Harmony Remotes

[erogue]

Hi

I have recently got your H One remote and it is excellent, more functionality than I could hope for to control the various wayward, uncooperative bitys of kit I have.

I am having one issue I can't figure out.

I have a Samsung HW-D350 sound bar that has 3 inputs Digi 1, Digit 2 and Analog.  The digital ones are optical.

My TV (panasonic) is connected to Digi 1 and a WDTV to Digi 2.

The TV is fed its audio signal via HDMI from my FaxSat HDR and passes it on to the optical.  The WDTV is set to only send audio via its optical so nothing audio goes to the TV via that HDMi lead.

I added the bar device to the harmony and have told the activities of Watch FoxSat and Watch WDTV to use the sound and that it requires Digit 1 for FoxSat and Digi 2 for WDTV.

The harmony changes activites ok, the TV switches input ok but the sound bar doesn't.

If I try the onboard help then it does eventually change the sound bar's input but obviously I have to do that each time.

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I think the problem is that my sound bar doesn't have distinct buttons for switching inputs, it steps up/down to find them, so Digi 1 to Digi 2 to Analog to Digi 1, etc.

Not quite sure how to tell the harmony how to do that as I can't be sure the sound bar will be in the right input for an 'up/down' to work?

Is there some way to force the sound bar to definitely be on Digi 1 then do a seq to hit 2 or Analog? (tho don't need analog at mo)

Thanks

Simon

[idicev]

Hi Simon

May I ask:-

a.)  In the Activiy set up, did you select 'source input is missing' ?

b.) and, if so, on the next page which method for input selection did you use, was it 1. or 3. ('for Samsung')?

c.). I assume SB skips the unused inputs, is that right?

d.). From standby I assume the SB remembers and recalls the input it was last on, is that right?

If d.) is right:-

you might consider doing  a.), then choosing method 2. (in b.) and deleting all the inputs on the next screen (in effect to turn off the auto input selection).

If c.) is also right:-

Add an 'Input Left/Right' SB command to the start, and one to the finish, of the 'Watch WDTV' activity.

Try always to start up from 'All Off' to 'WatchTv', and always try to go to 'All Off', from the 'WatchTV' activity.

If you still don't have it fixed and if I have it wrong in d.) and c.), then please do come back

Regards

Chris

[erogue]

Hi

I did try 'missing' and then 1.  I didn't try 3 as my TV isn't Samsung (or whatever brand that related to)

It doesn't skip unused inputs, no.  It does remember what it was on.

Not sure I'd want to start from All Off to be honest.  Usually I am watching the FoxSat/TV (Digi 1) and I'd want to switch to WDTV (Digi 2), or vice versa

Anyhow.  I carried on playing and think I have found a solution earier this morning.  Hoping it carries on behaving.

I posted my successful fix against a different post I was watching as that poster had another issue I also had (sound bar on/off).  I forgot about this thread!

Harmony One Remote and Samsung Sound Bar

In case that doesn't link then the text of my post was ...

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I adjusted the delays to ...

Power On 4000 (my HW-D350 does a cute but slow gimmick with its lights for on/off so have given it plenty of time)

Inter-key 100 (default)

Input 1000 (default)

Inter-device 800 (up from 500)

I made sure that the sound bar was powered on "first" for all my activites. Not sure if that was needed in the end but can't see it hurting.

I then went to Learn IR and added some new commands (at the bottom).  I did this rather than learning over the top of the existing commands as I found out before you can't 'go back' so once Power, for example, has been learned you can't reset to "Database" if it didn't help or made it worse.

The commands I added were

PowerRaw

InputRightRaw

InputLeftRaw

Initially you can only teach it a new command in non-Raw mode but once they are added you can click custom (bottom right) and add Raw commands. Hopefully it's obvious which buttons you need to press for these commands!

As far as I can tell, Raw commands mimic whatever button press you do, for as long as you do it.  I figured my sound bar needed "more" of the power signal to respond to.

Once they are learned go into the Settings for the sound bar and do "adjust power settings".  Leave it on one key for on/off and change the dropdown from PowerToggle to the new PowerRaw

Choose Done to get that saved and update the remote.  You should now have on/off working. 

I found the samsung is quite directionally sensitive so make sure the Harmony stays pointing at the bar whilst al the on/off stuff is happening for your setup.

The urge to tilt the Harmony up to see what the screen says is hard to resist I find and I think that messes things up quite often!

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On a different but related note, teaching it the Input buttons was because I also couldn't get my bar to switch inputs when changing between TV (Digi1) and WDTV (Digi2)

Originally I had it on Mode 1 - one button steps through the inputs (which are Digi1, Digi2 and Analogue on my bar).  It was set to 'not skip unconnected inputs', 'the device remembers what it input it was on' and InputSelectRight was the button to move through the sequence.

I tried having InputRightRaw with Mode 1 but that didn't work, it would go from Digi 1 to Digi 2 but not back to Digi 1.  I would have preferred it to work this way but gave up!

Instead I changed to Mode 2 - one button per input and told Digi 1 it is attached to InputLeftRaw and Digi 2 is on InputRightRaw.

Essentially I have made it so the Input left/right buttons toggle between Digi 1 and Digi 2 which is fine so long as I never want to use Analog and as long as the input on the bar doesn't get out of sync with the remote, mind you the nifty Help feature would sort that I expect.

Hope this helps, made changes today so will come back and leave a further note if they don't keep working.

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[idicev]

Thanks for coming back.

Glad you got it sorted.

[erogue]

Actually I found a problem.

If I do "All Off" on the remote and then come back to it later and choose Watch TV then it sends an input change signal to the sound bar.  As my input changes are actually up/down instructions the sound bar moves its input. 

Depending on what it was on when it was switched off the resulting shift will leave it wrong most of the time.

Back to the drawing board on that bit.  Still on/off is now working!

Will have to go back to mode 1 I guess.

[erogue]

Switched the sound bar Input settings back to Method 1.

Have used InputRightRaw (as described above) as the button to move through the Inputs.  Told the software that my bar remembers what the input was set to when on standby and doesn't skip unconnected inputs (analog in my case).

On testing the bar woke up fine when I wanted to Watch TV and stayed on Digi1 (where it had been).

I then did Watch WDTV and it switched to Digi 2.  Great.

Unfortunately, when I then said Watch TV again it changed the TV over ok but the bar stayed on Digi 1.

If I ask for help it does fix it tho it takes a couple of tries as it goes to Analog before it gets to Digi 1

If I use the InputSelectRight button on the SB's "device" it works fine, steps through them one at a time.

I also tried changed the inter-key delay to 400 rather than 100 but didn't help.

If I use the original remote for the SB then I can change inputs quite quickly so don't think that's the problem.

Any further suggestions?

The online help talks about 'codes' being available to Logitech that aren't default on the remote, such as PowerOn and PowerOff.  How would I find out if codes exist for Digi1, Digi2, Analog, etc. as that would solve my problem I think.

[rhachey]

One point to make, in the software, the reference to Method 3 is for Samsung TV's is totally wrong, every Samsung TV I have setup uses Method 2 (discrete) for input selection.

[erogue]

Ok, thanks.

My TV is Panasonic, never had a Samsung TV.  Not sure it matters to setting the inputs as such, its a standard screen for choosing an input that mostly applies to TVs but also sound bars, audio receivers, etc.

Methods 3 and 4 have too many button pushes for what my sound bar wants for input change.

Grrr, so close to having the harmony work perfectly!

[rhachey]

With the Samsung Sound Bar You should be able to use Method 2 for Input setting, you may also need to increase the Power On delay for the sound bar

[erogue]

I tried using Method 2 with InputSelectLeft as Digi 1 and InputSelectRight as Digi 2.

It worked ok as long as everything was on, those 2 buttons switch back and forth between 1 and 2 just fine.

However, once the sound bar was on standy, along with the TV etc., on waking it up to TV, say, the Harmony would send an InputSelectLeft to ensure sound bar input is on Digi 1.

Of course my Digi 1 selector isn't really a fixed button as method 2 expects so a signal of InputSelectLeft would cause the Input to cycle backwards, Digi 2 to Digi 1, Digi 1 to Analog, Analog to Digi 2

Bit stumped, am fairly sure Method 1 should work.  If going from Digi 1 to Digi 2 it works but it doesn't change the input from Digi 2 to Digi 1, it doesn't even wrongly change it to Analog which is what I'd expect if it was trying to go 2 x InputSelectRight but couldn't get both signals to go cleanly.

My power up delay is set to 4 secs which seems to be plenty now - power on/off are working ok