? Also, if I am planning on controlling my xbox 360 with this remote, would it be better to get the Harmny xbox 360 remote? Thanks in advance.

There is no catch. Amazon prices are consistently lower than Best Buy. BB are just selling it for MSRP, no discount.

The basic functions of both remotes will be identical since they use the same software for programing. The Xbox remote (also available on amazon for $85) has a very different design, which you may or may not prefer, and some dedicated buttons for the X-box. It might be worth the $8 for those just for ease of use.

I just purchased the 676 and it programmed rather easily and works like a charm. My question is, how do I program a second dvd player? I didn't see anything that allowed me to do that. I have a Panasonic multi-disk player I want to add. Thanks for any help.

Keith

You have to add the extra device and then create a second activity using the second DVD player and name it appropriately. Activity 1 will turn on your single disc player, with the appropriate input/output/sound settings, activity 2 will turn on your multi-disc player with the appropriate input/output/sound settings (including any extra "soft" buttons that might be needed for changing disc etc.).

Thanks for the help. I got it working. Now if it would just pass the aspect command to my plasma properly 4 times to get it set for SD signals. I have an e-mail into them. It would not work for me.

Thanks again!

Keith

I have a question abound the Pic and Sound buttons, and their modes.

When in Pic mode, I assume the LCD screen will reflect the TV's LCD buttons. But, will the hard buttons be mapped to the TV or the Activity? For example, if I'm watching a DVD, and I press the 'Pic' button and then the 'Menu' button, will the DVD return to the main menu, or will it pull up the setup menu for my TV?