Foxtel & The Logitech Harmony Remote

[Qantas A380]

Hey guys,

Im looking at getting the Logitech Harmony Remote 785 to replace the 6 remotes i have at home! But ive just been researching a few different things. First one is, will it work to replace the foxtel digital remote? I know it wont have the planner and box office buttons, but im more worried about will i be able to get "Information" on programs. Does anybody use the harmony remote?

Thanks!

[Andrew Cowley]

Hey guys,

Im looking at getting the Logitech Harmony Remote 785 to replace the 6 remotes i have at home! But ive just been researching a few different things. First one is, will it work to replace the foxtel digital remote? I know it wont have the planner and box office buttons, but im more worried about will i be able to get "Information" on programs. Does anybody use the harmony remote?

Thanks!

You won't lose any functionality whatsoever. The 785 has hard buttons labelled Guide and Info and you can use these to access the Foxtel guide and bring up the blue info box. Even if it didn't have these hard buttons you could still program them into your 785. Instead you'd create soft buttons on the LCD display. Your Harmony remote can do everything that your Foxtel remote can. It just depends on how you program it up. The idea is to use the hard buttons where they make sense (e.g. info, guide, numbers) and for everything else you can have soft buttons on the LCD display.

[chalkeroochy]

Hey guys,

Im looking at getting the Logitech Harmony Remote 785 to replace the 6 remotes i have at home! But ive just been researching a few different things. First one is, will it work to replace the foxtel digital remote? I know it wont have the planner and box office buttons, but im more worried about will i be able to get "Information" on programs. Does anybody use the harmony remote?

Thanks!

I've got an old logitech 768 & it does everything in one command through various theatre or TV setups, Foxtel, TVselect, FTA's, DVD's CD,etc.

[MattWinter]

I have a 525, which is similar - let me assure you that it will be able to replicate any remote you have. I have been very happy with mine and have never had any problems with it.

The only difficulty is setting it up, which can take a while and requires a bit of tinkering - but that's just because you have a lot of control over how it is set up, hence you can get it working just like you want it too.

[big_marcelo]

I have a 525, which is similar - let me assure you that it will be able to replicate any remote you have. I have been very happy with mine and have never had any problems with it.

The only difficulty is setting it up, which can take a while and requires a bit of tinkering - but that's just because you have a lot of control over how it is set up, hence you can get it working just like you want it too.

I have a 525 and I'm pretty happy with it as a remote control replacement... however if you have a complex setup, the logitech stumbles a little since you can't do macros on it... on most set ups should be fine and the interface is very, very easy to use....

if your set up is complex (ie: I have 11 or so devices, scaler, etc...) I would recommend a Philips pronto .... it took me about 120 hours of programming to get it all set up... now anyone can use my set up... its a breeze.... WAF is very high ....

[nicolevoorhout]

The foxtel remote and the foxtel IQ remote are both learning remotes themselves. See http://www.foxtel.com.au/accessories/data/prd1.pdf gives instructions on how to use the remote as a learning remote.

[xc17ed]

Does anyone know how to speed up the response of the harmony? I've got it setup to use my foxtel, and where as I could just hit up continually and browse the channels, I find I have to pause of the harmony. I've set the delay between commands to the smallest amount possible and still find it fairly laggy.

[Chui2]

Does anyone know how to speed up the response of the harmony? I've got it setup to use my foxtel, and where as I could just hit up continually and browse the channels, I find I have to pause of the harmony. I've set the delay between commands to the smallest amount possible and still find it fairly laggy.

Hi XC,

Try this. These are paraphrased from the Harmony site.

From the main screen

Select 'Troubleshoot' for the Foxtel device

Select 'More Problems'

Select 'Does not receive commands correctly'

Select 'Responds too much to commands'

Adjust the value between 0 and 6 to suit.

I hope this is what you are looking for. If not, forget everything I've posted

Cheers,

Chui

[MattWinter]

Does anyone know how to speed up the response of the harmony? I've got it setup to use my foxtel, and where as I could just hit up continually and browse the channels, I find I have to pause of the harmony. I've set the delay between commands to the smallest amount possible and still find it fairly laggy.

possibly set the delay settings a bit higher - sometimes if you set the delay too low it can make it laggy too.

[Qantas A380]

Thanks for all the responses guys. The only other problem i could think of is, you know how it has all different "activities" on the screen, can i change them so that one can be like "Watch Foxtel" or are they all preset?

I own a Pioneer DVD hard disk recorder, UEC Foxtel Digi box, Sony Surround sound Amp and a LG plasma, so i have MULTIPLE remotes, i really need this to stop confusing hahaha!

[nico6]

Thanks for all the responses guys. The only other problem i could think of is, you know how it has all different "activities" on the screen, can i change them so that one can be like "Watch Foxtel" or are they all preset?

I own a Pioneer DVD hard disk recorder, UEC Foxtel Digi box, Sony Surround sound Amp and a LG plasma, so i have MULTIPLE remotes, i really need this to stop confusing hahaha!

You can rename the activities to whatever you like. The different models handle a different amount of devices, starting from 7 or 8 in the 520 (but don't quote me). With the 880 you can control up to 15.

[Wing Nut]

I've set the delay between commands to the smallest amount possible and still find it fairly laggy.

I went from an MX-500 to a Harmony 525 and noticed the same lag when, for instance, moving the highlight up/down an OSD file list. The old MX-500 (and original remotes) would flick up/down as quickly as I could press the button, but the Harmony takes its time - although it would remember how many presses and, a few seconds later, catch up. Bit annoying though. I'm sure I removed any delays associated with those buttons, but it still lags. The 'Inter-key Delay' is set to the default 0. Is there another delay setting page I've missed?

That aside, I must admit I now have my budget Harmony 525 behaving rather well. Best remote I've ever had - MX-500 included.

[MattWinter]

I went from an MX-500 to a Harmony 525 and noticed the same lag when, for instance, moving the highlight up/down an OSD file list. The old MX-500 (and original remotes) would flick up/down as quickly as I could press the button, but the Harmony takes its time - although it would remember how many presses and, a few seconds later, catch up. Bit annoying though. I'm sure I removed any delays associated with those buttons, but it still lags. The 'Inter-key Delay' is set to the default 0. Is there another delay setting page I've missed?

That aside, I must admit I now have my budget Harmony 525 behaving rather well. Best remote I've ever had - MX-500 included.

The inter-key delay is really the only think you can change - have you tried increasing it a little? From memory I had mine set a little bit higher.

[Wing Nut]

Thanks. Sounds counter-intuitive, but I'll give it a shot ... when my PC resolves a RAID and a Trojan issue - go-slow mode at present

[Chui2]

I went from an MX-500 to a Harmony 525 and noticed the same lag when, for instance, moving the highlight up/down an OSD file list. The old MX-500 (and original remotes) would flick up/down as quickly as I could press the button, but the Harmony takes its time - although it would remember how many presses and, a few seconds later, catch up. Bit annoying though. I'm sure I removed any delays associated with those buttons, but it still lags. The 'Inter-key Delay' is set to the default 0. Is there another delay setting page I've missed?

That aside, I must admit I now have my budget Harmony 525 behaving rather well. Best remote I've ever had - MX-500 included.

Hi Wingnut,

Have you tried the suggestion from my previous post:-

From the main screen

Select 'Troubleshoot' for the Foxtel device

Select 'More Problems'

Select 'Does not receive commands correctly'

Select 'Responds too much to commands'

Adjust the value between 0 and 6 to suit.

See if this helps

Cheers

Chui

[nobby76]

Thanks for all the responses guys. The only other problem i could think of is, you know how it has all different "activities" on the screen, can i change them so that one can be like "Watch Foxtel" or are they all preset?

I own a Pioneer DVD hard disk recorder, UEC Foxtel Digi box, Sony Surround sound Amp and a LG plasma, so i have MULTIPLE remotes, i really need this to stop confusing hahaha!

AS a fellow member with too many toys with remotes as well, by far the best thing I've bought this year has been my Harmony 785. The remote is so user friendly, unless you don't have a computer with a USB port, that I've even been able to teach my wife how to use this. She struggels with technology at times and this remote has been a blessing. As for the Activities, well they are to me what makes the remote worth buying.

[beem130]

I recently got the Harmony 785 and works perfectly with Foxtel IQ box - it's a brilliant remote. The only issue was that I had to return my first one back to get a new one after less than 2 weeks because one of the buttons (number 9) stopped working. I hope the 2nd lasts longer!

The activities are a godsend - I have a remote for my AV receiver which has macros but doesn't come close to comparing to how well the Harmonies work - the fact you can download all the codes without learning is brilliant. Also because you download codes you can get extra 'buttons' that the manufacturers don't normally include on the original remote - to explain what I mean: for my Panasonic plasma TV the remote came with a single 'aspect' button - but you had to cycle through each one to select each aspect setting on the TV - with the Harmony it has downloaded the direct codes - so now I have separate buttons for '16:9', 'Just', '4:3' etc. and don't need to cycle anymore - that's a bonus feature I didn't expect!

[uforia]

Just wondering what everyone's settings are for delay and the 0-6 settings on their Harmony for their Foxtel box? I find it's still abit laggy Tried lowering the delay down to 0 or 100 but still abit slow...almost like it misses every 3rd command...but if i raise the 0-6 setting it takes too many commands at once

[BoagsStGeorge]

My Harmony 525 works beautifully with Foxtel have never had any issues. As others have mentioned though, there is a slight Lag.

[scarecrow420]

has anyone succesfully resolved their lag issues with a harmony remote and foxtel?

Im tossing up getting a 1000i and have foxtel IQ but i dont like the sounds of noticable lag/delay when scrolling up/down channels and menus etc. Especially since there is no way to make the blue info box jump to any channel without changing to that channel, you sure do a hell of a lot of up and down arrow holding to see whats on on say the 600 or 800 channels while down in the 100s without actually changing away from the current channel

[jfbari]

I have Foxtel IQ and have just purchased the Harmony 525 remote. Can somebody tell me what button they use on the Harmony that equates to the "Planner" button on the foxtel??

[Fast Learner]

Have recently purchased and setup a harmony 525 remote and suffered some frustration setting it up for foxtel. I have foxtel digital satelite with set top box DSN720iX. The problem was with the left, right, up and down buttons. Using them for channel previewing or to navigate through active menus resulted in three effective button presses for every one button press on the new remote. Tried changing the responsiveness settings without success on any setting and also tried changing the "inter key delay" response time with no luck.

Eventually did have success through the "Learn IR" setup for the foxtel device and using the "Learn Raw" function (NOT the "Learn" function) for the four direction buttons.

Get to this in the Harmony Remote Software Application through...

-Devices

-<Foxtel Device>

-Learn IR

-CUSTOM (pushbutton, bottom right corner)

Then select the four direction buttons in the "recommended commands" section and click on the "Learn Selected Commands as Raw" button.

Application then steps you through pointing your original remote at the harmony learning port and pressing each button in turn.

Buttons work as required most of the time but occasionally you still get the 3-button-presses-at-a-time effect. Good enough to live with - its only foxtel.

[Guru-Choc]

What model did you put into your harmony 785 remote for your foxtel IQ Sat box, I put in a number I got from somewhere the other day and the remote worked fine, I have then changed it to TDS460NF the correct model and I am having all sorts of issues with lag etc.. If I could remeber the old box number I put in I would be happy

EDIT: Jumped the gun a little, went into troubleshooting, used the foxtel remote to learn the speed of the button changes with the harmony and all is fine. Now to figure out how to program the "foxtel" "back" "R" buttons into the remote and I'll be set.

Edited April 16, 2008 by Guru-Choc

[scarecrow420]

What model did you put into your harmony 785 remote for your foxtel IQ Sat box, I put in a number I got from somewhere the other day and the remote worked fine, I have then changed it to TDS460NF the correct model and I am having all sorts of issues with lag etc.. If I could remeber the old box number I put in I would be happy

EDIT: Jumped the gun a little, went into troubleshooting, used the foxtel remote to learn the speed of the button changes with the harmony and all is fine. Now to figure out how to program the "foxtel" "back" "R" buttons into the remote and I'll be set.

I use TDS-460NF for my IQ sat box and everything goes fine. Not sure if the dash character matters? The command for previous/back in the logitech database is called "BackUp". Not sure about the "Foxtel" button since i dont use that, although having a quick squiz now, id say the "Input Sky" would be the one to try. Of course you can always learn it if it isnt already in the database. Dont know what you mean by the "R" button, unless you mean record, which is in the logitech database as "Record" Edited April 16, 2008 by scarecrow420

[Illuzive]

I got the logitech harmony remote 785 running foxtel / A/V / hdd / LCD and it is a god send! it took me a fair bit of fiddling and changing things to get it running perfectly but now it's humming like a dream! got everything sorted out the way i want, the favourite channels section where you can upload picture of the channels has sure tripped a few people out! i too had a slight lag delay but got it all sorted out by changing the inter-key delay. i think it's on 50 milliseconds but don't quote me!