I have the Sony 5000 ES receiver that can control video and audio in main room and as "Second Zone" also control anything inputed to receiver in patio(secondzone) using a different Sony remote labeled"Second Zone Remote". I want to be able to replace the Second remote and use a Harmony 688 to control the Second Zone in the receiver, along with DVD, Satelite and Plasma out in the patio.
When I go to activities in Harmony website for "Watch Tv" it goes through all the questions for control but when it ask what ... iput need to be on to watch TV? I can't firgure out what to answer.
If I enter Sat, then it would use the SAT input for the HD PVR Sat that is already connected to it for" Zone one".
Any body have this SOny receiver?

I'm a little confused by your question. The input is the input that the reciever is set to so that it can output TV sound. For listen to radio it would be the FM input, for listen to vinyl, it would be the phono input, For listen to CD, it would be the CD input. Where do you have the TV sound input plugged in to? How do you select which input the reciever is on?

The receiver is essentiall two simultaneous outputs. I can listen and watch say HD PVR on main tv in living room using all inputed into Sony 5000 ES receiver and also at SAME TIME use the "Second Zone" remote to watch another separate item say another different regular Sat or dvd inputed into same reciever in another room.
My problem is when I try to program the Harmony 688 to watch sat or dvd in second zone, it changes the inputs for the main living room. The only way to actually do this for 2nd Zone is using the little remote. All is still connected to same reciever.
Problem is "watch tv activity set up.
So when I go to activity set up it ask" To watch Satelite in Second Zone-( cause sat input is already used by other HD PVR SAT)-
Where is reg non HDTV satelite connected into?
If I say Video input2 it accepts it. But when I try it out with remote it switches the main room to that input.
I already tried learning all the ir commands manually but I can't get the top activity buttons to work out.
I hope I didn't confuse you, I have been trying for weeks now, the only reason I bought this receiver was to work 2 zones separately.
I want the Harmony to work this out.

Set up the second zone on the reciever as a separate device - you're saying each zone's operation is independent - so let's treat it as such.

As infrared for the commands - just learn the appropriate ones from the little remote. That should solve your problem. You may find that when you go to find the second device that there is already a second zone version. But otherwise, just relearn the IR commands from the little remote and make sure that the input selection uses those commands.

Yep - that's the ticket. What you really have is 2 separate receiver devices with 2 separate remotes in one chassis. So set them up that way. Create separate activities for the main room and the patio. Include both devices in all activities so it won't power off the receiver and/or tell it to leave unused devices on all the time.

I did a similiar install with a 2 zone Denon receiver and when I contacted Harmony/Logitech there had a "Denon Zone 2" device in their database. Did the update and now have 2 receivers - Denon Main Zone and Denon Zone 2. We used to be able to this on the home page but apparantly customers were getting confused as to which device to select with the same model name/model. The "Denon Zone 2" has power on/off discretes. Works great.

I spent an hour and half with tech and they couldn't understand what was my set up, they seemed very very lost, kept putting me on hold and asking supervisor and answering me a canned readymemorized answer that did not address my set up....
I understand but when I got to activities to set up the top Play video-Play dvd-watch tv and hear music,
In set up, question is-- what controls sound, I hit receiver, fine, then it ask where is SAT connected into receiver, I have to either hit satelite or video 2- Video two is where "zone 2" sat is physically connect to for Zone two Because HDPVR is connect to on labeled sat on input receiver for zone ONE, If I tell it video two it will not work as "watch TV" actitity.
The problem is wetting up the actiity, if I use "Device" it shows the items but I end up hitting more buttons that worth even using a Harmony I might as well use 3 original remotes.
How do I let acitivy know sat is video two for zone two and not hit video two and change TV in zone room also.
It gets all messed up.

Jaimensx, do you understand post #4 (from shorthand) and post #5 (from akirby)? You need to add another receiver device to your list of devices. Click "Add a Device" and when it ask for the model number, type 5000 or 5000ES. You will see a list. One is called "STR-DA5000ES" and another is called "STR-DA5000ES (Zone 2)". You could use device "STR-DA5000ES (Zone 2)" for your zone 2 activities. Then you need to find out which of the commands from the zone 2 device are the correct commands for zone 2. Press the "Device" button, select your zone 2 receiver, and try all the commands. Make a note of which commands are zone 2 commands. You may have to teach and/or correct some of these zone 2 commands using your zone 2 original remote. Once armed with this info, setup the "Adjust inputs (and power settings) of your zone 2 receiver. Then create your zone 2 activities using your zone 2 receiver device. For each activity using one of the 2 receiver devices (main zone and zone 2 activities) add the other receiver device as a passthrough device (run the activity setup wizard in custom mode). This will prevent the Harmony from toggling the power back on when switching between two different zone activities.

Jaimensx, you can also do your zone 2 activities using a single receiver device. You will need to teach your receiver device the zone 2 input commands using your zone 2 original remote. Next to your receiver device, click Learn infrared commands. As an example, lets take your Video 2 input. The current command available from the database is "InputVideo2", but this command is for you main zone (main input selector). You need to create a similar command for your zone 2 input selector. Call the command like "UnputVideo2Zone2" or use a shorter name like "InV2Z2". Once you have done that to all the desired Zone 2 input commands, setup the "Adjust inputs" for you receiver, add the missing Zone 2 input labels (like Video 2 Zone 2) and assign them their corresponding input zone 2 learned commands. Note: If an activity needs to setup both the main input selector and the zone 2 input selector, then you will need to use the two receivers method described in my previous post.

Thanks, I learned all the ir commands from original second zone remote, I can access all of then using the device button and then use respective buttons...
NOW how do I make the activities work correctly?
I hit watch tv which is satelite viewing, I followed all the online questions but one is confusing,... What input does satelite have to be on to watch tv? THe sat only has one --video, it is not asking about reciever or tv input but sat intup, those are separate questions.
I don't get it satelites don't have selectable inputs or outputs. So therefore my watch tv activity button does not work at all, or watch dvd eithe.
I must go straight "device" and then select proper reciever input on second zone. Too many buttons, I thought actities would make everthing easier.

Check the characterization of the satellite receiver device - you must have accidentally told it that it had multiple inputs.

I hope you taught the Zone 2 input selector commands to your Sony 5000 ES receiver and not you Satellite receiver.

I think the problem here is a general problem with Harmony & multiroom. Harmony remotes are activity based, and you can only have one "activity" at a time. However, with multiroom receivers, you have two activities: one going on in the main room, and another, possibly different, activity in the second room.

There's no way to fit the reality into the Harmony model. Maybe you could have two Harmony remotes, and program one with the "main" room activities, and the other with the "auxiliary" room activities.