Harmony Remotes

[beaversauce]

I can't agree more.  I can't find this 2.5mm to 3.5 mm cord anywhere in town.  Thanks again, Logitech, for getting my hopes up and pooping on them by delivering an ignorant product design that I can't even use.  Maybe you should at least include the fact that this piece of junk needs a MONO 2.5mm to MONO 3.5mm in the directions and on the box.  Better yet, include crap that is needed but not available anywhere.  As a dealer that regularly sells and installs Harmony remotes, I am disgusted and appalled that Logitech does not include this 8 cent piece that is required for RF to work.   You are officially garbage and I am going back to Universal.  Thanks for nothing you idiots.

[KyleDC]

Of course, you could just use a regular emitter that is packed with the extender...

[csfuu]

I am using a Harmony H688 and an H890 to control a Samsung LN52B750 LCD TV, Scientific Atlanta 8300HD PVR, Yamaha RX-V757 receiver, and a PS3  with Harmony's PS3 adapter.  The four year old receiver does not have any HDMI inputs, so both the PVR and the PS3 are connected to the TV via HDMI and to the receiver via optical audio cable.  Specifically. the PS3 is connected to HDMI 2 on the TV.

As suggested elsewhere on this board, I have increased the start up delay for the Samsung to 13000 to get it to switch to the right input on startup, but there is still a problem. Now everything starts up normally and the TV is set to HDMI 2, but unless the TV was using HDMI 2 when it was last turned off, the PS3's output does not appear on the TV screen (I can hear it through the receiver just fine).  It is as if by the time the TV gets around to setting its input to the PS3, the PS3 has decided that there is nothing there, although I have no idea where it thinks that it is sending its output, as I have no other video cables of any kind connected.

This may be more of a Samsung/PS3 problem than a Harmony problem, but my solution at this point is to have the Harmony remote set the TV's input to HDMI 2 when shutting it down from any other activity.  Then, when the TV first starts up, it is always initially on HDMI 2 before switching to the desired input.  Of course when I start an activitiy involving the PS3, it is already on the right input and this solves the problem, albeit in a rather kludgy way.

So, has anyone else seen anything like this, and if so, do you have a better solution?  Of course any analysis of the  actual cause of the problem is also welcome.   In fact, It just occurred to me while typing this that I haven't tried connecting the PS3 to one of the TV's other HDMI ports --- I cannot think of any reason that this should make a difference, but I have read elsewhere of devices that would work on one HDMI port of a receiver but not another, so who knows?

FWIW, I've really only observed the problem while using the H688.  I just got the H890 and I'm still setting it up.  So far I'm just using it with straight IR (i.e., without the RF extender) as advised somewhere (here?), and  I programmed it with the same trick (switchTV to HDMI 2 before shutting down) before even trying it without the trick.  Still, I can't really think of any reason why it should be any different with the H890.

Thanks in advance.

[WannabeActuary]

sounds to me completely like a PS3 issue and not necessarily a harmony problem.  you can time the tv itself and see how long it needs after being turned on before it can receive an input.

I have the same tv, but since everything goes through my receiver and to the tv via a single HDMI cable, I have no need to change inputs...as a result, I dropped my power on delay for the tv to 1.5 seconds

[TJK]

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csfuu wrote:

I am using a Harmony H688 and an H890 to control a Samsung LN52B750 LCD TV, Scientific Atlanta 8300HD PVR, Yamaha RX-V757 receiver, and a PS3  with Harmony's PS3 adapter.  The four year old receiver does not have any HDMI inputs, so both the PVR and the PS3 are connected to the TV via HDMI and to the receiver via optical audio cable.  Specifically. the PS3 is connected to HDMI 2 on the TV.

As suggested elsewhere on this board, I have increased the start up delay for the Samsung to 13000 to get it to switch to the right input on startup, but there is still a problem. Now everything starts up normally and the TV is set to HDMI 2, but unless the TV was using HDMI 2 when it was last turned off, the PS3's output does not appear on the TV screen (I can hear it through the receiver just fine).  It is as if by the time the TV gets around to setting its input to the PS3, the PS3 has decided that there is nothing there, although I have no idea where it thinks that it is sending its output, as I have no other video cables of any kind connected.

This may be more of a Samsung/PS3 problem than a Harmony problem, but my solution at this point is to have the Harmony remote set the TV's input to HDMI 2 when shutting it down from any other activity.  Then, when the TV first starts up, it is always initially on HDMI 2 before switching to the desired input.  Of course when I start an activitiy involving the PS3, it is already on the right input and this solves the problem, albeit in a rather kludgy way.

So, has anyone else seen anything like this, and if so, do you have a better solution?  Of course any analysis of the  actual cause of the problem is also welcome.   In fact, It just occurred to me while typing this that I haven't tried connecting the PS3 to one of the TV's other HDMI ports --- I cannot think of any reason that this should make a difference, but I have read elsewhere of devices that would work on one HDMI port of a receiver but not another, so who knows?

FWIW, I've really only observed the problem while using the H688.  I just got the H890 and I'm still setting it up.  So far I'm just using it with straight IR (i.e., without the RF extender) as advised somewhere (here?), and  I programmed it with the same trick (switchTV to HDMI 2 before shutting down) before even trying it without the trick.  Still, I can't really think of any reason why it should be any different with the H890.

Thanks in advance.

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csfuu,

I have a similar setup but with a Mitsubish DLP TV that has a long startup time.  I have had success adding another "set to HDMI X" command for each activity in the startup cycle.  I don't know if your TV cycles or has discrete input commands, but if it has discrete commands try the following.

Go to Review Settings/Yes, but I want add more.../ then hit save.  When you get to the screen to review the actions for the activity, add an action for your Samsung TV to go to the appropriate HDMI input.  This might seem redundant since there's probably an earlier command to do the same thing, but this seems to have solved my problem which sounds very much like what you're seeing.  If it is, it has nothing to do with any other equipment other than the TV's ability to receive and process the input command w/in the timeframe the remote is currently trying to set it.

Hope this works for you.

[flcyclist]

I have a simliar configuration my STB is connected to HDMI 1 and my PS3 is connected to HDMI 2 of my Samsung DLP. The only problems I had was when I had a short delay on startup it would send the input command before the TV was ready. With that set correctly all works fine I can switch between PS3 & TV and the HDMI inputs switch without problems, also does not matter what input was set when I power off it powers up correctly based on the activity I select. The PS3 seems to send output to the HDMI regardless of whether the otehr device is connected or powered up so I don't think that is the problem. I have a H One btw.

[csfuu]

TJK,

Your solution was the first thing I tried, but it didn't work for my setup, at least not consistently.  It seems that it's not an issue of getting the TV's input set correctly, but of  getting it set correctly BEFOREthe PS3 gives up on the connection.

[csfuu]

flcyclist,

Which delay are you talking about?  If you mean a delay on the TV, that doesn't seem to help, as it doesn't stop the PS3 from going ahead and trying to start a connection (and apparently giving up when it fails).  Or are you saying that you have a delay set on starting up the PS3?   I don't recall seeing that as an option, else I probably would have tried it.

[TJK]

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csfuu wrote:

TJK,

Your solution was the first thing I tried, but it didn't work for my setup, at least not consistently.  It seems that it's not an issue of getting the TV's input set correctly, but of  getting it set correctly BEFOREthe PS3 gives up on the connection.

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Hmmm.....that's interesting.  I wasn't aware that the PS3 would give up on the connection as I certainly haven't seen that.  This might be obvious, but if that's truely what's happening, then you might want to move the PS3 turn-on to later (or last) in the device turn-on list.

I'll play around with my setup this weekend, but there must be a system setting or something that would change this - assuming your assessment is what's happening.  For example, I noticed recently that either my wife or daughter had left the PS3 on, but everything else was off.  I turned on the receiver (I route HDMI through the receiver) and TV manually and the XMB was up and running.  That said, not sure why my PS3 wouldn't care and stay connected to the video and yours wouldn't.

[gossard]

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TJK wrote:

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csfuu wrote:

TJK,

Your solution was the first thing I tried, but it didn't work for my setup, at least not consistently.  It seems that it's not an issue of getting the TV's input set correctly, but of  getting it set correctly BEFOREthe PS3 gives up on the connection.

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Hmmm.....that's interesting.  I wasn't aware that the PS3 would give up on the connection as I certainly haven't seen that.  This might be obvious, but if that's truely what's happening, then you might want to move the PS3 turn-on to later (or last) in the device turn-on list.

I'll play around with my setup this weekend, but there must be a system setting or something that would change this - assuming your assessment is what's happening.  For example, I noticed recently that either my wife or daughter had left the PS3 on, but everything else was off.  I turned on the receiver (I route HDMI through the receiver) and TV manually and the XMB was up and running.  That said, not sure why my PS3 wouldn't care and stay connected to the video and yours wouldn't.

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Yeah, I leave my PS3 on a lot and my two year old just thinks it's the funniest thing in the world to turn it on when I'm not around but each time it's left on, when I turn on the TV the XMB is there, so the PS3 doesn't give up as it doesn't know or care if the TV is on or not.  To me it sounds like there is an issure with the "handshake" between your PS3 and your TV.  Try swapping HDMI cables with another one and see if it continues.  I have had cables that have started acting up similar to what you are describing and after replacing them, the problems have gone away.

Also, if you havent already, you may want to search the PS3 section of the AVS Forum.  There is a ton of helpful people and threads there that may be able to solve the issue.