RE: {Disarmed} Harmony to replace Pronto - Thoughts please.

["Phil Harris" <phil@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Just had to reply to this one ... it's one which has annoyed me myself
quite
recently as I had to do some testing at work with various IR remotes and
used my own Pronto / iPronto remotes as well as some Harmony / Philips
RC9800i remotes.

For testing they were fine but I then decided to try the RC9800i where I'm
currently living on the Sky / DVD / AV Processor / SliMP3 / Plasma
combination in the lounge. I have my iPronto in there at the moment and it
works perfectly with all input switching handled nicely and accurately but
I'll be moving out soon (all being well) and so I was looking for something
to replace the iPronto with when I leave.

I tried the RC9800i and the Harmony and Jesus H Christ I have to say that I
hate them with a passion ... I find them inflexible, unreliable and
basically too annoying to use. Neither would reliably switch the plasma nor
the AV processor to the correct inputs, neither had codesets for all the
kit
that I was using (I ended up learning codes from my iPronto) and generally
it just reaffirmed to me that I want to stick with my proper programmable
remotes which may take more time and effort to set up but at least repay
that effort by working!

Phil

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx [mailto:ukha_d@xxxxxxx] On Behalf
> Of Neil Spellings
> Sent: 20 January 2008 22:49
> To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: {Disarmed} [ukha_d] Harmony to replace Pronto - Thoughts
> please.
>
> rb_ziggy wrote:
>
> > So, to the questions:
>
> I have an 895, so my answers are based on that...(plus I've never
owned
> a Pronto, so can't compare...)
>
> > - Can I do room based menus again?
>
> Not sure exactly what you mean by this - do you mean different remotes
> control different rooms?
>
> > - Can I completely configure hard buttons (eg vol on the av amp,
tv
> > for say pip, ch up/down for sky) for use on the 'same screen'?
>
> Every hard button is configurable apart from the Device, Activities,
> Power and Help buttons
>
> For each Activity, you configure which piece of equipment should
> control
> the volume, channel etc
>
> > - Can it control X10 IR and perhaps CBus?
>
> It could certainly send IR codes to an X10 receiver, however I'm not
> sure whether the Activity-based screens would allow sufficient
control.
>
> I've got my Harmony controlling my Idratek-controlled lights, but it
> took quite alot of fiddling to customise the activity screens using IR
> codes from an unused remote (which Idratek then learns and responds to
> accordingly)
>
> I think the Harmony scene-based control only works on ZWave devices
and
> not X10/IR
>
> > - Is there anything else I should also know (pros / cons) about
the
> > Harmonies?
>
> Pros
>
> The way it tracks whether your devices are on or off is pretty good
and
> works quite well.
> The Help feature also sorts  things out when things dont go as planned
> or a device misses is on/off command and gets out of sync.
>
> I've found email support to be pretty good
>
> Very SHMBO friendly and I don't hear many complaints
>
> Build quality is good and its sturdy - its taken quite a few falls off
> the sofa arm onto a hard wooden floor with no apparent damage so far!
>
> Good (online) database of devices and IR Codes
>
>
> Cons
>
> The main grip I have is that there is no native Macro support. You
> can't
> just create a new series of commands and tie them to a particular key
-
> you have to base everything around activities, and then you start
> getting tied up having devices involved you don't really want in
there.
>
> Lighting scenes are ZWave only
>
>
> Cheers
>
>
> Neil
>
>
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