Harmony 890 first impressions - Page 3

Does Logitech support the "regular" software anymore? Only the Web based software came with my newly purchased 890. Their Web site doesn't have it for download either. The remote's working great and doing exactly what I need, but I'm a gear-head and I'd like to try it.

IC. Thanks!

I've had my 890 for only a couple of days and have played with it some, have a question.

After selecting activity "play pvr" to power up my components, the options on the 8 programmable buttons are different than if I push "device" and then "pvr" (I was able to customize those buttons to see exactly what I want on the first "page")

I'd like for my customized 8 buttons to pop up right after I select "play pvr" instead of having to push device then pvr to bring up this screen, anyone know how to do this?

If you are pressing device then you are not using the remote properly. That will control ONLY that device. So your volume will not work while in the device mode for instance. If you do not have any of the desired buttons in your lcd customizable buttons, then you will want to further customize your remote. The software should have automatically put some options on those buttons to begin with. Login to your account and under the activities section, click on the (I believe) customize button. I am not 100% sure what it says on this button because I don't really use Harmony's anymore so I forget. Anyway, you are looking for the edit buttons option. From there you can add whatever functions pretty much that you want there. If I am a little off or you need more help, I am sure someone else will chime in. If they don't I will log into an account and take a peak to help guide you. I just don't have the software on this computer. I would have to grab my work laptop and boot it up to take a peak.

Ah, thank you. I've got the hang of that now.

Newbie questions:
After reading this thread and checking the harmony it still isn't clear to me if the 890 will do RF and IR without the Z wave component.

My situation is this:
I have a Panny 9UK 65" on the front wall with the components in a rear cabinet currently using a niles IR extender which works pretty well for the most part. I would like to add X10 dimmer switches (rear of room) as well. My understanding is that X10 is RF so I am trying to find a remote that will allow me to do IR and RF to control both TV/components and lights.

Thanks

As far as I know... not gonna happen directly. But I've been wrong before. This is probably too complicated for your application, but since I'm going to be using CQC anyway:

A USB IR adapter will be used to trigger a CQC event in response to the remote. CQC will then control Instean (or X10) dimmers through their PC based controller.

Can I use multiple RF extenders with one remote? I saw the reverse question earlier but haven't been able to verify this one. Thanks.

I just got my system installed at new house, working on setting up activities for my 890...there is a device setting for a PS3 but I thought the PS3 remote was bluetooth?

How is it that every wire coming out of the IR extender can have 2 bugs? can you use these 2 for different devices?

Yep, you can use the two emitters on the end of each wire on different devices.

If anyone has found any kind of adapter to use with the PS3, I'm all ears! It's a real pain to be able to replace all of your remotes except one!

I was wondering: are the emitters pass-through? In other words, if I want to use a device's original remote, would I need to remove the sticked-on emitter so the device can "see" the IR signal (from the original remote)?

I currently have the H890 and I have had no problem controlling any devices (with the original remotes) that I have placed an IR emitter on.

I too am joining it asking them to restore it. I have a 659 that I used for years with my old system that was great and the customizable macros were awesome. Setting up my 890 this weekend I was for sure disappointed to see that I could not seemingly doing anything that didn't seem too "basic".

ie, I wanted to tell the remote to switch my picture presets on my Mitsu TV after completing an activity change. Can't figure out how to do that now that macros are gone! Any thoughts or am I looking at just pressing that picture button myself?

Yes the emitters allow IR to pass through them, so no you don't have to remove them. You also don't have to exactly center the stick on emitter on top of the IR receiver on your target device, as the emitters are strong enough.

A little clarification please on the RF Wireless extender and IR emitters...

My components are all located out of site behind a wall in a seperate room. Basically, I need the RF Extender in line-of-sight of the 890 with the IR emitters running to the components, correct?

But how strong is the 890's transmission and RF extender's reception? In an ideal world, I'd like the RF extender as "out-of-site" as possible, such as behind the TV (wall mounted 52" Samsung) where there are no actual "walls" seperating the 890 and the RFextender. i.e. will the signal work "around" objects?

It'll go through walls, even. Many use it to control components in a seperate equipment room. This is what I'll do as soon as the new house is done. They say 100' range.

Hmmm...so I'll only need to place the RF extender near my components in that room? Do I even need the IR emitters if this is the case?

The emitter in the extender seems to be quite powerful. I don't use any of the wired emitters. I have two stacks of equipment and the extender is about 3 feet away. If your equipment room is crowded enough that you can't get that distance you may need the emitters. Just try it out. You may be surprised.

so does the extender have to "plug" into a component to control it? What do you do if it doesn't have an IR input jack?

The extender has its own IR emitter built in. If you have the room to face the extender toward the components you want to control it works great. There's a coverage "cone" so the larger the area your components span the further away you'll have to place the extender. If you don't have room for the extender's "cone", that's what the individual emitters are for.

that makes sense, thanks erkq!

Question: do you think the 890 is the remote I need, read below:

I have decided that instead of worrying about lost remotes what I need to do is get one remote to control everything. My other problem is that I got a new rack for all of my AV equipment and I can not control everything in the rack from every seat in the theater. I thus need a RF remote. Of course the same last problem is that I am a pilot and I am currently gone and my wife and visiting parents sometimes are not able to get everything set up correctly and I often get a call while out of state for directions as to how to do things. I have the following components.

Onkyo TX-SR674S 7.1 Channel Up-Converting A/V Receiver (Silver) (this selects my HDMI input and controls the sound)
Sony 40Gb PS3 (this I know is RF, and will be a problem, we use this to watch DVD’s and BD movies, and I use it for games)
Samsung DTBH260F HDTV Terrestrial Receiver (this is used to watch TV very infrequently, mostly just watch the Steelers!)
Channel Master 9521A Remote Control Antenna Rotor (this controls the direction of the antenna and is controlled by a small IR remote. Some channels require me to change the direction to get continued signal.)
Panasonic PT-AE3000 projector

My question is what remote should I use? I can put little emitters on the rack door (screen mesh) or directly on the components, but I can not put an IR emitter in front of them all to hit them all at the same time. I know the PS3 will be a problem and I could live with two remotes if I have to. Also is there a way to program the remote to change the direction of the antenna when ever I change the channel (I get about 15 different channels)? In the future I would like to expand and have a remote that could control lights and maybe even open the curtain in front of the projector screen. Also in the future I want to add a HTPC and a 15Tb media server. Can you guys recommend a reasonable remote, I just blew a big chunk on the projector so money is really a problem right now, but I maybe can get this for Christmas?

I have a problem....
when i close an activity, watch tv, with panasonic tv, dvdo edge and sat, the dvdo edge doesn't go off...it continue to be on. why? what do i miss?

This thread has had almost no activity in two years. Go to the official 880 thread and post your question - you will get a response there.