Not so Harmonious 880

[Balthazar]

I just picked up a Harmony 880 yesterday and I gotta say, so far, I am not terribly impressed.

The web setup seems a bit clumsy, but whats really bad is the remote codes. I setup the TV as a Samsung HLP5063W and it sees it fine, and SOME of the remote functions work great, but it has WAY too many inputs listed. It has commands for setting the input mode to one of four DVI inputs, the TV only has one, it also has commands for two HDMI inputs, but neither one of those works....the whole thing is very annoying and the website is kind of crap when it comes to navigation....

Kind of makes the remote useless to me if it cannot even switch to the most used input (The HDTiVo is connected via HDMI).

Can't seem to find anything other than phone support contact info either.

So, anyone else have one of these remotes? Problems, successes?

 

[arod]

you bother learning codes from your existing remote? if things dont work right with harmony's database learn them from your equipment.

 

[Balthazar]

Well thats just it, there is no "InputHDMI1" on my remote, there is only a Input Next, which, btw, also does not work without training.

So there is no way to train that command or I sould.

 

[arod]

ahh well you bought a crappy TV..... your TV wont support a direct code to hdmi. the only way to get it to work is if you have one input that is a "home" input where you hit a button and it goes to one input every time. Then you can cycle the correct number of "input next" buttons to get to the hdmi. Harmony does support that (my first projector did that, where the "PC" input was home and i had to cycle through to get to the others).


Your best bet would be to call harmony phone support (they really are very good in helping solve these issues).

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

No issues setting up mine. It even had codes that worked with a very old sherwood stereo receiver I have that I never had the remote for.

Navigation on the website is a bit difficult, but changing things around wasn't too difficult for me.

 

[Balthazar]

Originally posted by: arod
ahh well you bought a crappy TV..... your TV wont support a direct code to hdmi. the only way to get it to work is if you have one input that is a "home" input where you hit a button and it goes to one input every time. Then you can cycle the correct number of "input next" buttons to get to the hdmi. Harmony does support that (my first projector did that, where the "PC" input was home and i had to cycle through to get to the others).


Your best bet would be to call harmony phone support (they really are very good in helping solve these issues).

First off, that is not exactly a crappy TV.

Second, why is it I can go directly to any other input then? I can goto DVI, I can go to all three components, RGB, Antenna, everything except HDMI.

It doesn't make sense that the only way to get to HDMI is to cycle through when thati snot the case for any other input.

I will call them soon as my phone is charged, see what they say.

 

[arod]

Ask your TV manufacturer about why they dont allow you to go to HDMI with one button.... they made the TV. The harmony remote can only do (generally) as much as your real remotes can (some tv's have hidden codes and whatnot that harmony usually has). But remember if your real remote that comes with the device cant do it generally harmony cant either (a universal remote can just mimick what your device specific remotes can do, they generally cant add features).

Where the benefits of the harmony come in is you can have all your remotes in one and easier to use (the activities, once you get these setup properly you will wonder how you ever lived without them, alot like dvr/tivo)

 

[aphex]

I had a harmony, i hated it.

Way too slow to channel surf and it never got the inputs/status right...

 

[arod]

Originally posted by: aphex
I had a harmony, i hated it.

Way too slow to channel surf and it never got the inputs/status right...

I bet you never saw the timing settings.... harmony remotes defultly set the delays high to avoid conflicts but rarely are needed that high. My harmony runs just fine with all the delay settings at 0 and there is 0 delay. My channel surf is just as fast as any of the remotes I have.

 

[Balthazar]

I dont have a problem with delays, and after an hour on the phone with them it turns out that this DLP just fluxuautes too much for it to reliably work, so we set it to worst case scenario of delaying 25 seconds, but I know for a fact it takes longer than that to warm up if its cold in here.

She also explained why DVI would work but not HDMI, as they may have a code for DVI but not for HDMI, on the upshot its smart enough to use a pseudo-discreet where it will use the DVI command and then skip one more to HDMI, instead of cycling through the whole stupid list.

 

[newParadigm]

How are these bitches, i thogght about buyin one, but they're expensive....

~new

 

[Balthazar]

Well, now that I know its a limitation of the TV and not the remote....I love it again.

I still think the web interface sucks and could be alot better, but its not like it doesn't work. And one button switching between tasks (i.e. DVD to PVR) is SO nice.

All in all, I am pleased!

 

[davew0670]

got mine the first day it was out. took it back on the 29th day of ownership. Wouldnt turn on my harman kardon rec. Would make the tv just start scrolling through the inputs and stop on a random setting. took forever to change channels even set at the fastest setting. Spent countless hours on the phone with support (which was very good by the way) trying to get the everythng set up correctly. The tumbler went bad about two weeks into the ordeal. Had to exchange and start the whole process over again. Ill stick with 4 remotes.

 

[arod]

Originally posted by: BalthazarShe also explained why DVI would work but not HDMI, as they may have a code for DVI but not for HDMI, on the upshot its smart enough to use a pseudo-discreet where it will use the DVI command and then skip one more to HDMI, instead of cycling through the whole stupid list.

Thats what I was alluding to... you get it close and then add one more to get it to the hdmi. Glad you semi got things figured out and working.

http://squareworld.com/harmony/

That site contains channel logo icons (once you get past all the basic configuration).

Are you sure your DLP takes that long to turn on? All you have to delay is how long it takes before it starts respnoding to commands. My AE700 has a delay of 10 seconds and I dont see how your TV would need more. Especially 25 seconds. There is no way a projector can boot faster than a DLP TV.

 

[Balthazar]

Ohhhhh my, that site is AWESOME! Thanks a ton!

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

I ended up RMA-ing my first one because the background got really splotchy. I think the default cycling of the Logitech remote pictures burns into the screen.

Set the slideshow to display a pure black image or something if you want to avoid the issue.

 

[Balthazar]

Thats wierd, it only cycls them for a short time then stops, thats enough to burn in? I don't like the dumb images they have anyway, so I will probably go with the all black image trick (also saw that mentioned in a review online).

 

[mrrman]

I have the 688 and it seems to work fine for me, just all the functions off some of the original remotes are not there but it does enough for me

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Balthazar
Thats wierd, it only cycls them for a short time then stops, thats enough to burn in? I don't like the dumb images they have anyway, so I will probably go with the all black image trick (also saw that mentioned in a review online).

Mine would cycle all night long but I got mine a while ago. Maybe they fixed it in a later revision.