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New Member Harmony Remote Discussion Thread

11K views 72 replies 23 participants last post by  erschand 
#1 · (Edited)
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#27 ·
mfabien: So I went into the set up and took off 1080i and put on 720p and 480p (widescreen). I set it to upconvert-2 but everything just stays on 720p, any reason why that would happen? If I re-enable 1080i then the SD channels always just revert to 1080i and not 480p. I'm kind of confused by all of this.
 
#28 ·
Ruthless82 said:
mfabien: So I went into the set up and took off 1080i and put on 720p and 480p (widescreen). I set it to upconvert-2 but everything just stays on 720p, any reason why that would happen? If I re-enable 1080i then the SD channels always just revert to 1080i and not 480p. I'm kind of confused by all of this.
To enable 480p for SD channels, you must first configure 480i. And make sure it's 480i then 480p in that order.

Remove 1080i.
 
#29 ·
mfabien: sorry to keep this running but it just won't seem to work. I went into the setup configured 480i and then 480p (widescreen) then configured 720p. I exited the setup, made sure it was set to upconvert-2 and then proceeded to change channels from HD to SD. The SD channels still show up in 720p and it never seems to switch to 480p. I'm not sure why this is happening (bug in my box maybe) but the channels are still looking better in 720p than they were in 1080i so it's a step in the right direction. I definitely appreciate the help.
 
#30 ·
Ruthless82 said:
mfabien: sorry to keep this running but it just won't seem to work. I went into the setup configured 480i and then 480p (widescreen) then configured 720p. I exited the setup, made sure it was set to upconvert-2 and then proceeded to change channels from HD to SD. The SD channels still show up in 720p and it never seems to switch to 480p. I'm not sure why this is happening (bug in my box maybe) but the channels are still looking better in 720p than they were in 1080i so it's a step in the right direction. I definitely appreciate the help.
If you are using HDMI, in your SA8300HD, go to General Settings and for "Set Picture Format" change from "Upconvert 2" to "DVI/HDMI Auto". That should do it.
 
#31 ·
I ordered the Harmony 628 last Friday and am just waiting for it to arrive. I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that the SA8300SD/HD box has the ability to "skip ahead 30 seconds" when playing back a recording, but they did not implement the functionality on the remote control. I also read that you can program a third-party remote control (i.e. Harmony) to use that functionality.

Any truth to this? I really miss my old ExpressVu 5100 "30 seconds skip-ahead" feature for commercials. If I could get that again on my SA8300HD, that'd be a bonus.
 
#32 ·
Test Drive Harmony 880 Question

Pretty much a novice at this game but I just got BEV 9200 and ordered a Harmony 880. Checked out the "Test Drive" at the Logitech/Harmony site. When you get to equip, there are listings for PVR and Satellite. Do you check them both? Also, there are multiple choices for 9200, 9200HD, etc. What do you check? Any help would be appreciated.
 
#34 ·
Ruthless82 said:
jlet:...Do you think it would be worth it to pay 40$ more and get a 680?
It's up to you. If you like tinkering, then you may grow out of the 628 and whished you bought the 680 or 880 instead, or keep the 628 and by another remote. I have two harmony remotes and found they love learning from each other. You can create a sequence of commands with one remote, blast it to the other remote, and learn the sequence as a single command.
 
#35 ·
MarcP, I doubt very much that the SA8300HD has a "30 seconds skip ahead" feature. Even if it did, the feature will be well hidden. In the US, there is heavy pressure to have this feature eliminated. I personally prefer the FF/Replay method.
 
#37 ·
Thanks jlet. So far I do like the 628 and I'm starting to get it they way I like it..at least in Watch PVR anyway (the individual device setup may take some time). With the LCD screen I have the 6 slots there now and in some other threads it says that to get stuff in the order you want you just need to go in and arrange them in that order in the button section. I did that but for some reason it always puts the tv functions first in the Watch PVR even though the pvr is the left most item (pvr then tv then receiver). Any ideas on what to do about this?
 
#39 ·
jlet said:
MarcP, I doubt very much that the SA8300HD has a "30 seconds skip ahead" feature. Even if it did, the feature will be well hidden. In the US, there is heavy pressure to have this feature eliminated. I personally prefer the FF/Replay method.
If it's any help, the Motorola DCT boxes have a code for the 30 second skip but you cannot program it to the remote that comes with the box. I went as far as contacting the remote control manufacturer who's technical rep. told me the skip feature can be only be made available by the provider (Rogers in NB). Rogers has disabled the skip feature presumably so that everyone has to at least FF through the commercials.

As for good news, my 676 has the >>| key programmed for the 30 second skip. The box can deal with the command, but you need a programable remote.
 
#40 ·
Ruthless82, the Custom Label area command re-grouping priority rule that I have described in post #20 in this thread is based on the behaviour of my 659 and 680. My guess is because the 628 is missing the "Picture" (display device) and "Sound" (volume control device) buttons, these 2 devices are given top priority. Could you add a command for the sound device and let us know which priority it gets. My guess is it will have a priority higher than your PVR. Also note that post #20 mentioned above provides 2 workarounds.
 
#41 ·
I didn't go in and add a control for the reciever but I'm willing to bet that your guess is correct. I decided that the feature I wanted to use (day/night on my tv) is better used through controlling the device. So I set it up on the first screen when I'm in my tv, so I just hit device, select tv and then I'm good to go for the feature. I think so far I've got my 628 set up perfectly for my needs, the only thing that is bothering me right now is a delay issue. The pvr buttons respond quickly sometimes (channel up/down) but then when I enter in a channel to go to (5-0-2) it goes terribly slow, also the play command is nice and slow too. I'll probably call the support line to see if they can assist me but for now I'm okay.

I don't use FAV or Pip so when I'm watching tv (pvr) here is my setup

A_____Live
B___Replay
C_____Exit

Stretch____Page+
Settings___Page-
Power

Then I mapped the list button to +* and Info to Enter
 
#44 ·
These delay settings are all in the same place (Device > More Options > Adjust the delays). If the "Power On" delay is not listed, it's because you set the device power settings to "there are no power buttons". However, the "Inter-Device" delay should be listed - check again.
 
#45 ·
jlet: thanks for the delay settings, that fixed up my problems. The only other big change I had to make was setting the power on delay for my tv. I upped it to 15 seconds so that way it has time to power on so it can change the input settings. Now everything is running smooth!
 
#46 ·
Okay, another quick question about my 628 (I hope). I went into the Watch a Movie action and decided to add in the aspect feature for my tv since I find that fullscreen dvds keep making it switch to expanded and I'd rather not stretch out the picture. So I made the change and then after uploading it I noticed that the aspect feature had been added to the Watch PVR activity as well as every other activity that used the tv. Is there a way around this? I tried mapping Aspect to hard button but the same thing keeps happening. I only want it to appear for the watch a movie activity so I don't have to keep pressing Device and switching over. Thanks for the help =)
 
#47 ·
Ruthless82,

I also programmed "Aspect" and provided for choices 1-2-3-4-0. As in your case, this has impacted all my Activities which involve the TV.

My Activities are:

- Watch PVR: where I need to have Aspect 0 for HD and 1 for SD. On occasion I'll watch pillar box SD on an HD channel and if it's a movie which is going to last for a lengthly period, I'll select Aspect 3.

- Watch DVR: same as above the difference being that sound comes from the TV vs the a/v.

- Watch TV: This is for the basic analog signal, therefore, SD only in Aspect 1

- Watch DVD: Widescreen requires Aspect 4 and Full screen Aspect 1.

As you can see, I need to have access to Aspect in all the above Activities
 
#48 ·
Ruthless82, what you have come across is the famous Command Propagation "Feature". Button command mapping (including custom buttons) created in one activity for a device/function combination will propagate to all activities that use the same device with the same function (same role). One solution around this "Feature" is to use a clone device for the other activity. However, you need to set the power settings of Clone Device(s) to "There are no power buttons", and add the regular device as a passthrough device so that it can control the power.
 
#49 ·
mfabien said:
If you are using HDMI, in your SA8300HD, go to General Settings and for "Set Picture Format" change from "Upconvert 2" to "DVI/HDMI Auto". That should do it.
Sorry to dredge this up but I've been doing some tinkering lately and remembered that I never really fixed my original problem. I changed the format to DVI/HDMI Auto but this didn't fix anything, it always stays at 720p. Then I enabled 1080i as well and tried upconvert-2 but now the SD channels just become 1080i and not 480p and with Auto they also stayed at 1080i. Do you think this is a bug with the HDMI connection? And will outputting them as 1080i be worse than if they were 480p?
 
#51 ·
Ruthless82 said:
Sorry to dredge this up but I've been doing some tinkering lately and remembered that I never really fixed my original problem. I changed the format to DVI/HDMI Auto but this didn't fix anything, it always stays at 720p. Then I enabled 1080i as well and tried upconvert-2 but now the SD channels just become 1080i and not 480p and with Auto they also stayed at 1080i. Do you think this is a bug with the HDMI connection? And will outputting them as 1080i be worse than if they were 480p?
Change the Picture Format setting to "Fixed". Whenever you wish to make a change, press the "Settings" button once, scroll down to Picture Format and select the scan rate you wish to have for SD or HD.
 
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