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Help! I recently purchased the 680 and when I choose Watch TV, it cycles through all the inputs, but doesn't stop at Colorstream HD1. Can anyone tell me what I have set up incorrectly? Is it a timing delay problem where I have to give the tv extra milliseconds to 'warm up'? The remote 'help' won't fix the problem.

I'm contemplating getting the Harmony 520, but have two questions I can't find answered on any posting I've seen here or at other fora.

1) Does it have that very useful ability to go back to the TV channel you were previously watching with just one click?

2) Will it handle a home-theatre PC? I'm planning on building one soon and don't want to have to get another remote. I know the Harmony 680 is billed as being set up for Windows Media Centre "out of the box"; is the 520 programmable to do the same?

Duffs, if "Help" does not fix the problem then it's a setup problem (not a timing problem). Run the "Adjust inputs" again (under device "More Options") and carefully make sure the setup corresponds to the behaviour of your TV.

IronCatt, any Harmony remote can send the "previous channel" command if the feature is supported by your TV. The Harmony remote does not create features. All it does, is send IR commands. It's up to the device(s) to provide the feature(s). The appropriate IR command(s) can be mapped to any programmable keys. Although the 520 can be programmed for Windows Media Center, the 680 has more buttons and more memory. If you like tinkering (planning to build an HTPC) then I would recommend the 680. You will probably grow out of the 520 and wished you bought the 680 instead.

Thanks jlet. But will my (vehemently non-technical) wife like it?

Yes mine does so much, I was allowed to buy a second one.

Does anyone have any experience with this? I just ordered the 628 last night hoping that it would be a great addition to my home theatre. I'm pretty comfortable with my 8300's remote and just really wanted something a bit better that would be able to eliminate me using the other remotes alltogether. If someone could let me know how they programmed it if they have this setup or if they found it was just too dificult to do that would be a big help to me. If it turns out that it won't work out I'll just return it and wait till I have enough money to get something better. But if it can be programmed to work well with the 8300 then I'll keep it.

Thanks in advance for the help, I've been reading through these posts and they have been of great assistance!

Ruthless82, you will be able to control the SA8300HD PVR with the 628 but due to its lack of interactive program guide hard keys, you will have to be very creative with the LCD command mapping. Here is a list of PVR commands that you will need to consider:
A, B, C, Page+, Page-, List, Guide, Info, Settings,
Replay, Stretch, Fav, Live, Exit,
PipToggle, PipSwap, PipChUp, PipChDown, PipMove.

The most two important modes of the PVR are "List" (to see your Scheduled Recording and Recorded List), and "Guide" (TV Guide). Both of these modes use the A, B, C, Page+, Page-, Info commands. Here is a suggestion:
1) Use the "+*" and "Enter" keys on the 628 to map the "List" and "Guide" commands.

2) Use the 1st page of the LCD screen to map the following commands:
A________Page+
B________Page-
C________Info

3) Use the 2nd page of the LCD screen to map the other less important commands:
Stretch__Settings
Fav______Live
PipTgl___PipSwap

...and so on.

The "Replay" command is very handy. You can map it to the "Play" button instead of mapping the "Play" command, or you can combine it with the Play command (PlayReplay) if you have the FF bug - see post #28-35 of this thread (http://www.digitalhomecanada.com/forum/showthread.php?t=34712&page=2).

I found the following PVR buttons to be either redundant and/or close to useless.
o "Menu" - currently behaves the same as "Guide" thus redundant.
o "Live" - I find this command useless.
o "Exit" - Use to exit the List, Guide, or Settings mode. However, it seems redundant since you can exit by pressing the same mode button again.

Configuration Notes:
1) To set the LCD screen to use the 6 buttons mode (instead of the default 4 buttons), click the "My Remote Preferences" (near the top of your home page), click "Settings" and select 6 buttons for the "Menu Format".
2) When you create your Watch PVR activity, choose the "Watch Television" category, then select the "Watch PVR" (not Watch TV) sub-category. This is the most flexible activity type.
3) To improve the PVR power control see post #27 of this thread (http://www.digitalhomecanada.com/forum/showthread.php?t=34712&page=2).

Please let us know how it worked out.

Does the Harmony 680 remote ever power itself off ? Mine seems to be on all the time, I'm worried about eating batteries.

I just bought / installed the remote today. The christmas Website backup was a nightmare.

No. The LCD display consumes negligible power (remember LCD watches). However, the electronic circuits (CPU, memory, etc.), even in standby mode, do consume some power.

I notice that the Harmony 628 and the Harmony 520 are the same price on sale right now. The question is, which one is better? They look quite a bit different, but what about performance? I tried to find a website with the comparison of the two remotes but there doesn't seem to be anything.

I bought the Harmony 628 today just because the model number is higher so I figured it was a newer model. already I'm a bit frustrated with it. the logitech website won't let me through. For the past hour I'm getting a message "website is busy, please try again later." Is this normal? I am unable to get my remote working if I cannot get onto their website.

There must have been hundreds or thousands of these remotes given as presents at Xmas. Never experienced so much traffic at the harmonyremote.com site before.

Yesterday I was able to make a quick change, but it was early in the morning.

I tried and tried last night but could not get through. finally this morning I was also able to add my components to the remote. I guess they must not have been anticipating so many sales and did not think to upgrade their servers to handle the added traffic. Hopefully it will die down. Even once I did get on this morning, it kept timing out on me even though I was going relatively fast. I had to logon 7 times all together in order to get my devices added to the remote.

Thanks jlet. But will my (vehemently non-technical) wife like it?

Yes, she did. I didn't like the web site, though.

Yes, she did. I didn't like the web site, though.

Give it a little time, the site functions quite nicely... once you know what to do.

I just purchased a Harmony 628 and have the following issues with the Watch TV button:

1) When I use Watch TV, as the remote turns my STB on, the SA8300HD PVR reverts to a 480i output instead if the assigned 720p output which I set it to in the quick configuration.

2) The remote doesn't seem to be able to put my TV (KFE42-A10), to the right input selection, input 6. The remote sets the TV to input 7. Using the Help on the remote doesn't correct the problem.

Has anyone else seen this? Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Hoang.

I just purchased a Harmony 628 and have the following issues with the Watch TV button:

1) When I use Watch TV, as the remote turns my STB on, the SA8300HD PVR reverts to a 480i output instead if the assigned 720p output which I set it to in the quick configuration.

First, if you have an HDTV with a native 720p resolution, you should display SD in 480p. Go back to setup and enable 480p. Then in General Settings, for Set Picture Format, select "Upconvert 2" which will give you 720p for HD and 480p for SD. The SA8300HD will do the conversions.

2) The remote doesn't seem to be able to put my TV (KFE42-A10), to the right input selection, input 6. The remote sets the TV to input 7. Using the Help on the remote doesn't correct the problem.

Has anyone else seen this? Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Hoang.

Go back to the harmonyremote.com website and click "More Options". Redo the "Watch TV" Activity and select the proper Input. If you still have the problem, in the login page select "More Buttons" and correct the Input problem there.

First, if you have an HDTV with a native 720p resolution, you should display SD in 480p. Go back to setup and enable 480p. Then in General Settings, for Set Picture Format, select "Upconvert 2" which will give you 720p for HD and 480p for SD. The SA8300HD will do the conversions..

Thank you Mfabien for the advice on the 8300. Worked great!

Go back to the harmonyremote.com website and click "More Options". Redo the "Watch TV" Activity and select the proper Input. If you still have the problem, in the login page select "More Buttons" and correct the Input problem there.

The settings that I specified on the Harmony web site are correct. I have selected input 6 on the Web site and input 6 is what I need on the TV. It is the remote that doen't seem to be behaving correctly because it keeps setting the TV to input 7.

As a last resort, I may try to manually try to input the sequence of commands required to get the right input, i.e. to emulate the Wega gate command. I say last resort becasue this would be quite complicated... and would look something like:
Wega Gate, Down, Down, Select, Down, Down, Down, Down, Select. :confused:

Hoang.

...As a last resort, I may try to manually try to input the sequence of commands required to get the right input, i.e. to emulate the Wega gate command. I say last resort becasue this would be quite complicated... and would look something like:
Wega Gate, Down, Down, Select, Down, Down, Down, Down, Select. :confused:

Hoang.

Or in the Activity menu, add an entry for Inputs and another for 7.

But before doing the above, I would try to correct the Input 6 problem by selecting another input number from the TV column of codes. It could be that 4-5-6-7 are mixed up in the IR codes for the Harmony. Try each one and see what happens.