A few 890 Questions...

1. It should ask if you want to "hide" it after a couple of activity switches after updating. If it doesn't do that for whatever reason, you can turn it off under "preferences" in the software.

2. Here's how mine is set up for my HR20 (w/ a H/K AVR 347 and a Panny 58PZ700U):

Standard Buttons
Mute - AVR - Mute
Volume Up - AVR - VolumeUp
Volume Down - AVR - VolumeDown
Down Arrow - Satellite - ChannelDown
Up Arrow - Satellite - ChannelUp
Channel Down - Satellite - ChannelDown
Channel Up - Satellite - ChannelUp
Prev - Satellite - ChannelPrev
Up - Satellite - DirectionUp
Down - Satellite - DirectionDown
Left - Satellite - DirectionLeft
Right - Satellite - DirectionRight
OK - Satellite - Select
Menu - Satellite - Menu
Exit - Satellite - Exit
Guide - Satellite - Guide
Info - Satellite - Info
Stop - Satellite - Stop
Skip Back - Satellite - SkipBackward
Skip Forward - Satellite - SkipForward
Play - Satellite - Play
Record - Satellite - Record
Rewind - Satellite - Rewind
Fast Forward - Satellite - FastForward
Pause - Satellite - Pause
1 - Satellite - 1
2 - Satellite - 2
3 - Satellite - 3
4 - Satellite - 4
5 - Satellite - 5
6 - Satellite - 6
7 - Satellite - 7
8 - Satellite - 8
9 - Satellite - 9
Plus - Satellite - "-"
0 - Satellite - 0
E - Satellite - NumberEnter

Additional Buttons Page 1
Now Playing List - Satellite - List
Red - Satellite - Red
Aspect Ratio - TV - Aspect
Green - Satellite - Green
Sat Format - Satellite - Format
Yellow - Satellite - Yellow
Back - Satellite - Back
Blue - Satellite - Blue

Additional Buttons - Page 2
TV Menu - TV - Menu
TV Up - TV - DirectionUp
TV Enter - TV - Select
TV Down - TV - DirectionDown
TV Return - TV - Return
TV Left - TV - DirectionLeft
TV Info - TV - Display
TV Right - TV - DirectionRight

3. Don't have an SA 8300, so I don't know.

Hope that helps.

It worked on mine, but if worse comes to worse, you can always "learn" it.

--Mav

What I outlined above is precisely how my button setup appears in the software when looking at the button layout for the "Watch DirecTV" Activity (not when looking at the HR20 device menus). The above description is laid out as follows: [Button] - [Device] - [Command], so for Skip Back, the Button is [Skip Back], the Device is [Satellite], and the Command is [SkipBackward]. I have an HR20-700. I hope that helps.

--Mav

You might have to assign some commands yourself. They aren't all done automatically during the setup.

Sorry, I should have made that more clear. That is how my buttons are set up after I specifically assigned them in the "customize buttons" section of the "Watch DirecTV" Activity portion of the software. Most of them are set up automatically, but several of them needed to be specifically assigned (particularly, the "Additional Buttons"). If memory serves, the Standard Buttons I had to specifically assign was "skip forward", "skip backwards", and the "+/Clear" button.

Sorry for the confusion.

--Mav

I recently got teh 890 and I have been programing it for a few days. What I can not figure out is how to re-arrange my device page? Also, I would like to be able to more easily re-arrange the buttons for each device, so that the power buttons are on the top of the very first page. I know that you can arrow up or down, but if you have something a couple of pages deep, it's kind of a pain.

You can't rearrange the list of devices. This doesn't really matter as you should almost never need to select an individual device anyway...and you should NEVER use device mode to power things on or off...this is what Activities are for. Changing things outside of activities will confuse Smart State.

Concentrate on setting up your Activities properly and forget about device mode.

Here are a list of my devices:

Theta Casablanca III
DVDO VP50 Pro (video processor)
Motorola 6412 (cable)
Zenith SAT HD-520 (sat)
Toshiba HD A30 (hd dvd)
JVC 5U (DVHS)
Denon 3910 with sdi mod (dvd)
Sony ES9000 (with VSE level 5 mod) this is used for listening to cd's

I have not had enough time to play around with it yet, but lets say I am watching cable and then I decided I want to listen to a cd. If I selec the "Listen CS" activity, will the remote realize that my preamp is already on so that it doesn't think that it has to power up my Theta? So far all of my activities appear to be created from the point that everything is off. I want to be able to simply switch from watching cable to watching a dvd or the satellite and I don't want to have everything keep turning off and on.

Yes, that's the whole point of a Harmony and "Smart State". It has state memory so it knows what devices it has already turned on, and won't try to turn them on again.

How do I use a .ccf file with the 890? Some one has posted a .ccf for the discrete codes for the VP50.

There are heaps of discretes for that device in the database already. Have you tried them and found they don't work? Or are there some missing?

Where do you find this database, because the things that I need are not listed when I go to to the custom buttons page. Also, how do I program a script? For my satellite I need to create a script that would change the resolution from 480I to 1080I. To do this you have to first press the SD button, arrow right, enter. I do not see any way to do this?

I just added the device to my account and looked at the "Additional buttons" page for the device (these would be on the remote LCD screen when you select "Device" then "Video processor". There are discretes listed for power on and off, and heaps of inputs.

For the script (called a "sequence" in Harmony-speak)...you create these in the activity, not the device. Look under "Customize buttons" for the Activity...there should be an option for "Create sequence".