I just switched from my Harmony 659 to a new 720 for my main viewing room. One of the problems/questions I have is this: Before with my 659 when you chose & pressed a specific activity, let's say, "watch a movie," if one of components in my system didn't react for some reason (maybe because of hitting the button too quick), I could press the "help" button & the remote asks the various questions such as "Is the DVD on" etc. One of the problems I'm having with the 720 is when I go from watching TV to Watch a movie, my SAT STB doesn't power off like it did with the other remote. And when I go into "help", the question "Is the SAT off", is not one of the choices like it was before. So I have to hit the "devices" button, the display will show all my devices, select SAT & then scroll thru it's various choices to Power it off.
Finally as to the remote not turning the SAT off when I switch to "Watch a Movie", do I need to redo my Harmony set-up on-line or will this do any good?
Thanks for any help.

Ken

Check the device power settings for the SAT STB. It may be set to "leave on all the time" or "doesn't have power buttons".

I just got thru checking that & all is ok with the power settings. Here's some add'l data; When I switch to "Watch a Movie" & the SAT STB stays on, it's a problem because when I am through watching the movie & then go back to TV by selecting "Watch TV", then the SAT STB powers off. Summary: The SAT won't power off when I switch to Watch a Movie", but unless I go up & manually turn it off, it will power off when I select "Watch TV". Could this be some kind of delay issue (with the SAT) that's only an issue during the activity "Watch a Movie", but not an issue during the "Watch TV" activity?

Ken

Anyone else have any ideas?

Ken

maybe the Harmony is sending IR commands too fast, try increasing the inter device delay for the STB to 1500 or more to see what happens.

I am curious as to why increasing the delay would resolve the issue? The SAT responds to on/off at all other times. It's only when I am switching from "Watch TV" to "Watch a Movie" that it doesn't respond. When I finish with the movie & switch back to "Watch TV", it does respond. That's why I have to manually turn the SAT off after I have pressed "Watch a Movie" because if not, the SAT will turn itself off when I switch to "Watch TV." I am asking for help here on the forum because Logitech won't respond to my question & it seems phone support doesn't exist anymore.

Ken

What is happening is that when you switch to Watch a Movie the harmony is sending certain commands to certain devices (such as the DVD player) that it doesn't send any other time. These commands are confusing the SAT STB so that it doesn't "see" the power off command. Since you're obviously using a power toggle and the harmony thinks it has powered off the STB already, it tries to power on the STB which results in it being powered off because it's a toggle.

1) check to see if your STB supports discrete on/off power commands. Try all of the commands in device mode that look like power commands. If you have discretes then change the power settings to use those. They are more reliable.

2) increase the inter-device delay to 5000 MS and I almost guarantee that will fix the problem. When it does, go back to the original value and increase it slowly until it works reliably. You don't want to leave it any higher than necessary - will cause unnecessary delays in activity startup.

I hate to be a bother on this, but would you mind explaining a little more in detail about the item above? How do you check to see if the STB supports discrete power on/off & what is meant by "device mode?" Feel free to send me a PM if it's better than posting here.

If by discrete mode, you mean power on/off via (1) button on my STB's remote, the answer is yes. There is only one button on the Dish 211's remote & STB itself that powers it on & then powers it off. But I'm not sure how to do what you are specifying above.

Thanks,

Ken

How can you own a 659 and not know what Device mode is? It means picking up the remote, pressing "devices", then choosing the SAT STB. You are now in device mode for the STB. All of the commands for the STB are available. It mimics using the OEM remote.

It doesn't matter what is on your OEM remote - the harmony database frequently has commands that the device understands that are not on the the OEM remote. Look through the LCD buttons in device mode for anything that resembles a power command - PowerON, PowerOFF, ON, OFF, etc. Try each one and see how it works. If you find a PowerON command that only turns the STB ON and does not turn it OFF when pressed repeatedly - that is a discrete command. It only does ONE thing. It doesn't toggle back and forth. If you find them, change the power setup to "a button for ON and a different button for OFF", then give it the correct on and off commands.

Whether you have those or not, you still need to increase the Inter-device delay to fix the problem. Using discretes will only prevent the STB from being turned off if the OFF command is missed.

Sorry, but believe it or not, I never used nor had to use the "Devices" button on the 659. I always controlled everything by choosing either "Watch TV" or Watch a Movie." Regardless of which one I chose, I was always able to control either of the devices totally with my 659 once I was in a specific activity. I honestly never had to use the "Devices" button as there was no need to. The 720 is different however! I have to use the "Devices" button because all my choices of activities are not present on the LCD (like they were on the 659) unless I do so. This is the one weakness, imo, with the 720 compared to the 659.
Anyway, thanks for your response & I'll try the recommendations...

Ken

I don't understand - devices have nothing to do with activities. You can have as many activities on the 720 as you need. If you have more than 3 then you page through them, just like on the 659. Only difference is you don't have the dedicated activity buttons like you did on the 659.

Set up as many activities as you need, and only use device mode for troubleshooting or for commands that you have not mapped to the activity buttons.

Bingo! That's what I am referring to; I think we're saying the same thing. Sometimes it's just hard to put in words.
One of the things we've sort of over-looked is one of the points I made in my original post. And that has to do with the "Help" feature. In this case, when I go from "Watch TV" to "Watch a Movie" & the SAT STB stays on, before (with my 659), I could press "help" & be given a choice of questions to answer. One of those questions was "Is the SAT On?" If you answered "Yes", it would power the SAT off & then ask "Did that correct the problem?" Then of course, I would answer "yes" & then all was right with the world. And the 659 would actually learn from that little bit of troubleshooting. (Actually the only times this ever happened with the 659 was my fault when I was a little too quick with pressing an activity). That question however is not one of the questions present/asked with the 720. So I have to press "Devices", select SAT & then look for and select power off. I did not have to do all this with the 659. Don't get me wrong, I still love the 720, but this is one of it's weaknesses & this exact issue was even addressed in an online review I had read. Is there now a way to set-up the 720 so the question I've listed above now shows up on the LCD?

Ken

On the 720 you hit the activities button and it gives you the first 3 to choose from, then you can scroll through the rest to find the activity you want. Doesn't matter whether there are 4 or 6 or 10 activities - you can still get to the activity using the activities button. So there is no "need" to use Device mode just because the first screen only has 3 activities - just use the page buttons to display the next set of 3.

As for the Help button - a simple search of the logitech forums found this:

By default the Help button on the remote will only ask you about devices that are part of the current Activity. To have the Help button ask about all of your devices:

1. Login to your home page.
2. Click Remote Preferences.
3. Select Settings.
4. Using the On-Screen Help system options select Full.
5. Click Save.
6. Click Update Remote when you are brought back to your home page.

It has nothing to do with the remote itself - it's just that the default action changed in the software. If you had set up a new 659 it would have behaved the same way as your 720.

Thanks for all the help. I'll give all this a try when I get home today..

Thanks again,

Ken