Universal Remotes

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n64ra

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It's time for me to get a universal remote, but I don't really know much about them. CNET makes the Harmony One or Harmony 900 sound pretty good.

Is it possible to program it so you press the 'watch tv' button (just one button press), which then does all this:
1) Turns on the TV
2) Turns on the receiver
3) Turns on the STB
4) Switches the receiver to the 'tv' input

?

If so, what happens if you're already using the tv (say, playing 360). Would the 'watch tv' button be able to skip steps 1 and 2 (it would only have to turn on the STB and switch the receiver)?

thanks for the help!
 
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Yes

To answer your second question, the Harmony remote doesn't know anything about the state of your home entertainment system outside of what it THINKS is the state based on the activity buttons you've pressed. For example, if you turn on the TV with the regular TV remote and then push the "watch TV" activity on the Harmony, it will most likely turn OFF the TV (assuming the TV remote uses the same IR signal as an off/on toggle).

Now, for example, if you used the Harmony "Play 360" activity and then you pushed the "watch TV" activity, the Harmony knows the state of the system and will just do the stuff necessary to go from the "play 360" state to the "watch TV" state.

In situations where the state of the system is out of sync with the Harmony, you have to sync it up again for the Harmony to work correctly. You can either turn everything off and then get the Harmony into the "everything off" state, or if your system is in a state that is already an activity on the remote, you can just cover up the IR transmitter of the remote and push the activity button that matches the current state of the system. It sounds complicated, but it's really not that hard.

Note that you can put the Harmony into "device" mode where you can control devices independently from any activity, including turning the device on and off. Anything you do in "device" mode does not change the activity state that the remote thinks it's in.

Hope that answers it.
 
m6oo, thanks a lot - that does makes sense. I'll have to be sure to keep all the other remotes out of sight so people won't accidentally use them.

Logitech's website says it can control game consoles. I assume that's for DVD playback. That means it must work in the console menus too. Therefore, it would work well for Netflix through the 360, right?
 
Works great with Xbox 360/Netflix. I turned 4 remotes into 1. You can get a Harmony Adapter for the PS3 and it will control all aspects of the PS3 including turning it off and on. I don't remember life without a harmony ;-)
 
sweet... so on to the cheap ass part.

I see the Harmony One for $195 on amazon
and the Harmony 900 for $285 on amazon

any better deals?
 
[quote name='n64ra']sweet... so on to the cheap ass part.

I see the Harmony One for $195 on amazon
and the Harmony 900 for $285 on amazon

any better deals?[/QUOTE]

I would avoid the high-end Harmony remotes unless you're looking to connect a ton of different devices and do all kinds of operations.

For what you described, a refurbished older model would work quite well and be "cheap".

Refurb Harmony 620 for $50:

http://www.circuitcity.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5554791&CatId=358

I bought a refurbished 659-S from Amazon for $40 a bit over a year ago and it's done everything I could want.
 
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