I own an older Sony 50ES receiver and have never found a remote that will learn all of the soundfields effectively. The closest was a RS 2016 which, using JP-1, gave me limited access to them. Last month I tried an MX-500 and it was terrible, refusing to learn the Sony DSP or my Pioneer 5-disk DVD changer. I sent it back. Now I/m trying a Pronto 300, and while it will give me all of the soundfields (and about anything else I throw at it) I'm struggling with the touchscreen.

Question: will the Harmony remotes learn (or can Harmony download) all of the Sony codes AND are there any devices that Harmony can't handle? I've read here on the Harmony forum that it'll handle the discrete codes for my Panasonic plasma.

I don't want "Well, it handles NEARLY all of my components". I want all of them on a single remote or it's, essentially, worthless.

If I can't become accustomed to the Pronto I'd like to go with the 880 IF it'll do the job. Any help? Advice?

Thanks, Dan

If the Pronto can learn it, so can the Harmony, even if you have to email Customer Support with the Pronto hex code. Once you have the codes in successfully, you can run the wizard for each activity, and specify commands at the start of the activity to select the soundfield you want as the default for that activity.

The only components that the Harmony can't control are ones who use IR languages that don't conform to standard structure - I think some lack a carrier signal or something similar (I don't know the technical details), but the vast majority of devices, especially major brands like Sony have well-formed IR languages.

You may want to broaden your search to the 6xx series of Harmony remotes as well, and select one that has the button layout that seems most natural to you. The reason I suggest one of the 6xx remotes is that the Sound and Picture modes were removed from the 880, so the only control mode / button configuration you have other than the Activity mode is Device mode - on the 6xx series, you can have a different button configuration in Device mode as well as Sound mode, idea being that when you need rare commands for your receiver you would go into Device mode, but when you want to change the soundfield while in an activity, you would be able to go into Sound mode which you could customize separately for quick access to the soundfield commands. A comparison image of the remotes can be found here:

Just a couple of small additions.

The Harmony can learn (if it doesn't already know) any IR command from the original remote and you can map it to essentially any button on the face of the remote or to one of the LCD-screen buttons. Obviously, the Harmony doesn't actually "understand" what its sending - nor does the original remote.

Sony's IR languages are generally very clean and never do anything strange as Sony has put a premium on interoperability and one remote for the system for a long time. As a result, the possible non-standard IR issue spin-dizzy raised won't apply to any Sony device.

Any authorized Harmony dealer will have a liberal return policy - if you need to find them, go under "where to buy" on Harmony's website. I also have to agree that for you a 680 may be a better choice than an 880 - it sounds like the sound button would get a lot of use in your setup.

You can also take the test drive on the Harmony website and see if your devices are already in the Harmony database (which they very likely are).

This message was edited by shorthand on 10/14/05 12:50 ET.

Thanks for the responses and, spin-dizzy, that site comparing the Harmony remotes is fantastic, since I don't have access to the actual remotes. A terrific way to compare button, etc.

My personal favorite seems to be the 688 for two reasons.

First: the activity buttons are text, not icons, or graphics, and that's good for me and expecially for my wife. In fact, that was one of the things that attracted me to the 880 since the activities were all on the lcd rather than hard buttons.

Second: The most used buttons, for me anyway, are the channel up & down and the volume up and down. On the 688 (as with the 880) those buttons are centrally located in the middle and narrowest part of the remote, easy to press without moving the remote in your hand. The other 6 series remotes have thos buttons too low in my opinion requiring you shift it in your hand or use 2 hands.

Tell me how you feel about the smaller lcd, compared to the 880, since it must hold fewer device operations per screen.

shorthand: I'm not a programmer but I've used more universal learning remotes than I can recall and the Sony soundfields are insanely difficult to learn, even with JP-1. To tell you the truth I only use a few soundfields, especially when listening to music but I've become manic about them. By the way, none of Sony's own remotes will learn the soundfields unless you first get them into another remote (through JP-1 or Pronto). Then you can teach the Sony remote. That's why I returned the otherwise great MX-500.

Now to the Harmony website to try that "test drive" you mentioned. Thanks to you both for good advice.

Dan

Hum, think twice before going with the 688. A lot of people have complained about the buttons layout (hard to distinguish, too close together) and fell but few others have also said that it's fine with them.

I went from a Harmony 659 to 676 and 880. I have no regrets whatsoever with the 880. The 8 LCD buttons, color screen, recheargeable battery pack and pick up sensor are big pluses.

I would go with one of the following: 676, 680 or 880. The 520 is nice too but only has 4 LCD buttons.

Oups, forgot to say that I also have a Sony receiver with DSP/Soundfields enabled.

I had my sony reciever set up with the soundfields, no problem. I then switched to a Harmon Kardon, and I am now using a Yamaha. All three revievers were very easy to set up the different soundfields with my 880. My Brother now has my Sony reciever and a 676. I definetly like the 880 better for the soundfields setup. The 8 buttton lcd is great!

I have the good old Harmony 659 and the Sony STR-DA5ES receiver. I had no problem setting up the DSP sound fields.

I have a Sony TA-E1000ESD, and the Harmony was able to learn all of the soundfields and in fact all other buttons. They have a few entries that by name should have been right on the Harmony site, but they turned out to be generic entries with many functions not in my 1000, and many 1000 functions not in the setup. So I ended up using the closest named match as a starting point, and then learning all of the commands that dealt with DSP. Now, everything works great. I've been able to get remotes to learn these commands before, but only a few. In my experience once you have the commands in another remote that did successfully learn them, I can then use that remote to get other remotes to learn them. With the Harmony 880, though, I just used the original Sony remote and had no problems once I got the distance and the length of time to hold the button down right. I held them about 1.5" apart, and held the buttons down for about 1 to 1.3 seconds (just a guess). Once I did that consistently, everything was learned on the first try and everything worked. I also have a TA-E9000ESD that needs the power supply fix and I'm too lazy to do it, so can't test that one yet. Hopefully it'll handle those commands, too. Good luck with yours. Greg

Thanks to all. My 880 should be here today and I can't want to get it charged up so I can begin configuration. I already ran a test run at Logitech's site and was pleased by the numbers of devices there. I returned the Pronto a couple days ago but not before saving the Sony codes in a text file in case I need them. From what you guys are telling me I won't need them.

Again, thanks to all, Photodan