I got the 880 as a Christmas gift. I'm getting close to seeing if it can be returned for a refund.

I have a Viewsonic LCD TV, 2 PVRs, DVD, CD Juke box, VCR, and AV Receiver.

I have spent 10-12 hours programing (and several more hours reading this forum, better than the documentation) and fighting the Logitech Wizards/Setup nightmare. I have never liked wizards that don't have a guru mode to get around all the hand holding. Add a poor GUI design and an inconsistent interface and I have gotten tired looking for all the features I needed to program the 880 (and refinding features when I need them again).

Ok I'm done venting for now.

I have a program that should work, it doesn't. The big problems was getting the input selecting on the TV to work. I didn't want to index through the possible inputs because it was to easy to get out of sync. I had to put the proper order of inputs in since they were a little different from what was in the database. I then trained the 4 buttons that are used for 7 inputs. TV, AV1/AV2, HD1/HD2, PC/HDMI. The last 3 you hit a second time to get to the second input.

I can now push Activity buttons for the 4 buttons on the original remote and pressing them twice takes me to the second. My DVD player setup uses AV2 and I added the extra commands in that jcbremotes suggested in the "What's the latest on custom programming newer remotes?" thread and that now works most of the time when I select the Watch DVD activity, it does fail sometimes for no reason, no idea why.

The problem that continues to plague me. I have the TV set to be always on. The Watch TV activity turns on the AV Receiver and is suppose to set the TV to TV input, doesn't happen. I can push the TV input button I have set as an activity button and it changes. I have all my Activities setup to change the TV to TV Input on exit, none of them do. Any ideas? Am I doing something completely wrong?

I have been spending all my time on PVRs, DVD and TV, still need to see if VCR or Jukebox works.

Jimbo...

Try increasing the inter-device delay.

Stop thinking of activities as input select buttons. Setup the activities to contain the devices you want and let the devices turn themselves off and on and select the right inputs. There are ways to handle the multiple input toggles on the TV without adding extra commands. I think you're fighting the way the harmony wants to control the equipment and that's never smooth.

Try this. Set the Adjust Inputs to use the direct method (I go directly to the input I want), and use your learnt TV command as an anchor point. Let say your 4 learnt commands are named: TVdirect, AVtoggle, HDtoggle, PCHDMItoggle. Set the commands to be use for each inputs as follows (use the I send more commands option where applicable):
Input Name__Command(s)
TV_________TVdirect
AV1________TVdirect, AVtoggle
AV2________TVdirect, AVtoggle, AVtoggle
HD1________TVdirect, HDtoggle
HD2________TVdirect, HDtoggle, HDtoggle
PC_________TVdirect, PCHDMItoggle
HDMI_______TVdirect, PCHDMItoggle

Note 1: You may need to increase the inter-key delay.
Note 2: With this method, you don't need and should remove your TV command at the end of all activities.

Thanks all.

akirby, you're right I need to think different. My problem is when I find a way that I think will work I use it and stop looking for the right way. Getting all the devices right is a better way of thinking.

jlet, I put your idea in and it all seems to work as far as switching inputs but it occasionally still misses an input change. I lengthened the inter-key to 1500, I will try a little longer.

The 880 seems like it can do it all, but getting it configured is a bit of a learning curve. I'm sure I will be back as I continue to fine tune the operations, but I think the send it back phase has been passed.

Jimbo...

jlet,

I forgot to ask in my last post. I programed the inputs as you suggested, but why start each set of commands with TVdirect?

Jimbo...

Because that is the only discrete input command your have. You need an anchor point (fixed point) to start from, so that it does not go out of sync. Without the "TVdirect" anchor point starting command, your activity that uses the AV1 input for example, would go out of sync (it would go to AV2) when pressing the same activity again.
Note: This TV input anchor trick will work only if the other input toggle commands forget where they were when you switch to the TV input.

Thanks jlet. I actually thought about that late last night and should have got back on to edit my note.

I still must have a timing problem, the inputs switch correctly about half the time.

Manual or favorite channel selection is painfully slow, so if I have to lengthen times even more, channel changing will be unusable.

Jimbo...

When it does not switch correctly, press the same activity again. It will blindly resend all power and input commands to devices configured to use the discrete method. It will not resend commands to device configured to use the toggle/cycling method. If the input seems to toggle, then the assumption that the "TVdirect" command resets the other input toggles (makes them forget where they were) is wrong. You should test the input setup sequences in device mode to verify the theory. If the theory is correct, then play with the inter-device and inter-key delays. There is/was a bug with these 2 delays (swapped and/or added together). Also play with the Input Delay.

Ok, I have all the current problems fixed and will use the remote and make notes of tweaks that need to be done.

I switched the Input Name__Command(s)
TV_________TVdirect
AV1________AVtoggle
AV2________TVdirect, AVtoggle, AVtoggle
HD1________HDtoggle
HD2________TVdirect, HDtoggle, HDtoggle
PC_________PCHDMItoggle
HDMI_______TVdirect, PCHDMItoggle

I took out the extra TVdirect because the AVtoogle, HDtoogle and PCHDMItoggle seem to be true hard buttons and it just speeds up things a little. The problem with not being reliable going into AV2 was fixed by changing the Input Delay to 3000. I solved the slow channel change by keypad by lowering Inter-key to 100. Favorites are still to slow to use, so I will not use that feature for now.

Thanks for all the help for now. I will probably be back for more help.

Jimbo...

Maybe your AVtoogle, HDtoogle and PCHDMItoggle commands have a timeout feature. That is they toggle only when pressed a second time within the timeout. If so, then you don't need the extra TVdirect command on any of them. Just don't switch activity to fast. You can test this in device mode. Press the "AVtoogle", wait (for the timeout to expire), then press it again. If it toggles (goes from AV1 to AV2), then it does not have a timeout feature and you will need the extra TVdirect command in front of all of them, else it will go out of sync when you press the same activity again.

jlet, your right, I checked and it does not time out. I didn't think about the problem of hitting the same activity twice. I'll put the extra step back in.

New problem (2 steps forward one step back) the Pioneer DV-440 DVD player now turns on and the TV goes to the proper input (most of the time) all is good. I then go to a different activity and the DVD player doesn't turn off. I tried forcing it by adding it in as extra step and then it would turn off and back on (as I would expect if it was turned off by the activity). If there is not an obvious solution I will tell it to stay on and put the extra step back in to turn it off.

A second random problem is every once in awhile when changing activities in or out of DVD both PVRs come on. So far it has only happen twice and I can't find a combination to force it to happen.

Jimbo...

I see discrete PowerOn/Off commands for your Pioneer DV-440 DVD player device, but its default power setting is to use the toggle method. Try the discrete commands in device mode. If it supports them, then change its power setting to use the discrete method (select the "A button on the remote for On, and a different button for Off" option). Even if you have to use the toggle method, let the Harmony Smart State take care of it. Don't mess up its tracking by adding power command(s) in the Activity Start. Also check your "Watch DVD" Activity "Play on Enter/Stop on Exit" options (under Activity > Customize > Change Options). Turn them off for time being.

I checked and the discrete on/off commands work so I setup the DVD to use them. It still doesn't turn off when I go out of that activity but I can live with it since I have to take the disk out of it so I'm standing in front of it and can shut it off. At least it doesn't toggle in strange ways now that I switched to two button on/off. I also added on/off buttons to the DVD activity so they are handy when if I need them. I also extended out the inter device time to 3000 just to be sure that wasn't the problem and that didn't help so I put it back to 500.

New tweak wanted, if it is possible. The audio level on the amp for TV/PVR watching is a lot higher than DVD watching. I usually forget to turn the amp down and get blasted, much to my wife's amusement when I jump out of my chair to turn it down quick. I plan to buy an attenuator for the audio lines, but if it was possible to set multiple down volume commands as part of the activity it would do the job. Any way other than adding a sequences of commands (macro) to run at Activity start? Since it would be 20 clicks it doesn't seem like a good way, so I will probably just get the attenuator instead.

Thanks for all your help jlet, your suggestions and others on the forum saved me from returning the remote. I'm actually into the like the remote stage (not to love yet).

Jimbo...

When you switch to a non-DVD activity, the DVD device should turn off unless the non-DVD activity is set to leave unused device ON. The feature is under Device > Customize > Change Options. The other possibility is interference with a command from another device. In this case, increasing the inter-device delay should cure that but you have already tried that.

I have the same problem. In my case, it's the Watch DVD activity audio level that is much higher than my Watch TV/PVR activity. Both are using the digital audio connection, so I can't use an analog attenuator. I see no other solution other than adding a bunch of VolumeDown commands at Activity Start. Some A/V receivers support discrete -xy dB volume down setting(s). My receiver does not. I am thinking of teaching it a multiple volume down command in RAW mode to use in the Activity Start so that I don't need to add so many.