CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

jask · Joined: 17 Mar 2006 Posts: 5494 Location: kamloops BC

The Harmony 880 is the most popular remote in our house, it made it so much easier for my wife and kids. I have no information on the logos etc, try the harmony site or remotecentral.com

angryht · Joined: 22 Sep 2008 Posts: 104

Just to be clear: I assume I can't use my Universal MRF-100 RF base unit, right? I need to get a Marantz or Philips. Can anyone point me in the direction of a reasonably priced rf base unit?

Thanks

TechToys · Joined: 15 Sep 2008 Posts: 77

Actually the MRF-100 base should work. You'll have to experiment with the channels though.

angryht · Joined: 22 Sep 2008 Posts: 104

Probably worth a try. Thanks, TechToys.

Dfried1 · Joined: 20 Dec 2006 Posts: 12

Stay away from a the trek, it needs two units to do the job of one and need to be line of site.
The one made by Next Generation Home Products works well. Most of the time it is sold with the transmitter which you shouldn't need if you have a 501. I got two with out transmitters going direct to Next Generation.
Let me know if you can find the info and I can try and dig it out.
Make sure you get the correct version for the 501. the freq is in the back of the manual

hdtvluvr · Joined: 16 May 2009 Posts: 17

Can the power button be used as a macro? I need it turn on the TV, cable box, HTIB and set the input on a Sony TV.

Also, can one use any ProntoNeo files?

TechToys · Joined: 15 Sep 2008 Posts: 77

hdtvluvr · Joined: 16 May 2009 Posts: 17

So, somewhere I read that there were 5 macro buttons. I assume doing this with the power button would be 1 of the 5. I've looked at some neo files and some custom programs appear to be activity based with "Watch TV", "Watch DVD" etc. soft buttons on a device page. Do these sort of macros also account for the 5 or are they in addition to them?

I'm used to the mx series of remotes and software from URC. However, for the price of these they seem to be a better fit for my in-laws than the button remote I got from Radio Shack.

The manual just doesn't seem very clear on all of the possibilities of the remote.

ralpharch · Joined: 02 Nov 2007 Posts: 211 Location: Rockville, MD

Most of the hard buttons can be programmed except the scroll buttons, contrast, mode and device buttons. - so that leaves 15 hard buttons by my count.

And the macros are specific to the device hard button screen - so left power on my home screen turns everything on including reciever and tv an turns the tv volume down and tunes a channel. Right power button turns just the TV on in the home screen and turns to a channel. And then they both jump to appropriate devices.

But on those device pages the power macros are programmed to turn everything off (left power) or just the tv (right power) - and then they both jump to the start page device to be ready to start everything up.

So bottom line a lot of programming but very flexible

You can download my file that was posted above on March 7th and try it out in the emulator to see one way to program the power and othe buttons

hdtvluvr · Joined: 16 May 2009 Posts: 17

I downloaded the software from Remote Central and found your file there. Looks good. Now to go order.

97ss150 · Joined: 19 Dec 2007 Posts: 161

is this thing overly complicated or am i making a mistake starting from scratch? i have looked on the website and none of my gear is on there. i have a lexipro dc-1 preamp, and an nec pg?!? not too sure whats up.

TechToys · Joined: 15 Sep 2008 Posts: 77

It isn't overly complicated but you do have to think out the desgin fairly well if your starting from scratch. I tend to download a file someone else has worked on and just modify it to suit my needs. If you have the original remotes you can teach it the commands that aren't available from the internal database or on remotecentral.

angryht · Joined: 22 Sep 2008 Posts: 104

angryht · Joined: 22 Sep 2008 Posts: 104

I have noticed that sometimes when I activate the remote, the touch screen will freeze up and only show about half of the information. I can usually 'bring it back' by pushing a couple of buttons but I have had to remove the batteries to sort of reset it. Has anyone had a similar problem?

hdtvluvr · Joined: 16 May 2009 Posts: 17

Has anyone be able to create a macro on the Power and TV power buttons?

TechToys · Joined: 15 Sep 2008 Posts: 77

hdtvluvr · Joined: 16 May 2009 Posts: 17

ralpharch · Joined: 02 Nov 2007 Posts: 211 Location: Rockville, MD

hdtvluvr · Joined: 16 May 2009 Posts: 17

Thanks for your response. I have built my macro similar to yours and I do not get an IR symbol. I'll keep trying on that. In the meantime, I have another issue. I have 4 channel icons that when pressed give a message:" In the next screen type a codeset identifier for the TV from the user manual and press OK"

I have 20 other channel icons that will give the IR symbol at the top right of the remote and appear to work correctly. I have deleted the 4 buttons, copied back from your file and pasted into mine (like I did some of the others) and re-established the programming. I still get the error on those 4 buttons. What did I do wrong?

hdtvluvr · Joined: 16 May 2009 Posts: 17

OK, I fixed the 4 icons. I learned a single channel # to each and re-uploaded the file to the PC and then changed the learned IR code to the macro for the channel #'s, delays and enter.

I had the Power and TV Power macros working until I used NeoSync to set my startup page. The programming is on the keys (as seen on the PC) but they do not send an IR signal based on not getting the IR symbol on the upper right corner of the remote. I really need a custom startup page instead of a device page with a startup page. Any ideas?