Harmony 885 missing commands

[macspost]

I have a Harmony 885 remote and am having problems controlling my Samsung PS50Q97 TV.

I can never get the TV to go to the correct input when it is first switched on. I can fix this by using the help button and cycling through the inputs but it would be nice if I didnt have to do this. I know I can get the remote to cycle through the inputs but since it takes about 2 seconds for the TV to swap inputs each time this is a lengthy process.

I notice that in the devices section for the TV there are separate commands for swapping directly to specific inputs without having to cycle through them one at a time. These commands work fine and using them I am able to get the TV to switch directly to some of the inputs when it turns on. There is no command listed for swapping directly to the PC input however.

On the remote for the TV there are no buttons at all for swapping directly to any input, there is only a source button that cycles through inputs one at a time. I don't know where the commands to swap directly to some inputs have originated from, and I cant get the harmony to learn a command to swap directly to the PC input as I dont have a button for this on the original remote.

Any suggestions as to how I can find a command to swap directly to the PC input?

Thanks

[Rob_Meister]

If you take another look at the Samsung's device settings you are able to manual add a source. You are required to type the name exactly as it appears on the TV. For examle, PC. One you have done this it can then be selected as a command.

[macspost]

Rob,

Thanks for the reply but I must be missing something. When I go to the device settings I get

- Adjust Inputs
- Adjust Power Settings
- Adjust Delays
- Customise Buttons
- Rename device
- Confirm IR commands
- Learn IR commands
- Re-do setup
- Advanced setup
- Troubleshoot
- Set up based on similar device

I have looked in Adjust inputs and advanced and can't find any option to manually add a source. When you go through adjust inputs it gives you a list of different ways that your TV can control inputs, ie. via a single source button or separate buttons for each source. Whichever way you go there is no option to switch to the PC input directly, the database does not know this IR command and I have no way to learn it from the original remote.

[mroshaw]

I had this problem with my Sammy LCD TV. There is a command called 'InputRGB' that seems to switch to the PC input. That's what I use when I go to my 'Play Xbox 360' Activity.

[macspost]

Thanks, I tried that and it seems to work fine - I had assumed that RGB was to switch to the scart input.

One other question - the TV takes a really long time to switch on and be ready to receive the command to swap to a particular input, it takes probably 6 seconds before it will respond to the remote and I had to adjust the delay in the setup to this period to get it to work properly. During this time nothing is happening, It would be better if the harmony sent the command to switch on the tv then continued to switch on / adjust other devices before coming back to switch the tv input. Is there any way to change the order in which the commands are sent rather than having this big pause with nothing happening?

[Rob_Meister]

Well as I'm sure your aware. After the activity has been created you can add commands to the end. So if you remove the 6 second delay and leave it to send the commands (although they won't be recieved). But then send the same commands again at the end of the activity. Let me know if your not sure how to add these other commands - Not to sure myself without looking again.

[macspost]

Rob - thanks, Im not sure where you do this. If I go through the settings for an activity I see the option to "add more control of options and devices for this activity" which allows me to choose other devices to control as part of the activity. It doesn't give me the option to control the tv more than once though.

Also would doing this mean that the power toggle signal was also sent twice, or is it possible to just pick a single command to send? If the power toggle command was sent a second time the tv would obviously switch off.

I think that generally the setup and control of this remote is very user friendly and well thought out. Sometimes though I wish there was an advanced section that just gave you a list of all of the individual commands sent and periods waited for an activity in the correct order and allowed you to adjust them.

[Rob_Meister]

I also agree with what you say about the advance setup options. However, here is how to do what I suggested. You need to select the activity on the homepage > then "Review the settings for this activity > answer this with "Yes, but I want to add more control of options and devices for this Activity" > then click "Save" for the list of used devices > then click "Next" until you get to "Please review the actions for your Watch TV Activity:" > Here you can add an action for any of the devices in your activity > So you will add one for your samsung to change it to a certain channel > The different actions that you add can be moved up and down in order of preference. Hope this helps - I am able to do exactly what you are trying to do this way.

[EDIT] Reading your post again it seems you have already tried doing this, but there wasn't an option to control the TV. However, I can choose to control my TV and any of my devices again. Also in answer to your question yes you can choose certain commands (each action only consists of one command, therefore you would need more than one command to turn it on again as well).

[macspost]

Rob - brilliant, that works much better, thanks for all the help.

The "Please review the actions for your Watch TV Activity:" is kind of what I was looking for when I said I wanted an advanced page with all of the separate actions in a list. If it was a little more detailed and allowed you to move / delete the existing actions too then it would be perfect, you would be able to customise the remote to do exactly what you wanted, how you wanted.

Still, it works well as it is, thanks again for the help.

[Rob_Meister]

No problem

[hornydragon]

this why there is a freephone tech support that has the ability to do all this for you you just ring em up and they sort it out

[macspost]

Yeah but in all fairness I like fiddling with it. And the remote, ho ho.