[inabsentia]

OK, My trusty Maplins bought 10 -in- 1 remote is finally on it's way out after a decade of great service. I started looking at replacing it last year- I got one of the 'universal learning remotes' from Aldi and it was awful - never did get more than 20 commands stored in it's memory!! I also tried the touchscreen learning remote that Aldi had on sale late last year- and that was worse because it was not compatible with either SKY+ or any PVR.

I'm now looking around at the options - I need it to be able to control at least 5 pieces of kit, preferrably 8-I'll need a learning function (Some of my kit is a bit obscure!!) and I'm not looking to spend any more that 30 quid.

I was looking at the Sony RM-VL600T but this seems to suffer from the same problems that most others do in that there is no dedicated red/green/yellow/blue buttons- they are 'shared' on the play/stop/ff/rew buttons which makes them useless for Sky+ or PVR useage.

Based on my requirements and my budget, anyone got any thoughts?

[Chris Frost]

....It's something you use every day...
....you've wasted time with two other remotes...
....and found that if you buy crap you get crap...

Why are you being so cheap?

Apologies for being so direct but perhaps it's time to spend £50 on a Harmony and stop wasting everyone's time!

[Chris Frost]

or even £40 - clicky

[Pingu]

Once you go Harmony you never go back

[JohnD2000]

Seconded. Spend a bit more and get a Harmony. You wont regret it.

[inabsentia]

really guys, thanks for the effort but this happens EVERY time someone sets perameters on here.. Thirty quid is the amount I can spend, not forty, not fifty..now..have you got any input at that level?

[Pingu]

The Logitech remotes are so far ahead of the competition, it's really not worth spending more than a tenner on a basic OneForAll if you can't stretch to a Harmony.

[Chris Frost]

Quote:

Originally Posted by inabsentia

really guys, thanks for the effort but this happens EVERY time someone sets perameters on here.. Thirty quid is the amount I can spend, not forty, not fifty..now..have you got any input at that level?

Well what about a Kameleon 6-in-1 for £25 from Richer Sounds? 6 devices controlled, coloured text buttons.

Personally I'd skip a couple of takeaways or whatever and save up the extra £15 for a Harmony, but then that's me.

[anap]

Try your local Comet!

[inabsentia]

Thanks for the input folks!!

[anap]

Quote:

Originally Posted by inabsentia

really guys, thanks for the effort but this happens EVERY time someone sets perameters on here.. Thirty quid is the amount I can spend, not forty, not fifty..now..have you got any input at that level?

I've got a Philips Prestigo 9600 going for that amount!

Quote:

Originally Posted by anap

Try your local Comet!

Thanks for the heads up on that, I picked up one in my local Comet today, can't believe I paid nearly £100 for one a few years back! Anyway, this will replace my old 628 in the bedroom very nicely

[jibberjabber2b]

Sorry to say it as I know it's not what the OP wants to hear, but I've got a Harmony 525. I've had it for a few years now and I think it's great! So customisable and the software is always getting updated with newer devices, etc.

The troubleshooting function is also good so if things have gone out of sync when switching from one activity to another you simply answer a few questions and you're back on track.

Only thing is some paint wearing off, but I can live with that.

[inabsentia]

OK, got wifey and daughter to club together and get me one of these Harmony 525's. Set it up ok though I'm not sure about all of this 'activities' nonsense-then again, I never bothered with macro's on my old one and I guess 'Activities' is Logitech's own version of that.

It not bad in use, though there are a few things I don't like- the screen isn't the easiest thing to use and the order of the actions you can get to from the screen seem to make no sense- anyone know if you can play about with the order they appear on ther screen? For instance, I use the PIP function on my TV and it's currently tucked away on something like screen 8 of 12. It would be nice if there were a few buttons you could 'teach' commands onto to get around stuff like that (NOTE** Just realised you can probably do this within the Logitech software....)

It would also be nice if there was audio 'punch through' so you can change the master TV volume regardless of the bit of kit you are controlling.

The only other thing I'vve noticed is that on one bit of kit, when you use the scroll down button, it jumps two places instead of one.. Is there some kind of dedicated on line forum for discussing such issues?

[jibberjabber2b]

It's not activities nonsense. It allows you to switch between different activities, such as Watching a DVD, to Watching Sky, etc, and this works very well, i.e you can switch everything off in one go, etc, but it knows which devices were on based on your activity so therefore will only switch those devices off.

Yes, in the options you can choose the order that they appear on screen and all. To use it properly you need to make use of the activities, trust me it makes life a lot easier in the long run. If you don't play around with it and use all the features you won't see the benefits, and your user experience will be limited.

As I said, when you set up activites you can choose some main buttons to appear on the screen instead of the 12 screens etc. and you can choose which device you want to control the volume with for that particular activity. In you case that will probably be TV for every activity.

Switching between each device individually is NOT the best way to use this remote.

[Chris Frost]

Quote:

Originally Posted by inabsentia

The only other thing I'vve noticed is that on one bit of kit, when you use the scroll down button, it jumps two places instead of one.. Is there some kind of dedicated on line forum for discussing such issues?

Try the Harmony forum at www.remotecentral.com

[inabsentia]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jibberjabber2b

It's not activities nonsense. It allows you to switch between different activities, such as Watching a DVD, to Watching Sky, etc, and this works very well, i.e you can switch everything off in one go, etc, but it knows which devices were on based on your activity so therefore will only switch those devices off.

Yes, in the options you can choose the order that they appear on screen and all. To use it properly you need to make use of the activities, trust me it makes life a lot easier in the long run. If you don't play around with it and use all the features you won't see the benefits, and your user experience will be limited.

As I said, when you set up activites you can choose some main buttons to appear on the screen instead of the 12 screens etc. and you can choose which device you want to control the volume with for that particular activity. In you case that will probably be TV for every activity.

Switching between each device individually is NOT the best way to use this remote.

Sorry, but for me-and the other users of the equipment in the house- it is. That really is all I want it to do, which I suppose is why it does seem like 'over the top nonsense'.

For instance, why would I ALWAYS want to turn off Sky+ when I want to watch a DVD- someone in another room may well be wanting to watch something on the SKY box in another room. Even worse, one of my PVR's stops recording if you switch it off!! The trouble is, I can't find anywhere in the setting to turn off the 'all other devices off' setting-it's probably hidden away in there somewhere, but I can't see it!!

I'm also surprised that you can't change the order of the devices- when I set everything up, I started with the most used device and worked backwards- as a consequence, I'd have thout the TV would be the first device on the screen, Sky + second..etc.. down to VCR as the eighth, but it's not- the VCR is first, meaning unccesary button pressing to get to the device I want to control

The lack of 'punch though' volume is very poor though- even the cheapest universal remotes can do this.

There are lots of things I like about it- it does actually function just like the original remote controls

[inabsentia]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Frost

Try the Harmony forum at www.remotecentral.com

Thanks for that- just what I was looking for!! ONe thing though, the 525 is not listed on there -There is a 520 -is that basically the same remote for other countries??

[inabsentia]

OK, I've been playing with the 'Activities' thing all morning. I've now solved the 'everything off' problem (Still think it's strange to have that as the default setting though!!) and I've added/amended every 'activity' I can think we'd use.

The major issue I've come across now is that every time I choose an 'activity' the TV switrches to standby. I can see why as evcery activity has the TV as being 'On' so the remote must be sending a command to the (already on) TV and that is switching it off. In the settings on the activities, I can't find a way of switching this around so that no command is sent to the TV (It seems to allow you to add a command to an actibity, but not take anything off)

[Chris Frost]

Harmony (Logitec) does use alternate model codes for different parts of the world. It also does the same for some of the biggest retailers so they have an exclusive product. The general advice in the forums is pretty useful though. Just find the model that closest matches to yours and go from there.

One of the strengths of Harmony is it is relatively easy to set up for novices by using the wizards. But relying heavily on wizards is also a bit of a handicap when it comes to more advanced programming. There's usually a way round most problems, it just takes a little patience and occasionally some lateral thought.

The reason Harmony issues Off commands is to do with this 'easy for novices' approach. Harmony try to deal with issues like priority SCART switching by turning off unused devices.

The other thing Harmony tries to do is to put devices in to a 'known state'. That's easy to do if there are separate IR code commands for On and Off, but harder if Power is controlled by a single On/Off IR code command.

There are ways around this too. For Sky - use the Sky button for On and then program a sequence of Sky + Power Toggle for Off. Your TV might be controllable in a similar way. Perhaps a channel button will switch the TV on, then use Power Toggle for the Off command.

If you get stuck then have a look through the remote central forum, there's plenty of good general advice.

On a final note, I am not a fan of Harmony. For what I do in professional custom installation I find it too restrictive and my customers don't like the small fiddly buttons or multi-page displays. But having said that I can't argue with the value of the product. I think they've got the bottom to mid-market pretty sussed.

Regards

Chris

[jibberjabber2b]

Quote:

Originally Posted by inabsentia

OK, I've been playing with the 'Activities' thing all morning. I've now solved the 'everything off' problem (Still think it's strange to have that as the default setting though!!) and I've added/amended every 'activity' I can think we'd use.

The major issue I've come across now is that every time I choose an 'activity' the TV switrches to standby. I can see why as evcery activity has the TV as being 'On' so the remote must be sending a command to the (already on) TV and that is switching it off. In the settings on the activities, I can't find a way of switching this around so that no command is sent to the TV (It seems to allow you to add a command to an actibity, but not take anything off)

Sorry, can't help you there as if I set a device to be "on" in a particular activity... well it's on! So if you switch from another activity where that same device was on, it would leave it on.

I see we are turning you around to using the activities.

Would say told you so, but I won't. Oops, just did.

[grimtales1]

Hey,
Sorry to hijack this thread but I think I may need a new remote too as the one with my Philips TV doesnt seem to work anymore. Practically all the buttons (the numbers except for maybe 1, 6 and 9 don't respond and the only wau yo operate Teletext/Ceefax is to cycle to a page number using the Channel buttons
I'll try the batteries first though and give it a clean but its annoying.
Which remotes do you think are best?

[Chris Frost]

If you just want to replace the one remote control for the Philips TV then go buy a universal remote. Pick one that looks nicest.

But if you are after one remote to replace them all then the Harmony that Comet have/had on offer is about the best value you'll ever get - £20, if there's any left.

Regards

Chris

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Frost

If you just want to replace the one remote control for the Philips TV then go buy a universal remote. Pick one that looks nicest.

But if you are after one remote to replace them all then the Harmony that Comet have/had on offer is about the best value you'll ever get - £20, if there's any left.

Regards

Chris

Doubtful if there are any of those left but Amazon have the rather nifty 525 for sale at under £40 right now too, can't go wrong with a Harmony IMHO.

[grimtales1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Frost

If you just want to replace the one remote control for the Philips TV then go buy a universal remote. Pick one that looks nicest.

But if you are after one remote to replace them all then the Harmony that Comet have/had on offer is about the best value you'll ever get - £20, if there's any left.

Regards

Chris

Thank you Chris