Harmony Remotes - Unlimited Activities?

[admin_exported]

Hi all,

I'm looking to buy the 555, but want to know if there's a limit on the number of activities you can program onto the screen. I see that there are four buttons by the screen, so Watching Cable, Bluray, Listening to CD and Radio should be programmable and listed on the screen. But I also have a games console and am buying an amp (Pioneer SC-lx71) that can stream music from iTunes (I think), and play internet radio.

Does the 555 allow you to have all these extra activities on the screen that you can say scroll through, or is it limited to the four available slots on the screen.

I'm leaning to the 555 because I won't need a charging dock, and because it's got the coloured buttons available.

The 885 has a lot more slots for activities on the screen (8 I think) and the coloured buttons, but is rechargeable. If I can get all the activities available on the 555 I'd go for that like a shot!

Equipment as follows: Panasonic 37px80, Pioneer SC-LX71, Pioneer BDP-LX08, Virgin V+HD, Nintendo Wii

Thanks for any advice.

 

[nads]

up to 15 devices. dont think there is a limit on activities.

Wii is Bluetooth so will not work directly.

 

[Anonymous]

Excellent, do you know how to view all of the activities? I know the screen on the 555 displays 4 at a time, but if you have 8 activities say, is there a second page or something that you can access to see the other activities?

With the Wii, presumably you can still set up an activity to turn on all of the other equipment to the appropriate source and settings... then you manually turn on the Wii from there?

 

[kena]

chipshopshippers:

Excellent, do you know how to view all of the activities? I know the screen on the 555 displays 4 at a time, but if you have 8 activities say, is there a second page or something that you can access to see the other activities?

With the Wii, presumably you can still set up an activity to turn on all of the other equipment to the appropriate source and settings... then you manually turn on the Wii from there?

I have a One and you just have multiple pages and you can order the activities so you can put least used further back , Wife prefers icons rather than guide so for TV I have Watch Cable, Watch TV Movies, Kids, Music , Freesat, Teletext etc. Yes I manuall switch on the WII but have a play game activity which switches TV to Component

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Kena, that's interesting! So you effectively have 6 activities relating to watching TV, and presumably other activities for DVD/BD, Games etc.

So on the Harmony One, do you just use the arrows to scroll to the other activities that aren't initially on the screen, or are they displayed as sub-menus when you press "Watch TV", prompting you to then select Watch Kids TV / Teletext etc?

 

[kena]

chipshopshippers:

Thanks Kena, that's interesting! So you effectively have 6 activities relating to watching TV, and presumably other activities for DVD/BD, Games etc.

So on the Harmony One, do you just use the arrows to scroll to the other activities that aren't initially on the screen, or are they displayed as sub-menus when you press "Watch TV", prompting you to then select Watch Kids TV / Teletext etc?

Obviously taking the One here but sure you are the same or very similar.. Currently have 12 activites. There are 3 activites on a screen page (You said 4 on 555) so I have 4 pages of activites . The One has an arrow to the left & right of LCD screen so you press that to move thru activites pages , same when it comes to the 3 pages (6 per page ) of favourites.

Hope this helps anything else let me know..

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks guys, that covers pretty much everything I was hoping to understand. The One sounds like it does all the things that I need and that it's easy to operate too. I guess it's unlikely that the 555 works completely differently so I think you have helped me make my decision.

I see you also have the Virgin V+, can you tell me how well your Harmony works with it? The functionality that doesn't look immediately obvious from pictures of the One, would be the V+ PVR, the "Home" button where all the On-Demand content is, and the coloured buttons.

Cheers

 

[kena]

chipshopshippers:

I see you also have the Virgin V+, can you tell me how well your Harmony works with it? The functionality that doesn't look immediately obvious from pictures of the One, would be the V+ PVR, the "Home" button where all the On-Demand content is, and the coloured buttons.

Cheers

Probably no surprise I have a V+ activity , which sends V+ to system and brings up menu, all the buttons worked from my model Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300DVB . I programmed a BACK button in customize buttons and learned the V+ from original remote.

Also created a sequence that sends PIN (Customized button) for programs recorded after watershed

You can always learn any missing bottons from original and rearrange then to suit yourself so it's quite flexible.

Note your concerned about the coloured buttons, I don't have any issue using the ones on the touchscreen but you could map them to hardkeys if u wanted tho my One is replacing a dying Pronto so I was used to using the screen for them.

Amzon had an offer of the One for £70 with code HARMONY2 , I bought mine with Code HARMONY1 for £75 last month , think the HARMONY2 code expired 1/3 but may be worthwhile trying it at checkout and see if it allows you to buy.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Keno, very helpful indeed.

Eat you heart out Harry Potter, once I get one of these little beauties.

 

[Binman]

I have a 555, and you use the left and right arrows directly under the screen to scroll through the pages of activites. I have 12 activities on mine. (4 are duplicated with either Hifi on or off)

 

[Dan Turner]

Actually I was toying with getting a Harmony remote, possibly the 1000 (currently only £160 on Amazon), and Binman just touched on one of the things that I was wondering - Is it smart enough to 'know' the starting point when you select a programmed activity. E.g. you have buttons for 'watch TV' and 'watch DVD'; watching DVD requires a whole different set of commands to be sent if the whole system is off, compared with if you are currently watching the TV.

The other thing I was wondering is despite having the macros set-up for activity based control, are you able to access a dedicated mode for each remote control that the Harmony is replacing so that you can perform all the functions (or at least the major ones) that the original remote can (e.g. when watching TV I want to be able to perform the full range of Sky+ EPG and planner activities etc.)

Thanks for any thoughts...

 

[kena]

Dan,

Harmony use Smart State Technology to keep track of whats ON/OFF , gets confused if you power off/on manually, use original remote , or via the device menu as opposed to activities. Any commands missing from the Harmony Database you can learn and they can be programmed to the hard buttons or the screen ( The 1000 is more/totally screen based I think)

In short it can deql with any button thats on original remote , the database seems pretty good - as mentioned in an earlier post think I only had to learn 2 buttoms for controlover my V+ box.

Don't want to put you of but I would advise you check the Logitech forums re the 1000 as I think some people seem to think its pretty buggy and it has now been replaced with the 1100.

Hope this helps ..Ken

 

[Dan Turner]

OK thanks Ken. The theory sounds great then, but I'll check the forums to suss out how people have found it in practice!

 

[Dan Turner]

Bought the Harmony 1000. After careful consideration I deceided that £160 was too much and settled on the Harmony 1, but then made the mistake of browsing whilst enebriated and ended up just getting the 1000!

Amazing device though. The set-up and interface are just genius. Got it 95% there in about 90 mins and just have a couple of minor niggles to iron out. These things are definitely the way forward if you have a decent HF/HC set-up.

 

[kena]

Dan as long as you didn't pay that

, glad your pleased with it tho , any queries just shout and I'll do my best., remember all you icons for favourites are available from Clicky and if ones are missing let Randy know and he adds them very quick .

Ken

 

[El Hefe]

Just returned from Perth, Australia and bought the Harmony 1000i. A few questions to the owners of the same remote:

1. When you update your remote for a new function/device you have added, how long does it take to update the remote? Mine is taking forever. I am currently updating the remote after adding one device (satellite) and it looks like it is stuck at 3%. Its been like that for 20 mins now.

2. Can we programme the HArmony to control iPod (using the Apple Ipod Dock)?

 

[kena]

El Hefe:

Just returned from Perth, Australia and bought the Harmony 1000i. A few questions to the owners of the same remote:

1. When you update your remote for a new function/device you have added, how long does it take to update the remote? Mine is taking forever. I am currently updating the remote after adding one device (satellite) and it looks like it is stuck at 3%. Its been like that for 20 mins now.

Sticking on 3% happens occasionally , Close Harmony S/W completely or reboot your PC , check Harmony forums