Wow, thanks for all that information akirby. I'm just a little confused about the response to the first question.
On October 4, 2008 at 23:05, zytrex said...
I currently have the URC MX-850. I'm thinking about buying
the Harmony 890. Logitech (and all the reviews I've read)
only ever mention the automated setup process. They never
talk about additional customization. I've tried downloading
the software to test it myself, but it won't let me use
it without actually plugging in the remote. If anybody
knows of a review of the programming that is more extensive,
please let me know. In the mean time I have several questions
about the Harmony 890:
On October 5, 2008 at 10:13, akirby said...
You can do sequences of up to 5 commands. If it takes
more than 5 commands you'd have to do multiple sequences
and button presses. The more common way of doing this
is to have 2 activities - one with CC on and one with
it off and put the commands to turn it on and off at the
beginning of each activity. You can add commands to the
entry or exit of each activity. Switching activities
between the 2 would run the macros to change the CC state
but not change anything else (assuming you use the same
devices and settings on both).
My macro to turn on captions consists of sending the TV's CC command twice and then the Action (menu) command twice. This turns on captions and then clears the menu. To turn captions off, it sends CC five times and then Action (menu) twice. Now, the Action command doesn't really need to be there as the menu will go away on its own after a few moments, but it's just faster this way. Also, at the end of both of those macros, there is a page jump instruction to go to the first page on the remote's TiVo device (I have the CC on/off on the second page since I only use it when I couldn't understand what someone was saying, which is very rare.)
So with that information, I have a few more questions:
1. You said you can sequence up to 5 commands. What about repeating commands? Can I have it set to repeat the CC command 5 times and the Action command 2 times and have it only count as 2 commands?
2. You said the more common way of doing this is with 2 activities. Does this mean that the entry and exit of activities can have more than 5 commands sequenced, or did you mention it because it's just how people usually do it?
3. Can you add page jumps to buttons or macros? Like I mentioned before, my CC on/off macros were on soft buttons on the second LCD page, and at the end of the macros I had it switch the remote to the first page where I had all the common commands (such as the replay button which I would use immediately after turning on CC since the whole point is I missed what someone just said).
