Harmony remotes - Genius!

[gregvet]

I have always had a grave mistrust of universal remotes, but finally had to succumb when my other half had a hissy fit about the number of remotes I was accumulating. Got the Harmony 555, and OMG if it doesnt work better than I could have hoped, dreamed even! Why did I wait so long? After 30 min set up and tweaking, everthing from my Apple TV to the Dimmer switch is one one easy to use remote control, with one button setup for watching Blu Ray/Apple TV/Sky. Worth 10 times what it cost IMO.

 

[nads]

Very true. still got room on mine for 7 devices. but i have not loaded the second room stuff on it yet!

 

[Andy Clough]

Couldn't agree more. Bought a Harmony One at Christmas and love it - the one-touch. touchscreen interface is fab.

 

[kena]

I've had a Philips Pronto 940 for eons and after the learning curve its ace but with my new Panny cant get discrete codes to select Freesat/Analogue when I switch from Cable si cant automate it completely.

Presume the harmony has the same issue??

 

[Anonymous]

Apart from the price is there a lot of difference between the harmony 1 and the harmony 555?

 

[Anonymous]

Will these things do everything? Sony LCD, Nait 5i, Pinoneer receiver, Mac Mini, Sky HD for instance?

 

[daveh75]

iirc, the one is a rechargable unit,but the 555 takes 4xAAA batteries not sure if there's any other differences

 

[professorhat]

Octopo:Will these things do everything? Sony LCD, Nait 5i, Pinoneer receiver, Mac Mini, Sky HD for instance?

Definitely the Sky HD (I have a friend who has a Harmony 555 and Sky HD), almost certainly the Sony LCD and the Pioneer receiver, very likely the Nait 5i, and really not very sure about the Mac Mini...

 

[Anonymous]

Cheers, I may have to look into this the remotes are spilling over. I've always thought of them as a bit of a gimmick but now I could actually do with one and if they do work...

 

[nads]

Octopo:Cheers, I may have to look into this the remotes are spilling over. I've always thought of them as a bit of a gimmick but now I could actually do with one and if they do work...

for every day stuff they will do everything. But for the set up of the kit (like i had to redo my Onks. settings) i dragged the original remote out.

 

[professorhat]

Yup, that sums it up perfectly. And no matter what any one tells you, they take a while to setup. There was a firmware upgrade recently for my Harmony 555 which actually got the remote working properly with my Panny TV without all the workarounds I put in (which is a positive rather than a negative*). Unfortunately, I was a bit of an idiot during the update and had to set it all up again with the buttons I wanted. It took about 2 hours (and I knew what I was doing). However, honestly and truly, once it's setup, you won't need another remote for anything other than the most complex tasks. And if you're willing to spend another hour setting the remote up, you can probably even avoid digging out the old remote for these complex tasks as well - it's up to you.

*NB - this is a positive as it shows the flexibility of the remote. When I first got it, it wouldn't change the sources properly on Panasonic TVs due to the strange way they operate using the coloured buttons compared to other TVs. The solution was just to set the TV to a known state (e.g. HDMI1) on each input, then send the required coloured button signals individually to get the input you actually wanted i.e. despite not working properly, the remote is so flexible you can actually work around these issues. Of course they've fixed this now, but hopefully you see what I mean!

 

[Anonymous]

Prof
This update with the Panny tellys. Did you have to do the update manually or was it automatically applied to your account? My mate is having similar problems with his One remote.
Can't agree more though, the 555 is excellent.

 

[professorhat]

It was automatically applied when I started the software.

 

[Anonymous]

Cool. I'll let him know. Ta

 

[Anonymous]

Not everything with Logitech remotes is smooth sailing. Also they never responded to my e-mails to ask them how to get around certain issues controlling my Panasonic TV.

Like others I had to programme a work around into the remote (later I figured out that changing the default start-up state of the TV was a neater option BTW.) to stop it chnging from DVB to analogue every time the TV was turned on.

apart from that it's a really neat device. I'm very immpressed overall. It was quite simple to programme it to use the DVD player as a tuner to output via the amp so that our set-up can now easily be used to "listen to radio" without needing the Tv turned on at all.

BTW with Panasonic gear it seems to be a good idea to disable the VIERA link if using the Harmony 1.

 

[gregvet]

Just to confirm for one of the posters above, it can replace the apple remote for your mac mini. It currently controls my Apple TV, Sky HD, Sony Blu Ray and Amp, Panasonic TV and the dimmer switch on the lights. Not bad for £35!

ÿ

I think the only differences between the One and the 555 are the lack of touch screen on the 555 and cosmetic improvements on the one. It has no additional functionality other than a recharging docking station.ÿ

ÿ

I have to amend my original post slightly. I have had to tweak the settings since then, total set up time about 90 minutes maybe, but it works perfectly now and is so simple even my other half loves it.ÿ

 

[kena]

Prof/Welshboy

I have my Panny PZ81 set to power up to AV - HDMI 1 (Cable) but to select Freesat/DVB/Analogue I have to press TV then UP/DOWN then OK to get to where I want. sINCE its set at what you last watched (coloured buttons not used). I cant see how to programme round this ? Have you guys done this or is your Panny remote different ?

Cheers

Ken

 

[professorhat]

No, my inputs are all set with the coloured buttons. However, if you have to do this each time, can you not just set the Harmony to send the "TV" button signal, then an "Up" signal and then an "OK" signal for that Activity? It will then do this automatically for you whenever you press that activity button. If you only have to do it occasionally, you could set up a sequence to send these commands within that activity (or each activity it's required for) and just have this sequence available on page 1 of the commands available for them or even assign it to an unused key e.g. the Prev button or the # button maybe.

 

[kena]

Because you don't know what was last watched on TV( Analogue, Freesat, DVB) , I'd need Analogue , up 2 to Freesat, Freesat down 2 to Analogue etc. I can do this with the Pronto but just means more icons that needs to be pressed The screen on my Pronto is beginning to go so just thought Harmony could be worth considering as replacement when time comes.

 

[professorhat]

Ah, I see, didn't realise you don't have the Harmony. In which case, you may find the Harmony can just take care of it anyway - as I say, the problem I had with it not going to the right input on my Panasonic was fixed recently, so you don't actually have to work around it any more. Probably better to ask if anyone has the PZ81 and the Harmony and see if they have any issues. Also, take a look on the Harmony forums as this is where I found the workaround for the issue I had before the update which fixed it. If there are no posts about it, you'll probably find there's no issues with it, it just works.

 

[d4v3pum4]

I'm using a Harmony One to control a TH42PZ81 and haven't had any issues with selecting inputs. It worked straight from the off once I added it.

 

[kena]

d4v3,

So you use Harmony to automatically go to say TV analogue if you want Teletext or Freesat for say ITV HD. If so sounds like it could do the job for me as only a workaround with other icons seems to be my optionat the moment.

 

[d4v3pum4]

kena:
d4v3,

So you use Harmony to automatically go to say TV analogue if you want Teletext or Freesat for say ITV HD. If so sounds like it could do the job for me as only a workaround with other icons seems to be my optionat the moment.

I have several activities inc. Watch Sky HD (TV), Play PS3 (TV) etc. all of which go straight to the HDMI1 input and an activity for "Watch Freesat" which obviously selects the Freesat tuner. I don't use Freeview or analogue but I'm sure it would work just fine if I set one up. I have the icons for favourite channels setup (downloaded from s q u a r e e y e s) but don't tend to use them. I have customised my Sky HD setup for shortcuts to the planner, Anytime, HD channel guide, System setup, Installer Menu etc. etc. using sequences. The One really is a fantastic remote.

 

[nads]

you could set it to have different "watch TV"ïs depending on what source you want. digi tuner. analogue tuner. set top box etc etc..

 

[kena]

The issue is the Harmony or my current Pronto doesn't know what TV input is on when selected I know I can do lots of fudge icons/ whatever to get to where I want but that doesn't do the "family friendly" bit that's needed. Had no joy searchin on remore central , will try a query to Panasonic but doubt it will be much good.

Thanks all for input.. It has helped if not answered..