Harmony 880 tips

[Mamba]

Bought a Harmony 880 off eBay which should arrive soon. Know there are a few owners here, just wondering if you have any tips/advice to share in regard to SS and other common products.

[queonda]

Get usb-irt or something like that. Depends on what you want to do, you can use HIP or girder.

I have the 890 and had setup HIP but still just use my Remote wonder when I want to use the computer. I did get the 890 to work with MCE remote codes but had to get tier 2 support to make it work propertly. There were timing issues and the MCE remote uses bit toggle.

[RiderFan]

I bought a ir keyboard. The you can teach your remote the keyboard keys and have ultimate control over all of your programs. Not just BTV.

It can be very time consuming on initial setup with lots of trial and error, but when it's set up, it's a beautiful thing!

[Mamba]

I plan to switch my FF mini off my Link box onto the BTV server so I'll have an IR receiver. Will that work okay for BTV at least? I thought I read where Logitech has a "Snapstream PVR" profile.

[bawker]

http://forums.snapstream.com/vb/showthread.php?t=32310&highlight=logitech

Using HIP as a configuration tool with my original MCE remote, I just moved all that over to the Harmony set-up per the instructions in that thread.

All I added was to send a "2" (for BTV in HIP) to the end of my custom named "Beyond TV" (Media Center) control scheme.

Tweaked a few buttons to do direct commands for me on the 880 display: "Live TV", "Options" (this brings up the on-screen "Gamma, Contrast,etc" menu), and so on..

The remote is great...I've gone from 5 remotes to one. :smile:

[Cal]

Just tell it what your currently using to control BTV. I was using the Hauppauge remote that came with my pvr 250 cards.

I got the Harmony 880 on friday. Had it setup and working in no time. Never changed anything on the computer at all. No third party stuff needed.

I just told it to emulate the pvr250 remote that I was using. Done. Works fine.

The longest part was me playing around with the button arrangement and deciding where on the 880 I wanted all the various functions. I didn't like where it put some of the default functions so I moved them.

So whats Hip need for? I skimmed the thread mentioned but don't see why its needed. Or does it add something that I'm not aware of?

There is a mention of him being unable to start the BTV viewscape with his existing remote so perhaps that why. Not an issue here as I had my original Hauppauge remote able to do that, therefore the 880 can do it as well.

[bawker]

Just tell it what your currently using to control BTV. I was using the Hauppauge remote that came with my pvr 250 cards.

I got the Harmony 880 on friday. Had it setup and working in no time. Never changed anything on the computer at all. No third party stuff needed.

I just told it to emulate the pvr250 remote that I was using. Done. Works fine.

The longest part was me playing around with the button arrangement and deciding where on the 880 I wanted all the various functions. I didn't like where it put some of the default functions so I moved them.

So whats Hip need for? I skimmed the thread mentioned but don't see why its needed. Or does it add something that I'm not aware of?

There is a mention of him being unable to start the BTV viewscape with his existing remote so perhaps that why. Not an issue here as I had my original Hauppauge remote able to do that, therefore the 880 can do it as well.

HIP just lets you go back and forth between MCE and BTV...just relating my own personal 880 experience. Not sure if the original poster would be doing the same, though. :smile:

[Mamba]

>being unable to start the BTV viewscape with his existing remote

That's a FF mini issue...there is no "TV" button; the FF button starts BM or BTV, that's it.

>HIP just lets you go back and forth between MCE and BTV

No, I don't use MCE but thanks anyway.

As for telling it what remote I have, that might be "interesting" with the mini.

[RiderFan]

There is a firefly mini profile already set-up in Harmony.

That's what I am currently using. Works great!

[Mamba]

There is a firefly mini profile already set-up in Harmony. Works great!Beauty! Does it just work for BTV or also for BM and other apps?

[queonda]

There is a firefly mini profile already set-up in Harmony.

That's what I am currently using. Works great!

How did you get it to work? I tried before the MCE remote and couldn't make it work. You must have a mini-fire fly dongle.

[StephaneM]

Hello,
Bought a Harmony 880 off eBay .../...just wondering if you have any tips/advice to share in regard to SS and other common products.
I have some !

First things to now about the Harmony is that it is not oriented towards or HTPC, but mainly for CE devices. So you have to put your mind on CE device mode :).

Especially you have to think your HTPC as if it was seperate CE devices :

* a computer
* a PVR
* a DVD player
* a Music player
* etc...

And this is where fun begins : all these "virtual" devices will share the same remote (in your case the FF Mini). For a Harmony a device can be On or Off and have more than one Input. So in order to adhere fully to this concept this how I do.

For my "Computer" device I choose to let in "On" always so I do not have to choose "On/Off" buttons, but I do create "Inputs" for it :

* a "TV" Input => this should launch BTV
* a "DVD" Input => this should launch BM
* a "Music" Input => this should launch BM
.
.
* a "Desktop" Input => this will launch nothing

What's great with "Inputs" is that you can manage them with only one button on the remote (for exemple the Firefly button). For instance if you use my utility for the FFMini Remote : you can create a menu for the FF button with a TV / DVD / Music / etc... menu entry. The Harmony will now propose a way of handling Inputs such as :

* I press the "Input" button (FF button)
* I select the entry in the Menu (with arrows keys)
* I click on "Enter" to activate the input

Then for the other devices, you just have to choose a device with no inputs and a On and Off buttons. Then "On" button should do nothing (hopefully the Harmony lets you select "None") as this is the Input of the computer that will launch the software, the "Off" button should be the "Close" one on the FF mini and of course it should close the software.

What's great with this : is that you can reuse the "FF" button remote to do other things while in device mode.

For instance : my "Red" button on the Streamzap remote is used as a "TV" input and launch SageTV, whereas I use this "Red" button for going to "Live TV" while in SageTV.

So this is my advice : seperate logical computer activity into consumer devices for the Harmony, it's tricky but you have great flexibility that way.

Also another tips : it is imperative that you change the delays of IR command. There are : power on delay / receive delay / process delay / input delay etc... Otherwise you'll find that your remote is kinda sluggish. The power on and input delay are also crucial if you want to create "combos" IR command. For instance you may want to launch Beyond Media and wait for it to be launched to switch BM to music. In this case "Launch BM" is a "Power On" and "Switch to Music" is a "Change Input" (note that in this case, this is not the same scenario as previously when "Launch BM" is a "change Input" action of the computer device but you get the point).

You may also want to check that the Harmony doesn't send too weak IR signal for your FF Mini. For my Streamzap I had to learn myself the IR commands because IR commands in the existing database were correct but way too week (I had to hold the remote to directly point at the Streamzap IR receiver), after learning them myself : no more problems.

Last advice : it will take you time to customize the Harmony, so be prepared. The Harmony web site can be very slow some times. I guess you'll have two hours to spare on it the first time.

Regards,
Stéphane.

[Mamba]

Thanks Stephane...I have to admit all this sounds confusing but I'm sure it will make more sense once I've worked with the 880 a bit. I'll print it out for later and go over it this weekend; my 880 is due in on Friday. :winkwink:

[Cal]

First my Notes. I've only had it during the weekend so there may be work arounds for some of this.


Give it a try first. Its not as hard as it sounds. Once you see the difference between what an "activity" and a "device" is you be fine.

Note. You cannot reorder devices. So set them up in the order you want them to display on the remotes display screen. Things go left to right and top to bottom
so the 8 buttons go

1 2
3 4
5 6
7 8

you can also do multiple pages.

You can reorder activities.

Also note that It does not keep the order of the custom stuff you define when you define the display buttons within an activity.

It will reorder them according to what device they came from.

for example

say I define in the setup the buttons.

1 - tv/vid 1
2 - dvd/eject
3 - tv/vid 3

thinking my two vid buttons will be on the left and the dvd button on the right according to how the buttons are supposed to work as given above.

when you update the remote it will reorder them according to device and you will get

1 - tv/vid 1
2 - tv/vid 3
3 - dvd/eject

which puts the two vid buttons on opposite sides of the remote display.

There is a workaround. You can learn a button from any remote when in any device and do it that way but I've not bothered.








That said.

My Gyration stuff finally has stopped working completely. Even the mouse has quit.


Any way to control a mouse with the Harmony 880?

I wrote a quick app that lets the keyboard control the mouse this morning so I'm sure I can modify my Remote.ini (Hauppauge config) to let it and therefor the 880 run this. I have no idea how to intercept IR commands so making this generic is not going to happen.

But I'm wondering if there is already a more generic method of doing this that the 880 already knows about. That way it would work for anyone and not just for someone with my combo of stuff.

Anyone know?

Hmmm.. Perhaps I should have a closer look at this "Hip" stuff.

[Mamba]

@Cal-

Thanks for info...that'll be something to keep in mind re: the layout.

BTW, I thought I read where the LCD "glow" could be turned off on the docking unit to save on screen burn, yes?

[Cal]

Are you talking about the charging unit. There is a light on it. No idea if it can be turned off.

Or the screen on the remote itself? yes, in the options the timeout until it turns off can be set.

[StephaneM]

BTW, I thought I read where the LCD "glow" could be turned off on the docking unit to save on screen burn, yes?
You have old informations. The unit already switch off the screen when docked (it stays lit for about 10 sec), they have modified this and your remote is automatically updated when you configure it.

[Mamba]

>The unit already switch off the screen when docked

Ahh...good. Yes, that info I was reading over on the AVS forums was somewhat dated.

[grillcheese]

Can someone tell me why the Harmony 550 wouldnt work? Is there a major advantage to spending the extra $$$ for the 880?

I would like to replace my tv/stereo/RW remotes. I have an IR keyboard that I would use to teach commands for controlling btv. Would the 550 work for doing this?

I am curious why the 880 is the only harmony remote mentioned...

thanks for the help

[Mamba]

The 880 is the current "king" in the Harmony IR series feature-wise. The 550 should work okay, just not as many bells/whistles. You can run a model comparison on this page (http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/productlist/US/EN,crid=2080&categoryid=406) if desired.

[StephaneM]

The 880 is the current "king" in the Harmony IR series feature-wise. The 550 should work okay, just not as many bells/whistles.
880 and 550 are almost identical : The LCD screen and buttons around the screen is the difference (I would have purchased the 550 for instance instead of the 880, but it was not availabe then)

Also the "King" of Harmony is now the 1000 : touch screen and RF. The previous king was the 890 (880 + RF support). It's a matter of preference then (personally I don't like the touch screen way, I do prefer physical buttons).

Regards,
Stéphane.

[Mamba]

>Also the "King" of Harmony is now the 1000

That's why I said "in the Harmony IR series"...there are other differences besides the screen according to the afore-mentioned chart.
The 1000 looks schweet but way over the top for my needs and budget. :wink:

My 880 was delivered a few minutes ago...let'n the battery charge up then off to the races!
:banana:

[Mamba]

As followup:

The programming experience was quite a chore. I'm sure I spent a full day total time, learning the online system, training from my remotes, and so on. Most all of my equipment (largely Sony) required some manual command tweaking, even tho' it's only a few years old. Had a real beee-atch of a time get'n my Mitsu TV commands setup, as for whatever reason my exact model wasn't in the Harmony database; I fought with configuring inputs for a good two hours. I finally figured out that I could make the 880 remote direct switch to the inputs even tho' my OEM remote didn't have that ability...duhhh. After that life was good, and I stashed away all remotes but my Firefly mini...still have a little work to do there.

I have all my major "Activities" setup and that feature is awesome! Very high WAF and I love it too. Only minor annoyance is trying to figure out the right delay for the TV power up on the right input. Most times that last command to switch input seems to not get received. And I also need to tweak the delays for movement on the "Watch HTPC" activity...too much lag between moves right now.

But even with the pain, the gain was completely worthwhile. I shoulda done this long ago...the 880 ROCKS!
:banana::banana::banana:

[Terminal]

Yes my wife and daughter have been real happy since I added my 550. It does take awhile to get everything just so, but once you do, you can't imagine how you lived without it.

[Gunn]

Just tell it what your currently using to control BTV. I was using the Hauppauge remote that came with my pvr 250 cards.

I got the Harmony 880 on friday. Had it setup and working in no time. Never changed anything on the computer at all. No third party stuff needed.

I just told it to emulate the pvr250 remote that I was using. Done. Works fine.


This is the configuration I'm currently using with my new 880. I use the Hauppauge ir receiver and software with the irremote.ini. The problem I am having with this is that I have many buttons on the 880 that do the same thing, that I would like to change, but they seem to all send the same code to the ir software.

For example, the up and down buttons that are above and below the center "enter/ok" button are mapped to CHANNELUP/CHANNELDOWN. But so are the Chan+ and Chan- buttons on the right side of the remote, AND so are the up and down buttons that are in the center of the remote below the circular set of buttons.

I'd like to at least change this lower up/down buttons to be page up/page down, but can't figure out how to do so. Can you? If so, I'd like to see how you have your irremote.ini file configured...

Thanks,

[Cal]

This is the configuration I'm currently using

I'd like to at least change this lower up/down buttons to be page up/page down, but can't figure out how to do so. Can you? If so, I'd like to see how you have your irremote.ini file configured...

Thanks,

No problem. Are you talking about the ^v buttons on the 880? Just map them directly to pgup and pgdn in the 880 config on the web.

But since you want to see the ini as well. I'll attach it.
also attached is

btv.bat = just a batch to restart btv that is referenced in the ini.

k_mouse.exe and k_mouse.au3 = small app I wrote to let me use the 880 as a mouse. Since your using the pvr250 as a base it may work for you.

the au3 file is the source file if anyone wants to redo it. This was written with my system in mind. Its not very universal. It works fine on my BTV computer but oddly does not work on my main computer. If anyone does redo it I only ask you let me know so I can see what you did to make it better.

Run it and it takes over the keys. Run it again and it unloads itself from memory.
keys taken over are the 4 arrow keys and "l" and "r" for left and right clicks.

It defaults to moving the mouse 20 pixels per key press. You may press the remotes keys 1-9 to change the distance that key key presses do on the fly.

left and right mouse clicks are the ^v keys on my 880. I never could figure out why I could not make it do a double click but it works well enough for what I needed.

Mainly I just use it to restart UltraVNC if it crashes for some reason.

[Gunn]

Thanks for the reply and attached files, I'll take a look at them.

I finally got the buttons mapped correctly. What it was was that when adding a device for the 880, I used the WinTV-PVR-250. Well, when you select this as the device, you only get the 34-button Hauppauge remote buttons.

I went back and configured a new device using the WinTV-PVR-150 as the model number and that gave me the 45-button Hauppauge remote and so 45 buttons to map to my 880, which is great.

Using the 880 as a mouse is a great idea...

[Gunn]

I noticed in your ini file that you have an application titled "[VLC (hardware YUV overlay DirectX output)]" which made me wonder....how did you find out the name to use in the .ini of this application?

I have attempted to use my remote with various applications, some that are fullscreen apps, but can never guess the right name to get any response from the remote control other than [default] actions.

I'd be interested to know how you figure it out.

Thanks again,

Tom

[Cal]

I do some programing in Autoit. (its free)
It has a tool called "Auto it Window Info" that grabs the title and other info from windows under your mouse.

I got it from that.

However if you don't want to install a bunch of stuff just to get one very simple tool then use the following attached.

Just a small thing I wrote. It returns the title of the active window. Works for VLC in full screen. It should work for other apps as well.

You can ignore the " - 1" and the " - 2" at the end of the info window. Thats not part of the window title. Its just there flicking back and forth so I knew the app was still running.

Press Esc to exit the app.
Included in the zip is the original source code as well as a compiled exe.