Thanks for the ideas. I will try them. They will certainly make Tivo operation much better.
But I still have a question for you. Are you saying that you think that Harmony has got the number of physical button right? If they asked you to design the perfect Harmony 2 for a Tivo user would you stick with one pad of buttons or would you prefer two sets?
Fundamentally, your fixes are making it more palatable (even automatic) to change modes while in a watch-several-programs Tivo session. My point is that I don't think it is intuitive to have mode changes in such a session. Wouldn't it be better if we had a few more buttons and could go through such a session without changing modes at all? Then there would be almost no chance of being in the wrong mode.
Another way to look at it is that there are certain times when it is natural to think of changing modes. When you change from Tivo to DVD you would expect to go through a change and a remapping of buttons. When you go from Tivo to live TV, its an obvious change of "mode". But I think of watching Tivo as a single activity - even if I watch several shows, use the guide and schedule several shows for recording. It is possible to do all these things without mode changes with a simple and elegant remote control - the Tivo original remote. If the Tivo remote had only one cluster of buttons it would have to have two modes, and I suggest it would not be as universally liked as it has been.
If you go to the Harmonyremotes forum on Yahoo, you will find a post from Jason B Wright on the subject of Harmony 2. He also uploaded some photos of the button changes he would like to see (look in the photos section of the forum). He agrees that more buttons are needed and has proposed a layout for those buttons that would be great for Tivo.
I'll let you know if your suggestions make me change my mind on giving up on Harmony.
