Question Is there any Logitech Harmony that can do this?

RayP

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I still have a fully-working Phillips Pronto RU990 and as owners of that remote will know it is extremely powerful in what it can do.

I have Sky Q and subscribe to the UHD service. When watching Full HD broadcasts I prefer to have Sky in 1080p mode and only switch to 3840 10-bit when watching a UHD broadcast as I believe my TV upscales the picture better than the Sky box.

But to switch to 3840 requires a total of 29 button presses which is absurd when you think about it. Sky really do need to redesign the menu system.

But my Pronto can cope with that macro which is why I value it so highly. But nothing lasts for ever and when the day comes when it no longer works (or something breaks) I need a worthy replacement.

Can any of the Logitech Harmony range allow me to create a macro with 29 button presses?
 
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29 key presses seems a little bit long, just trying to think I don't have anything like and just wonder if there is a way of optimising. That world be useful for now and the future?
 
Thanks @andy1249 , that’s a pity. Just shows the stupidity of Sky’s designers especially when there’s no shortcut as there is when reverting to 1080p from UHD.

@ChuckMountain , you’re telling me but it can’t be shortened unless Sky allow users to customise the menu. The res option is buried right at the bottom of the menu.

The workaround is to stay on 3840 permanently but the HD picture is definitely compromised when doing that.
 
29 can't be right.
 
29 can't be right.
Count them if you have the kit. You have to include the confirmation that you have selected 10-bit colour. It is totally ridiculous the settings are buried like this.
 
Ive been playing with my harmony remote and Macros to see if I could fudge a solution, it seems that you can.

Note, I dont have sky Q, Im experimenting here to beat the 25 button macro limit.
The macro I tested...type into search bar on my enigma 2 box...
“ the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog “


Do half the required sequence, assign it to an unused button.
Do the second half of the required sequence, assign it to a different unused button.
Make a third macro with the first and second buttons above with an appropriate delay between the two buttons.
Assign this to a third unused button.

Assigned buttons can be on screen and not physical on the harmony ultimate, so can be arranged in a way that there is no chance of hitting the partial macro buttons by accident.

It works.
So , as long as you set a long enough delay between first and second halves of the macro you should be able to get it to work.
 
Thanks Andy, that’s very kind of you. One question. Can you include a short delay between each button press? I find that’s necessary on the Pronto for successful operation of multiple button presses.

Your answer also matches a reply given on the Sky forum.
 
Thanks Andy, that’s very kind of you. One question. Can you include a short delay between each button press? I find that’s necessary on the Pronto for successful operation of multiple button presses.

Your answer also matches a reply given on the Sky forum.

Yes , you can have a delay between every button if you want, delays dont count as button presses.
 
Andy, did you ever own a Pronto? If so, how would you compare it to an Elite?
 
Had one back in the noughties.
Old greyscale screen.

Back then it was probably the best you could get but you had to teach it every button from every remote and if you wanted to change anything you had to start from scratch.
It worked fine but was too technical for the rest of the family, they hated it, so it failed miserably at its main job, which was to remove remote clutter.
I dont have it anymore, but I think it was model 3000 or something like that.

Yours probably makes my old pronto look like a dinosaur.

The first Harmony I had was the “one”
You pull all devices down from a database, if you have something obscure thats not in the database you teach it, same as the pronto.
With harmony you then set activities.
You then simply select the required activity and everything works.
Changing stuff is easy.
It rarely goes wrong, but when stuff occasionally goes out of sync the help button is gloriously simple and gets everything where it should be in no time.

The family loved it.
Not another remote in sight.
Batteries all removed from original remotes and stored safely away.

We got a new puppy a couple of years ago and he chewed up the one.
I replaced it ( the remote...not the puppy ) with the ultimate ( remote and hub ).
This is even better as you dont have to keep this one pointed in the right direction and it also does bluetooth devices.
The family love this one even more.

The Elite is a step up over this I believe.

These days , the Harmony higher end models can do everything the pronto can do and once set up are much more user friendly.
So I wouldnt worry too much about your pronto.

The elite should handle all your gear with ease, even the macro situation.
Usage wise, it should be a much nicer experience.
 
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Another thing you should be aware of.
Some “ Macros” may already be in the device profile you download from the Harmony database.

For example, The HDMI inputs on my old Panasonic plasma had no direct access buttons on the remote.
You had to hit the AV button and scroll to the correct input.

When I downloaded the Harmony device profile, there were buttons for each HDMI input.
Either someone at logitech or some user decided these would be useful and added them.
 
The Pronto 9800 had a colour screen and cost my mate around ÂŁ900. :eek: I bought it off him when he wanted something better and could be setup in Windows 7 and beyond.

I’m on my own which simplifies things and I don’t need to move for a replacement immediately but your post has reassured me the Elite (or its replacement) will be a worthy successor.

Your comment about the HDMI inputs on the TV being accessible is a great relief. Loewe Manchester gave me a spreadsheet with the IR codes and I had to enter those behind suitable buttons. I’m still waiting for a reply from Logitech as to whether the Loewe Bild 7.55 is supported. Their database is only for US/Canada customers which seems ridiculous.

One thing I haven’t seen is Sky channels and how you choose them. I have icons on the Pronto showing the station jpg with the channel number set on it. I have multiple screens for Entertainment, Sport, Movies etc. with my favourite channels on each.

How does that work on the Harmony?
 
One thing I haven’t seen is Sky channels and how you choose them. I have icons on the Pronto showing the station jpg with the channel number set on it. I have multiple screens for Entertainment, Sport, Movies etc. with my favourite channels on each.

How does that work on the Harmony?

It has a favorites menu on the remote.
Accessible by the star icon.
You get station logos also.
It works with any sky or FTA/ freesat box.

Dont know about US Canada only thing.
That cant be true as the database has all of the regional EU models and whilst setting up favourites it seems very skewed towards Sky , which is definitely not available in the US and Canada.
It may be geolocked to the area you are in.
 
It's normal for a universal remote to have specific input commands for TVs.
They're just that - commands, not macros.
 
Another thing you should be aware of.
Some “ Macros” may already be in the device profile you download from the Harmony database.

For example, The HDMI inputs on my old Panasonic plasma had no direct access buttons on the remote.
You had to hit the AV button and scroll to the correct input.

When I downloaded the Harmony device profile, there were buttons for each HDMI input.
Either someone at logitech or some user decided these would be useful and added them.

Just because the remote doesn't have individual input buttons doesn't mean that the command set doesn't include them. This is often the case where a single power toggle button is provided when in fact the command set includes power on and power off commands. In the case where the number of presses isn't the same as in scrolling to a input starting from a different input a macro is useless as the remote doesn't no how many steps are required, unless it's possible to move to a specific input by say using more up or downs than there inputs with the extras being ignored to create a known starting input.

Most Humax devices have a way of creating a power on command that is ignored when already on (0 boots most of them and as zero isn't a valid channel, other than booting the box if in sby it is otherwise ignored).

The device should list all the available commands it doesn't list actions that require multiple commands (macros).
 
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Another thing you should be aware of.
Some “ Macros” may already be in the device profile you download from the Harmony database.

For example, The HDMI inputs on my old Panasonic plasma had no direct access buttons on the remote.
You had to hit the AV button and scroll to the correct input.

When I downloaded the Harmony device profile, there were buttons for each HDMI input.
Either someone at logitech or some user decided these would be useful and added them.

Panasonic have had discrete codes for their AV/HDMI inputs on their tv's for a long time so they are not actual macros.

Yamaha av amps have 100s of discrete codes so you can change settings at will. Shame sky don't implement something similar.
 
Are you still running a 9800?

I have one and a marantz equivalent of the 990.

The 9800 can do some really cool stuff because of its script support
 
It has a favorites menu on the remote.
Accessible by the star icon.
You get station logos also.
It works with any sky or FTA/ freesat box.

Dont know about US Canada only thing.
That cant be true as the database has all of the regional EU models and whilst setting up favourites it seems very skewed towards Sky , which is definitely not available in the US and Canada.
It may be geolocked to the area you are in.

For the last hour or so a mate with the older 950 (I think) demonstrated it to me and the software looks pretty intuitive especially if you’ve come from a Pronto.

The tiny screen could only show 4 choices whereas it looks like the Elite has a much larger one albeit without the numeric pad. Whether that is a disadvantage remains to be seen.

I did find it odd the database couldn’t list hardly any Loewe TVs. Surely there must be loads with that TV and Harmony. Still waiting to hear back from support.

Having all the channel logos will be great.
 
I did find it odd the database couldn’t list hardly any Loewe TVs. Surely there must be loads with that TV and Harmony. Still waiting to hear back from support.

Having had a quick look round the web, adding the Loewe One 55 TV will likely work
 
Having had a quick look round the web, adding the Loewe One 55 TV will likely work
Thanks. That was found on the Logitech site.

I’ll ask on the Loewe Bild 7 thread in TVs if anyone has a Harmony. I would have thought quite a few would.
 
@series1boy , thanks, that's a useful site. I have discovered it's not always necessary to invoke my 30 step macro when wanting to watch something in UHD. For the football last night I would normally use it but instead went to the Sky Menu - Sport - UHD - Live Broadcast (or similar wording) and when I selected that the prompt to press the red button appeared.

Pressing that took me straight to the res option which then required just a few button presses. I'll check if this works for recorded programmes and if it does then that's a major help.
 
Ok firstly I havent got a sky q box but on my virgin v6 box in order to get the Iplayer world cup 4k UHD trial I had to set up the video to 4k pass through which ive left it on because it improved the PQ for all the HD channels as my Tv does a stellar job of upscaling content so can you not just set your Sky Q box to pass through the video signal to your tv as well ?
 
I have to select 2160P on Sky otherwise I don't get the UHD broadcast. And as I have discovered there are shortcuts available that don't require me to run that 30 step macro.
 

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