Harmony Remotes

[raskm]

The only way to control the volume is if I select the Sound bar, but I want to control sound while I am watching TV or a DVD without switching it to the sound bar.  Can someone tell me exactly how to set this up....just frustrating that I can't control the volume from watching a movie or tv.   Thanks for your help!

[rhachey]

Select each Activity in the software, select Customize Buttons, then select each of the 3 sound buttons an change to device to the soundbar to control the sound.  When you crated the Activities, one of the quetions that you should have been asked is What device controls your sound, had you selected the soundbar, those buttons whould have been mapped to the soundbar

[raskm]

I bought the sound bar after I set up all the other devices.  I tried to customize the buttons, but the only sound options I have is DVD and TV from the drop down....Maybe I missed something on the setup?  I added the Sound bar as an amplifier?

[raskm]

I went ahead and started all over and it works fine now....Thanks

[bluehawk555]

Rhachey,

I'm using the Harmony 700.  Have connected my a Vizio VSB200 soundbar to my Sony TV.  I think that I have programmed it so that Watch TV volume (on the H700) will control the sound on BOTH the TV and Vizio.  I also want the Watch TV MUTE button to mute both TV and soundbar at the same time.  However, when I press mute on Watch TV on the TV sound mutes.

Are you saying that I can accomplish this by choosing Vizio soundbar to control the sound on both devices?  Then the Watch TV vol-up/vol-down & mute will control sound on both devices at the same time?

[rhachey]

It is not standard to have two devices controlling your volume at the same time, in the setup you can only designate one or the other to control the volume.  Having two devices controlling the volume may give you an echo effect.  But if you want this to happen, the only way is to create a Sequence which would combine the 2 Volume Up commands and another to combine the volume down commands, and a third to combine the 2 mute commands, then assign the sequences to the volume up, volume down, and mute buttons.  But, you can only create a sequence if you are using the Harmony 7.7 software.  If your are using MyHarmony.com to program your remote, then you cannot create sequences.

[hhatkin]

---

bluehawk555 wrote:
I think that I have programmed it so that Watch TV volume (on the H700) will control the sound on BOTH the TV and Vizio.
Are you saying that I can accomplish this by choosing Vizio soundbar to control the sound on both devices?

---

It's not possible directly to program any button to control two devices at the same time.

I don't see anything in rhachey's posts to suggest that he was suggesting that it is possible.

You could get the effect by the Sequence method.

The normal method is to decide on one or the other device for audio and specify that in the Activity setup procedure.

[bluehawk555]

Yes, I admit that this is a bit non-standard.  But, the sound on the TV is OK and the Vizio SB enhances the total sound.  One device without the other produces an overall less pleasing sound quality.  I think I can live with the letting the TV control the sound if I can use sequences to Mute both TV and SB at the same time.  I configured the Harmony at Harmony.com and didn't realize that the software was actually a separate program.  Thanks for the info.  I'll looking into how to do sequences.

[bluehawk555]

Turns out that I was using the Harmony 7.7 Software after all.  Found the sequence process and programmed the Mute to work with both TV & Vizio.  It worked!  Thanks for the help.

One other question.   Is there any way to print out a layout of how the the standard & additional buttons are programed?   I can only find a post from Aug 2010 asking about it but no answer.   I finally resorted to a print screen utility to cut & past the images into a word document so I could print it.   It helped a lot in seeing how the automatic setup filled in the button programing so I could program additional buttons that I needed.

[rhachey]

No, there is no way to print out of how the remote is programmed.  The only thing you can do is print out screen shots of the settings in the software.