joey999 Posted December 13, 2005 Share Posted December 13, 2005 Hi guys, Just wondering if anyone has tried out a Logitech Harmony 520? If so, could you give some opinions on it? The thing certainly looks pretty cool and the price is alright as well ... at the moment I"m using a kameleon 6in1 and it's been perfect .... until I found that it is pretty much impossible to program it to control my new HTPC which uses a iMON remote. I have gone through dozens of forums and JP1 stuff and no one's cracked it yet. But I have heard that harmony remotes will control them. I'm also using it for the pio434 plasma and a onkyo amp. anyway .. just wanted to know if this thing is any good and if anyone has used it to control a HTPC that uses iMON. The iMON came with my silverstone LC10M cases. the other option I"m thinking of is to buy a IR wireless keyboard and try to get the kameleon to learn it's signals. Has anyone tried learning keyboard strokes to a universal remote ? thanx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
19hZ Posted December 13, 2005 Share Posted December 13, 2005 I can't comment on the remote you are looking at but have a question. What is the point of a Universal Remote if you can't change the labels of the buttons? How often are they going to match up? I've just bought the Phillips TSU500 remote which is all touchscreen. cost me $170. Have a look here... http://www.prontopros.com/pronto-neo-tsu500.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joey999 Posted December 14, 2005 Author Share Posted December 14, 2005 actually, before I got the HTPC all the button for all 6 things I had matched up perfectly ... the kameleon is excellent and I really want to keep using it. it's been one of the best purchases I made. But now with an HTPC, things are abit different. so where did you get the phillips one from ? for $170 australian ? it looks pretty good ... co sthe harmony 520 is $197 at dicksmith ... but I know that it's only $99 US .. so we're really getting abit ripped off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
19hZ Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 actually, before I got the HTPC all the button for all 6 things I had matched up perfectly ... the kameleon is excellent and I really want to keep using it. it's been one of the best purchases I made. But now with an HTPC, things are abit different.so where did you get the phillips one from ? for $170 australian ? it looks pretty good ... co sthe harmony 520 is $197 at dicksmith ... but I know that it's only $99 US .. so we're really getting abit ripped off. There are a number of sites in America that sell it for $90 or $100. By the time you add Freight and Currency conversion it gets expensive. Lots of people have had issues with the LCD screen and I think I will be using the warranty, but For a remote with a touchscreen display, programmable buttons, learning functions, Macro's and under $200 Aust, what do you expect. I guess I should put a review togeather when I get it and set it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest EZYHD Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 Any of the Harmony's should do, look em up on OZ eBay very cheap to buy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
czzer Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 (edited) You should be able to get a Harmony 659 for about $70 off ebay. This will do everything that the 520 will do (actually more), it just doesn't look as flash. Any Harmony remote will be far better than the Kameleon, and will be much easier to set up and use than the Pronto. Touchscreens look flash, but are more difficult to use by feel, so are not as practical for an everyday remote (IMHO). Edited December 14, 2005 by czzer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest EZYHD Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 Ditto. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joey999 Posted December 14, 2005 Author Share Posted December 14, 2005 I think I"m going to try out a harmony of some kind ... I really don't like LCD buttons much. the thing I can't find on their website is a list of supported hardware ... I'm only looking for it to control my HTPCs iMON IR can someone look it up for me if it exists or point me to where I can find it please ? thanx guys for all your input Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
19hZ Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 You should be able to get a Harmony 659 for about $70 off ebay. This will do everything that the 520 will do (actually more), it just doesn't look as flash. Any Harmony remote will be far better than the Kameleon, and will be much easier to set up and use than the Pronto. Touchscreens look flash, but are more difficult to use by feel, so are not as practical for an everyday remote (IMHO). Interesting. I just assumed Hard button remotes wouldn't work well becuase there is no buttons with the labels you want. How do you know what to press? My plasma has a FAV button, does that mean I have to use on of the buttons beside the LCD for a command like that? Seems like a toucscreen with a few hard buttons would be preferable... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
czzer Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 A good hard button remote such as Harmony or URC will have dedicated hard buttons for 90% of your required functions. Anything which you can't find a suitable button for just goes on the LCD...no big deal. It is very much personal preference though...I personally find a touchscreen awkward to use because you can't feel your way around it. They are fine for a dedicated theatre room where you generally only use it to turn the system on, then sit back and watch the movie, but I wouldn't want to use one for everyday TV watching/channel surfing. Joey...what exactly is the problem with the iMON? A Harmony should control pretty much anything that is IR, although it can't learn some high frequency IR stuff (used by B&O and a few other obscure brands), but no other universal remote can learn this stuff either, as far as I know. A lot of this stuff is already in the Harmony database though, as it can be manually added by tech support, just not learned directly by the remote. The other issue with PC stuff is if they use "toggle bits", but this behaviour can be turned off in the Windows registry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rosco99 Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 I'm only looking for it to control my HTPCs iMON IRcan someone look it up for me if it exists or point me to where I can find it please ? thanx guys for all your input Just letting you know I have a Harmony 680. It controls my HTPC with i-mon inside. Also separate PVR, Austar and amplifier. My tech. illiterate wife approves as she can now switch from TV to austar and record either or both with the one remote. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joey999 Posted December 15, 2005 Author Share Posted December 15, 2005 good news for me rosco .. thanx so much for the reply about your 680 ... as long as I know that it is possible then I'm happy and will tryout the 520 out shopping I go right now hehe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Datkinson Posted December 15, 2005 Share Posted December 15, 2005 I recently purchased a reconditioned Harmony 659 on EBay for $42 plus $10 delivery. Took about 2 weeks to deliver and looked as new. All features work and the Harmony web site configurater was straight-forward to use. You can get the normal functions working very quickly but the total setup requires careful thought particularly in the area of deciding when a device should be switched off (you can switch all off or on with one button). However, this would be required with any activity based remote. My major disappointment with the Harmony is the lack of a macro facility whilst using an activity. For example, my PVR requires several keystrokes (Menu, down arrow, down arrow, enter etc) to access the Timer function. If I could get this to work with one keystroke I would feel the Harmony was really fantastic. There are some ideas on how to get around this limitation such as specifying a device many times (in the example above I would have to specify my PVR at least 4 times) but none are satisfactory. Now that I am aware of the significance of macros and that the Harmony doesn't have them, I am not so sure I would have gone ahead to purchase the 659. And, I believe, the 520 has the same limitation. Don Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joey999 Posted December 15, 2005 Author Share Posted December 15, 2005 I never use Macros ... switching on the kameleon is so easy and never found it troublesome at all and it's only 2 things I turn on each time anyway ... and now all I want the haromy to do it to control my HTPC properly ... basically jsut the arrow keys, back and enter. not really a need for much else in MCE 2005 ... and to turn my plasma on and off. Since I got rid of all my other components I now only have 2 that I use always ... I have a amp but I hardly use it now as I have 2 babies at home and I can never turn it up like I used to anymore ... so today .. I went out to dicksmith and bought a 520 ... about to try it out .. and the guy said to just open it carefully and if it doens't work with my system, bring it back for a full refund ... so I was happy with that .. I"ll report on how it all goes in a day or 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest EZYHD Posted December 15, 2005 Share Posted December 15, 2005 Two tips on Harmony's, always keep it pointed at the devices when turning on/off until the window reverts to activities, if it ever goes haywire just remove battery's and re insert. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joey999 Posted December 15, 2005 Author Share Posted December 15, 2005 well .. last night I opened up my 520 ... instlaled the software ... and guess what! the logitech site says it's under re-construction or something till 9am EST !! they really need to have some sort of cd with the most common codes on it or something like that ... so at the moment I can't do a thing with it!! it is really stupid so far ... it is still in this demo mode. got to admit that it is a great looking thing ,,, very sleek and really nice to hold ... it really makes my kameleon look like a dinosaur wish I can use the darn thing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest EZYHD Posted December 15, 2005 Share Posted December 15, 2005 well .. last night I opened up my 520 ... instlaled the software ... and guess what! the logitech site says it's under re-construction or something till 9am EST !! This is not uncommon of late for the site to be down now and then of recent times, don't know why. I'm sure once you have it up and running you'll be pleased, can be a bit frustrating getting it to this point, while others sail through it. I was an early adopter with earlier model, now have the 880), had probs as mine is tricky using devices to both Plasma and Projector, but finally got it working beautifully, its an awesome bit of kit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joey999 Posted December 16, 2005 Author Share Posted December 16, 2005 well .. I got the setup thing all working , downloaded the settings for the pio plasma, iMON HTPC, etc to my remote... pressed the 'watch tv' button and it turned on my plasma and actually turned OFF my HTPC (with an windows error) ... turned my HTPC on but the 520 will not control anything ... tried again downloading the silverstone LC10M to the remote .. still nothing .. trying the soundgraph iMON download again, the buttons that show up on the LCD are all correct but still doesn't do anything ... the iMON won't even see the signals. rang support but they weren't much help at all ... and jsut said they will give me an email about it ... but still nohting from them after the whole day ... will probably go for a refund .... how sad ... any ideas people ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest EZYHD Posted December 16, 2005 Share Posted December 16, 2005 well .. I got the setup thing all working , downloaded the settings for the pio plasma, iMON HTPC, etc to my remote... pressed the 'watch tv' button and it turned on my plasma and actually turned OFF my HTPC (with an windows error) ... turned my HTPC on but the 520 will not control anything ... tried again downloading the silverstone LC10M to the remote .. still nothing .. trying the soundgraph iMON download again, the buttons that show up on the LCD are all correct but still doesn't do anything ... the iMON won't even see the signals. rang support but they weren't much help at all ... and jsut said they will give me an email about it ... but still nohting from them after the whole day ... will probably go for a refund .... how sad ... any ideas people ? Yep, use the Help button to turn on what was supposed to be on, then next time it should turn on what you want. Also you may need to change some of the delays as they may not be enough time to get things on/off. Always keep the remote pointed at the devices until they are all on. Don't give up this early, we know it can be a frustrating but once completed its a great remote. You can always email Harmony for a solution, they will come back to you in laymans language. It tool me with my complex set up weeks to get it pefect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joey999 Posted December 17, 2005 Author Share Posted December 17, 2005 got a reply from logitech this morning and told me to go update my remote as they just replaced the iMON signals ... their' customer support is so very good. it now controls my iMON ... will take some time to configure my buttons as at the moment, it's hardly easy to use yet ... it won't control it if I"m in media PC mode and only in 'watch tv' mode .. so it's very weird. and it's slow ... pressing a button takes a little time for the iMON PC to pick it up .. I'll try and get it as best I can today and see how it goes .. otherwise ... back to dicksmoth it goes ... I really need it to be abit more easy and flexible than it is at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest EZYHD Posted December 17, 2005 Share Posted December 17, 2005 I'll try and get it as best I can today and see how it goes .. otherwise ... back to dicksmoth it goes ... I really need it to be abit more easy and flexible than it is at the moment. You really need to give this Harmony some time Joey999, try and not be in such a hurry, when a whole bunch of got our 880"s 3 months ago we spent weeks working it out in many cases, but once done boy oh' boy its a ripper. The thread had hundreds of posts but now its gone bush as the probs were fixed by ourselves here in DBA or Harmony came to the rescue. I wouldn't part with mine now and I've owned 3 different makes, this Harmony is tops in my book. GIVE IT TIME!. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
czzer Posted December 17, 2005 Share Posted December 17, 2005 Joey, you need to configure each activity to use the iMON however you wish. As long as the iMON is included in the activity, you can assign any button you want to perform any iMON function you want. For the speed issue, try reducing the inter key and inter device delays for the iMON, as well as the number of repeats. Reduce them as much as you can while still keeping it reliable. Are you using the website setup, or the standalone Java version? The standalone version is unique to the 520, but is reported to be harder to use. Maybe try the web based setup? See this post on AVForums Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joey999 Posted December 17, 2005 Author Share Posted December 17, 2005 I use the web based setup now and it's very nice to use ... everything is pretty easy to understand and it only took me about 2 hours of mucking around to get it exactly how I like it ... it's a keeper I love it now ... and the delay thing is gone as well and it's nice and responsive now. I'm very surprised at how well it works with so few buttons and it's all I really need for MCE2005 ... I don't even need to use the LCD buttons. highly recommended now and the customer service I might add is amazing. they solved it in a few less than a day. Customer support with the kameleon was non-existant. I don't think they have even updated their site ... ever. thanx for all your help guys so if anyone interested in a used kameleon 6in1 in very very good condition ... please give me a PM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MediaJoe Posted January 3, 2006 Share Posted January 3, 2006 Hi Can you let me know exactly the settings you used to make the remote work sweetly. Especially the delay times (inter-key delay etc) I have a LC10M case with imon IR receiver and Harmony 520 remote. It is use-able but sometimes it can be frustrating as it will skip over two items in the menu (or none at all!). Also, I made the remote 'learn' all of the IR commands from the original Imon remote as the commands from the database did not work at all. This could be part of the problem as I might not have recorded a clean IR command (it could be repeated). I have tried entering the model of my HTPC as a Silverstone LC10M and as a Soundgraph Imon. Neither one works. did you do something different to this? Hope you can help Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colvs Posted February 19, 2006 Share Posted February 19, 2006 Just noticed that Big W has the Harmony 525 in their latest catalogue at $148. Not too bad a price. And if there's any problems, thay pretty much have a no questions asked return policy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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