Harmony 650 Remote A Closer Look Harmony 650
Harmony remotes are moronic 'activity based' so they do not have a source button. 0 You have to set up and select select an 'activity' like 'Watch TV' or 'Watch DVD'. But some times you may want to use the HTS while watching TV and sometime not, that was impossible to do with the Harmony I had. My wife hated the Harmony so much that she would end up in tears screaming 'I just want to watch the F'n TV!
Why is that so F'n difficult with this damn thing?' After a few weeks it was either me or the remote that was going away. We are back to the 'pile of remotes' and all is well because my wife knows if she picks up the TV remote it will control the TV, and the DVD remote will control the DVD player. Said by: Harmony remotes are moronic 'activity based' so they do not have a source button.And yet mine does. I have activities set to the 6 most common things I want to do.
For the uncommon things, I select the closest activity - probably 'watch TV' since it turns the A/V receiver and TV monitor on - and then use one of the allegedly non-existent source buttons to select a different input on the receiver. Of course, you have to be able to read instructions, which only morons who like the moronic activity-based programming are apparently capable of doing.
'I just want to watch the F'n TV! Yeah, that is an 'activity'. You press the button labeled 'watch TV'. Assuming correct setup, that will get the equipment from whatever state it's in to a state where you can watch TV. Why's that so F'n difficult to understand? The only catch I know of is that the remote is stateful, so if you switch a device on or off without telling the remote, -and- that device only answers to 'toggle power' over the IR, then the remote can get confused.
But one press of the 'help' button will fix that. Said by: Yeah, that is an 'activity'. You press the button labeled 'watch TV'. Assuming correct setup, that will get the equipment from whatever state it's in to a state where you can watch TV. Why's that so F'n difficult to understand? The only catch I know of is that the remote is stateful, so if you switch a device on or off without telling the remote, -and- that device only answers to 'toggle power' over the IR, then the remote can get confused.
But one press of the 'help' button will fix that.That was the part that she found difficult, and I did not really like either because every time it had to cycle through the TV inputs instead of just switching from Cable Box directly to DVD. When it hit the TV Tuner input there would be this burst of noise through the speakers, loud when it was turned up Plus you had to hold the Harmony pointed directly at the entertainment center for a few seconds to turn everything on and set it or change it. If you moved the Harmony even the slightest bit something would not turn on or be out of sync. Then you had to step through the horrible 'help' menus 'Is the TV on?' , 'is the TV on X source?' , 'is the receiver on'. You could not just hit a button to go to 'receiver' and turn in on or select the input.
Harmony 650 Remote A Closer Look Harmony 650
It was always faster to just pick up the remote for whatever device and fix it. Said by: There's no cycling through inputs on any of my equipment, so I can't guess what made that necessary.Some electronic equipment does not have a remote option to directly select a specific input (some TVs are this way) so the only choice is to cycle through each one until the device arrives at the desired input. In any case, we had a 550 for years (still have it) and only recently upgraded to a wireless remote hub + smartphone app + minimal remote. Activities are the only way to go as far as I'm concerned, otherwise, my husband would have to manually turn on everything and futz with it and then never get it right. Said by: That was the part that she found difficult, and I did not really like either because every time it had to cycle through the TV inputs instead of just switching from Cable Box directly to DVD.
When it hit the TV Tuner input there would be this burst of noise through the speakers, loud when it was turned upI'm pretty sure the volume thing would be an issue regardless - that's a source (dvd vs cable vs whatever) issue, not a universal remote one. I always have to remember to turn the volume down before switching away/off from our music input because the line in to the receiver is just very low compared to everything else. Said by: My wife hated the Harmony so much that she would end up in tears screaming 'I just want to watch the F'n TV!
Why is that so F'n difficult with this damn thing?' After a few weeks it was either me or the remote that was going away. We are back to the 'pile of remotes' and all is well because my wife knows if she picks up the TV remote it will control the TV, and the DVD remote will control the DVD player. Ect.You just need to spend a little more time on the setup portion. The Harmony's can be set to do just about anything you want, but only if you program them to do it.
650 Harmony Remote
The quick guide setup is designed to get you up and running with minimal effort, but there are plenty of options to customize the remote behavior to do anything you want. It just takes a little more effort on the initial setup.
Said by: Not impossible at all. Assign a source button to something on the remote, or just create 2 different activities, one for using the HTS and one without.Sure but only one 'activity' could be called 'watch TV' I remember trying to make the 'watch VCR' activity to do that. But the software would not move forward until I set up a 'VCR'. No big deal I just picked one from the list. But then it would not allow me to use set the TV to the cable box input, because that input was already used for the 'watch TV' activity.
Said by: Thing is the Harmony.can. be made to do additional things when the 'Activity' is done but by god its a real bear to do. Here's a good example: My TV has 'Smart' features that I want to use sometimes after I hit the 'Watch TV' activity. It takes a heck of a lot of adding and tweaking via the Logitech software to get these additional functions working right. NefCanuckYou've apparently not used one of the more modern remotes. I have a Harmony 900 and an Ultimate. And the config differences between the two are like night & day.
The Ultimate is easy peasy to setup. Said by: Thing is the Harmony.can. be made to do additional things when the 'Activity' is done but by god its a real bear to do. Here's a good example: My TV has 'Smart' features that I want to use sometimes after I hit the 'Watch TV' activity. It takes a heck of a lot of adding and tweaking via the Logitech software to get these additional functions working right.
Harmony 650 Remote Manual
NefCanuckYou've apparently not used one of the more modern remotes. I have a Harmony 900 and an Ultimate. And the config differences between the two are like night & day. The Ultimate is easy peasy to setup. Not so much.900?
I'm still rocking an 880 here (although the volume up button is starting to become intermittent after, I think 5 years of use) NefCanuck.