I currently own an MX-700 and previously owned a Pronto TSU2000. I feel that I am somewhat well versed in programming remotes. That being said, the 880 has me stumped.

I am trying to create a custom button label for my HTPC activity. The custom button labels are "TV On" and "TV Off". I only want them to display on the HTPC page.
They show up on any activity that uses my TV. I have some other buttons on my MX700, such as "LossLess" that only apply to my HTPC. Having Lossless show up on any device that uses my receiver is confusing to the wife and others.

Is there a way to only have a custom buttons only show on the activity where you create them? As of now they are locked into the device and not the activity.

Thanks

This message was edited by Kendrid on 06/21/05 01:04 ET.

That's a "feature" - it copies the custom buttons to all acitivities that use that device.

The real question is why do you need to manually turn the TV on and off? You should never do that with the harmony - it will confuse Smart State. Tell us how you use it and we can probably find a better way.

To get around it, create a clone TV device (another device with the same make and model as the TV), set it to leave the power on all the time and only add it to the HTPC activity. Then you can use the TV on and TV off custom buttons from that device and it won't appear on any other activities.

Or - if you already have a device that only appears in the HTPC activity you can just teach it those 2 commands.

I also believe that this "feature" is counter-intuitive and ought to be an option that the user can select to use or not. I am of the opinion that each activity should be an entirely independent entity, and that any button mappings / custom button labels should persist ONLY in that activity. The consequence is having to recreate button mappings and labels for those activities that need common commands, but that's a consequence I'd be happy to live with. I wish they'd change it back to the way it used to work before this "feature" showed up.

I agree. I wanted separate and distinct custom buttons for my lights (so that LightsNorm used the normal light setting specific to that activity) but to do that I had to create a separate clone device for each activity.

Thanks for the reply guys. Glad to know I am not alone.

The reason I turn my TV on and off is that once I select music on my HTPC I turn my TV off to prevent screen burn-in. Also, that is just one example. I have many custom buttons on each screen of my MX-700.

On the drive in to work today I thought about cloning my TV and receiver just for my HTPC. It seems you guys agree that is a work around. It seems like a hack, but it should work.

With Harmon'y logic the way you should accomplish this specific scenario is to set up a new activity called "Listen to PC Music" that would include the HTPC and the receiver and the TV would not even be included as a device.

Exactly what I suspected and was about to suggest.

Make separate activities for every unique combination of devices and inputs and let the Harmony turn the devices on and off and switch inputs and keep track of the state for you.

Unfortunately, I think the TV is required in order to select the music to listen to, and only AFTER that, the TV is no longer necessary. I think the HTPC can be set to a screensaver while music is playing, but even so, it's using lamp power in the TV when not entirely necessary.

My TV is required to pick what music I want. Once I queue the music I turn the TV off. It does have a screensaver but I don't want my rear projection TV on for no reason.

If I set up an activity with my HTPC and receiver (no TV), the TV won't be turned on unless I first choose an activity such as 'watch TV' and told the remote to not turn off the TV. That would be ok as long as the TV turns off when I push the Power Off button on the remote. In this scenario I would still want a 'turn TV off' custom button which wouldn't be possible since the TV wouldn't be included in the activity (correct)?

Thanks for the suggestions. Keep them coming. :)

Possible solution:

I could create custom buttons on my HTPC device for TVOn and TVOFF and the other activities I need from my other devices. I will teach the 880 from the TV remote so it thinks it is a 'new' command.
I could then add the custom lable button to the HTPC Music activity. The TVOn and TVOff from the HTPC device should only show on anything that uses the HTPC (which is fine).

Am I correct? If so this is a work around that is acceptable.

The second activity is still the best way to go - just select it after you've selected the music from the normal "Watch TV" activity.

If the TV has discrete codes, though, its no big deal.

Kendrid, your proposed solution would work but you will still have do deal with the confused Smart State. When you switch from your HTPC Music activity (after turning off the TV) to any activity that requires the TV (like Watch TV activity), the Harmony will not turn on the TV because it thinks its already on. The work around for that scenario is to press the same activity again. When an activity button is pressed more than once, all discrete commands are re-sent. Since your TV has discrete power commands, a better approach is to use the "always on clone TV technique" mentioned by Akirby in post #2 above. In the HTPC Music activity, only include the clone TV. Add the TV ON command at the beginning of the HTPC Music activity. Add your TV ON and TV Off commands to the LCD screen. While your are in the HTPC Music activity, Harmony still thinks your real TV if off and the clone TV is always on. When you switch from your HTPC Music activity to a Watch TV activity, the TV On command will always be sent.

I wish they would make "SmartState" a little smarter so that the remote would know if I've gone specifically into the TV device, and messed with the poweron/poweroff buttons from there. You'd think that would be logical.

Logical, yes, but extremely complicated to implement. Smart state is only active when you switch activities and it only keeps track of commands that IT sends. Very self contained. What you're asking is that everytime an IR command is sent from anywhere that it check and update the smart state. That would be a waste of programming time and memory since there's no reason to manually change the power or input settings. Especially when you have the help button to fix it if it gets out of sync.

I'm sure it wouldn't take THAT much memory up. Perhaps a bit/byte for each device's power state and/or input mode. As for the difficulty of implementing that...that's why they get paid the big buck$$.

I'd still like to see it.