Harmony Remotes

[JoeO]

Add me to the list of people who would not buy a 900 or 1100 remote.

I still think this is some prank or joke. Who would design, test and sell a $400 remote without macro capability? I have a $30 One For All that can do macros.

Given the above, Logitech Harmony will either fix the problem or for those who cannot live without this capability, refund their money. They are an honest  company who treat their customers fairly.

[sigma415]

I'm also signing this petition. I want to have sequences on my H1100.

Is there any explanation or technical background why sequences was deleted ?

If it's because of memory restrictions, Logitech should offer a possibility to switch off the button and background graphic features.

Greetings from Germany

[JGlitch]

1 more Vote.

Need a soft button to go to my movies, and light control

Jeff

[ms009986]

I just got a Harmony 900 as a Christmas gift, and I'm debating sending it back because it doesn't do sequences or "key macros".  (I was thinking about getting an 890 with sequence capability instead as the next best thing, but since it's been discontinued I can't convince myself it's a good idea.)

I like the 900, but the decision to drop sequences shakes my faith in Logitech.  I mean, who made this decision?  Not anyone who actually uses the product.  Anyone in the market for a remote control that costs this much money would definitely expect to have sequence capability, even if they never used it.  I'm sure many people actually bought the 900 with the assumption that it had sequencing capability.

Here's how I was wanting to use it.  For me, since I have satellite, I have a lot of programming options from other countries.  Like BBC for instance.  So, let's say I'm watching Eastenders.  Since I'm not a Watford native, Phil Mitchell will often say something that I didn't quite catch.  I turn on closed captioning, back up to what Phil said, verify with the captioning that I heard him right, then turn captioning off again and carry on with the show.

So on my Dish receiver, that means I do this:  MENU - 8 - 7 - 1 - LEFT - SELECT - RIGHT - SELECT - LIVETV - CLEAR.

Then I listen to Phil.

Then I do it all again:  MENU - 8 - 7 - 1 - LEFT - SELECT - RIGHT - SELECT - LIVETV - CLEAR.

Well that's pretty complicated.  What I need is a learning remote, right?  So with my Harmony 900 I was ver much looking forward to reducing my keypresses to 2 rather than 20.  But what?  The 900 can't do sequencing?  The 890 can do sequencing, but the 900 can't?  My 10-year-old scratched up Marantz with the taped-on battery cover can do sequencing, but this brand-new state-of-the-art Logitech remote can't?  Oh great. 

And the Amazon reviews I read had a few people saying, "Oh, you don't need sequences, just use a new activity!"  And I thought, well, okay.  But I experimented with the remote, and when you get right down to it, an activity's not the same thing at all.  I created an "activity" to switch closed captioning on, but switching closed captioning is not an "activity", it's a one-time thing.  But using the 900, when I'm watching TV, I have to change my activity from "watching TV" to "turning on closed captioning".  Then to get back to the TV-related buttons in my "watching TV" activity, I have to tell the remote that I'm no longer "turning on closed captioning", and hit the "watching TV" activity button again.  Then the same thing again when I want to turn captioning off.

The procedure's unnecessarily complicated.  I just want to click a button on my TV device that'll turn on closed captioning.  I want to be able to click pause and have the lights come up.  I want to be able to click one button to skip three minutes of commercials, instead of hitting "skip forward 30 seconds" six times.  The point is, just give me the ability to create a button of my own that sends multiple commands!  You know, like learning remotes do. 

And more than five mutliple commands.  I read that this was the command limit for Logitech's previous remotes that had sequence capabilities.  Why limit it?  And if you're gonna limit it, why limit it to five?  Why not 30?  And that's another thing...Logitech actually had sequence capability before, in the 890...but you took it away in the 900?  It'd make more sense if you never had sequencing at all, but to have it and then take it away?  Why??!? 

I could just stick with the remote and hope that Logitech pays attention to this petition and addresses this glaring omission in some future firmware update, but from the little I've read I haven't heard any indication that Logitech even understands that there's a problem.  So I'm looking at returning this remote while I still have the chance.  And either checking into Acoustic Research, who apparently has a near-identical remote, or perhaps just sticking with my ten-year-old Marantz, which still works just fine, and buying something other than a learning remote right now.

Having said all that, otherwise I think the Harmony 900 is one of the coolest learning remotes I've ever seen, and that makes the lack of key macros all that much more disappointing.

[mox17]

The 900 is my third Harmony remote. I was very disappointed to find that it does not support sequences, as I had used this feature in all previous setups.

Without sequences the 900 is a high-price *downgrade* in terms of user ease in my setups.

Bring sequences back!

[askbjoernhanse2]

Yes, please. 900 user here.

[stevenev]

Add me to the list.  Logitech this shouldn't be hard to implement as it was working on older remotes, give us back our macros or start losing customers

[hamsey]

signed

[DaneHarmony · Accepted solution]

At Harmony, we make extensive use of customer input including customer surveys, input from customer service regarding the problems people have setting up or using their remotes, as well as comments made in online forums and etail sites.  During development of the Harmony 900 and 1100 we confirmed that the sequences feature on some earlier Harmonies was not widely used.  As Harmony 900 and 1100 use a different embedded software platform than earlier remotes, we decided against including that feature in order to devote that effort elsewhere.

This is not meant to diminish the value that sequences can provide to those users who take the time to create them, only a recognition of how few customers actually do so.  Although the decision was made on the Harmony 900 and 1100 to limit sequences to the most common scenarios described below, we will consider the feedback from this forum as we look at future products we develop.

It is useful however to distinguish between the features called activities, favorite channels and sequences. All 3 represent the idea of multiple commands being fired with the press of a single button.  

Activities are the cornerstone of all Harmony remotes to date. When you want to watch a DVD for example, you push a single button to turn on your TV, your DVD player and your AV receiver and switch each device to the correct input.  Activities are by far the most common example of a command sequence and are fully supported on Harmony 900 and 1100.
Custom Startup and Ending actions associated with activities further enable custom behavior on the Harmony remote.  For example, users can program their activities so that Watch a Movie automatically sets certain sound or picture settings for the TV/Receiver when starting a movie
Favorite channels are like sequences but dedicated to channel tuning.  Users can program a single button press to send the 1-2-3 commands in order to tune to channel 123, for instance.  Favorite channels are fully supported on the Harmony 900 and 1100 and you can add icons to represent those channels on the remote touch screens.
"Sequences" are best described as mini-activities within an activity.  For instance, one might program their FF key to execute 3 FF commands with a single press, to move through commercials on their DVR more quickly.  Others might program a series of commands to navigate their STB menu to enable or disable closed captioning with a single button press. This type of sequence is not supported on Harmony 900 and 1100.

For customers who value sequences, I suggest either the Harmony One or the Harmony 700.  If the closed-cabinet control of the Harmony 900 is also important, I suggest adding the Harmony IR Extender System.  

Hope this helps,

Ian Crowe
Global Product Marketing Manager
Logitech Harmony Remote Controls

[MichaelH]

Where exactly were those other efforts devoted? My 890 Pro's are better functionally than the 900. Granted I can still get the job done, but this couldn't be a difficult thing to add. The hardware platform is irrelivent, it's a software feature not a hardware one. A firmware update should be able to fix ths, if it can't, there are far more serious issues with the core programming on these devices. I've resorted to an ir to rs232 adapter that does sequences, but now I have to run rs232 to three of my devices that I originally bought my 890 Pro's to handle. The fiasco with them failing has left me with one 900, probably soon to be another, and this is just unacceptable for the price of these.