One remote to rule them all...

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#754408 1-Feb-2013 13:59

LennonNZ: "I also have the PS3 adapter whiich is essential if you have a PS3."

Well not really sometimes.. I have an Onkyo NR-818 AMP and I can use the Onkyo Remote to control the PS3. If your PS3 (Slim Model Only) and your Pioneer AMP does CEC the AMP remote may be able to control it.

Very cool, thanks for mentioning that.

I personally still see the harmony approach as giving you complete and flexible control over the systems, but it's nice to know bits like this for users who aren't going down the harmony route.

lchiu7

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#754419 1-Feb-2013 14:15

LennonNZ: "I also have the PS3 adapter whiich is essential if you have a PS3."

Well not really sometimes.. I have an Onkyo NR-818 AMP and I can use the Onkyo Remote to control the PS3. If your PS3 (Slim Model Only) and your Pioneer AMP does CEC the AMP remote may be able to control it. Also if your TV has CEC you can usually use the AMP remote to control it.

I just wish everything had CEC. My XBOX360,AppleTV,Igloo which are also plugged also in to the AMP don't have CEC :-(

I have a Fat so CEC would not work for me.

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khull

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#754425 1-Feb-2013 14:31

timmmay:
khull: I am about to shelf my harmony one away because I could not bear to charge the remote every two weeks. Seeing that I haven't replaced the remote battery since the day I bought the TV, it is unacceptable. I can't believe they would pass acceptance testing going into production with this. Sure it has a LCD screen but so are plenty of other devices that go on for longer.

However, once all your devices are set up, there is very little maintenance (other than the frequent trips to the docking station to charge)

I'm not sure I understand. Are you saying two weeks battery life is unacceptable?

The remotes are provided with a cradle, at least mine was. When I want to use the remote I pick it up out of the cradle, use it for the day (sometimes for a few days), then put it back in the cradle to charge. I don't find it burdensome, and I always know where to find the remote.

Yeah sorry my mind was ahead of my typing. What I meant was the batteries in the original remote that came with my TV are still good after 2 years.

driller2000

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#754533 1-Feb-2013 19:54

+1 for the harmony one

one of my best buys ever

huge waf

and is pretty cool pushing one (activity) button to get all your devices set up right

personally i found the sw to be pretty intuitive (it's also nice that you can save your device and activity settings too should you upgrade the remote) - yeah there are several steps and settings to work through when you first set it up - but this way you do it ONCE - and then forever and a day it all happens on the one remote

highly recommended

note: i also got a simpler 700 for the family room set up and that works nicely too - incl limited, but functional spotify control

jonathan18

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#754651 2-Feb-2013 06:33

driller2000: note: i also got a simpler 700 for the family room set up and that works nicely too - incl limited, but functional spotify control

How does this Spotify control work? What networked device are you using to access Spotify?

I'm always interested in alternative ways, although I'm generally happy with the Spotify plugin for the Squeezebox (Duet) as it doesn't require a computer on (rather a NAS in our case), plus generally works well through the Android app. I'm yet to investigate how the Spotify interface on the new receiver works, although I'm assuming that will need the TV on to be of much use...

driller2000

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#754660 2-Feb-2013 07:36

just a basic htpc - which boots straight to spotify (set up under activity "play music" = htpc + amp + tv)

still need mouse to select playlists from the sidebar - but basic play commands work ie. play / pause / skip / cursor for up / down - and then volume through the amp

linw

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#754704 2-Feb-2013 09:44

I would never have anything other than a Harmony. My wife (or me!) would'nt cope without it.

But my grizzle is with the device manufacturers. There is simply no excuse for not supplying on and off codes plus separate codes for all selections.

Forgot to check these things before buying a new AV system. Stupid darn thing does input/output selections via menu with no single codes as substitutes. Absolutely appalling. Had to issue left, right, up, down commands with pauses in between thus ensuring slow starts and stops. Grrrrrrr.

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jonathan18

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#754721 2-Feb-2013 10:12

linw: I would never have anything other than a Harmony. My wife (or me!) would'nt cope without it.

But my grizzle is with the device manufacturers. There is simply no excuse for not supplying on and off codes plus separate codes for all selections.

Forgot to check these things before buying a new AV system. Stupid darn thing does input/output selections via menu with no single codes as substitutes. Absolutely appalling. Had to issue left, right, up, down commands with pauses in between thus ensuring slow starts and stops. Grrrrrrr.

My old Panasonic plasma has discreet on/off codes, but reading earlier about some of the newer flash models not having them has me worred - we have a ST50 for the new HT so I'm sure hoping they'll have them.

Why would a manufacturer go from having them to not?

sidefx

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#754724 2-Feb-2013 10:19

jonathan18:
My old Panasonic plasma has discreet on/off codes, but reading earlier about some of the newer flash models not having them has me worred - we have a ST50 for the new HT so I'm sure hoping they'll have them.
Why would a manufacturer go from having them to not?

I have the ST50 too... I had a quick play last night and managed to solve both the issues I mentioned previously! :)

1) On\Off codes - there are discrete ones, but for some reason the original harmony setup seems to have defaulted to using just one. I think because the question the software asks is "does your remote use a single button for power" or something along those lines. I answered yes, but when I dug into the codes in harmony it has a PowerOn and PowerOff seperate - so that was easy to fix.

2) Pressing "Watch TV" when the TV is already on TV input (the mrs and kids do this all the time then get very confused by why the picture looks so terrible!) causes the TV to switch to analogue input - it seems to use the same signal to change from AV -> TV as it does from Digital -> Analogue. So if you're on HDMI or something else it changes correctly, but if already on TV, it switch to analogue. I couldn't find a way to fix this on the harmony, but finally found that in the panasonic menus you can set Analogue input to "skip" and that fixes it.

So all good.

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jonathan18

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#754744 2-Feb-2013 11:14

sidefx:
jonathan18:
My old Panasonic plasma has discreet on/off codes, but reading earlier about some of the newer flash models not having them has me worred - we have a ST50 for the new HT so I'm sure hoping they'll have them.
Why would a manufacturer go from having them to not?

I have the ST50 too... I had a quick play last night and managed to solve both the issues I mentioned previously! :)

1) On\Off codes - there are discrete ones, but for some reason the original harmony setup seems to have defaulted to using just one. I think because the question the software asks is "does your remote use a single button for power" or something along those lines. I answered yes, but when I dug into the codes in harmony it has a PowerOn and PowerOff seperate - so that was easy to fix.

2) Pressing "Watch TV" when the TV is already on TV input (the mrs and kids do this all the time then get very confused by why the picture looks so terrible!) causes the TV to switch to analogue input - it seems to use the same signal to change from AV -> TV as it does from Digital -> Analogue. So if you're on HDMI or something else it changes correctly, but if already on TV, it switch to analogue. I couldn't find a way to fix this on the harmony, but finally found that in the panasonic menus you can set Analogue input to "skip" and that fixes it.

So all good.

That's great news - glad there's someone out there whose sorted it out in advance! I wasn't keen at going back to the syncronisation problems of old.

skewt

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#754749 2-Feb-2013 11:40

I have the Harmony 785 and it's great except for the charging cradle...

It sucks. the contacts never seem to connect correctly,
sometimes I have to place an item on top of the remote just to get it to charge.. this is my second one after i returned the first one with the same issue

On the plus side, my partner can use it without issues

trig42

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#754764 2-Feb-2013 13:14

skewt: I have the Harmony 785 and it's great except for the charging cradle...

It sucks. the contacts never seem to connect correctly,
sometimes I have to place an item on top of the remote just to get it to charge.. this is my second one after i returned the first one with the same issue

On the plus side, my partner can use it without issues

Same with my 785. I scrape the contacts every so often and that seems to fix it.

kiwijunglist

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#755060 3-Feb-2013 13:43

Can someone with a logitech harmony tell me if there is a discrete pwr on + pwr off IR code listed in the database (rather than toggle) for my TV

Samsung LA46N81BX 46" LCD 1080P TV
http://www.samsung.com/ae/consumer/tv-audio-video/television/lcd-tv/LA46N81BX/XSG

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

sidefx

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#755073 3-Feb-2013 14:21

kiwijunglist: Can someone with a logitech harmony tell me if there is a discrete pwr on + pwr off IR code listed in the database (rather than toggle) for my TV
Samsung LA46N81BX 46" LCD 1080P TV

Yes, it appears to have separate PowerOn, PowerOff and PowerToggle.

EDIT: this is what it loads by default from their database

"I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there." | Octopus Energy | Sharesies
- Richard Feynman

kiwijunglist

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#755075 3-Feb-2013 14:31

Thanks for that, will have to borrow a harmony from someone / somewhere and see if I can capture this IR signal so I can use it with my blaster.

Are you able to see the raw wave form (Run Length Coding) data values for these IR codes?

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

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