Is anyone using this remote to operate a Replay TV / Panasonic Showstopper? If so, please tell me how you like it. Thanks in advance!
Doug

Yup, I'm Using It.

Like it fine.

However I had to re-map most of the buttons under the replaytv activity, to make it usable.

I have a ReplayTV and like Slack, I had to remap most of the keys to get it to be close to the original. Once I ran out of buttons (and the Harmony has so few compared to the ReplayTV remote), I found that adding many of the ReplayTV's options to the menus works even better.

Right now I would say I can do 90% of the things I could do with my origninal ReplayTV remote. I just have to figure out a few more things and I will be done, but I don't think it is ready for the general public (the rest of the family) yet.

Once I get some help screens (via ADDMENU), I will have something to be really proud of.

I will finally be happy when I can hand the remote to someone who doesn't know my setup, and they can watch something on their own. The day that happens is the day I can say I have finished "playing" with my Harmony.

I use the Harmony remote with my Showstopper, but it required a lot of manual setup via xml. The built-in activity ("Watch PVR") is not generalized enough to work correctly with the Replay/Showstopper. It was obviously derived from the "Watch Tivo" activity, therefore most of the menus are useless.

Over time I have found that I now tend to use the Replay remote when the Replay is on. I still use the Harmony to do the complex activity switching, but it just doesn't have enough buttons to capture all of the commonly used features we Replay owners are used to. Also, the Replay remote is just so well designed to begin with. I've always been impressed with it. It would be hard to come up with something that works better.

Actually I now prefer to use the Harmony vs. the Replay remote.

I have yet to find a function that I can't do on the Harmony. So I never find my self reaching for the 'old' remote.

I two have menus:
Play:
Zap = 2 min quick skip
Mute = mute
ChannelUp = 30 sec quick skip
ChannelDown = Replay
Nav Keys = Their Indicated Function
Vol = Volume.

Navigate:
Zap = Record
Mute = Zones
ChannelUp = ChannelGuide
ChannelDn = ReplayGuide
Nav Keys = Nav & Select in the middle
Volume Up = Menu
Volume Down = Exit

Works pretty damn well. Except forgetting what menu you are in can get annoying.

Like the way you have your menus structured. I've run into the same problem as noted elsewhere, the Replay default setup doesn't flow real well.

Can you point me to where you learned how to do this. I just got the Harmony and would like to learn this stuff. The XML is a little daunting though.

no xml required.

add a new activity, Select 'Watch PVR'

I deleted ALL channels under this activity. Because I almost never watch live tv anymore (excepting football season). And they channel guides for this activity would merely serve to require more mode changes from play to nav. Also if you really need to watch live tv, you can get to it from the channel guide.

the canned activity should have two menus 'Play' and 'Navigate' And a third defualt menu that lets you chage activities once you are 'Watching Pvr'

No go back to add activity, and select 'change button mapping' or whatever sounds closest. This little wizard will allow you to select what command to send to what device under what menu for what activity. Sound complicated but the web based wizard is straight forward.

After re-mapping, I'd suggest you go back and re-name all of the just created activities to something that makes sense. 'Zap - Nav'

I haven't come across anything that would allow changing of the button mapping. I am in Advanced Mode. Any help on where to find this? There is nothing in the Activity Menu unless it's under Change Settings or Change Options, but I didn't see anything in there either.

David

There are some potentially interesting things in "Change Options", but nothing dealing with remapping keys.

Enable Smart Menu
Retain Stop Command
Scroll by page on show lists
Scroll by page on channel lists
Remove Surf All Channels Menu
Remove Surf Favorite Shows Menu
Remove Surf Favorite Channels Menu

David

Duh. RTFFAQ. Here is: "How do I change what the buttons on the Harmony do?"

[Link: harmonyremote.tzo.com]

Here are the steps for redefining one key. Repeat for each key you wish to reprogram. Maybe they will streamline this process a little in the future? Please?

Click "Add"
Click "Add One Activity"
Click "Utility"
Click "Change Button Function"
Click "Watch ReplayTV" (or whatever your activity is called)
Click Go next to the desired menu or "mode"
Select from the dropdown box the button you wish to reprogram and click Go
Select from the dropdown box the device and click Go
Select from the dropdown box the infrared command to send and click Go
Click "Save these operations"

Notes:
I don't see IR codes for Menu, Replay Guide, or Zones in the dropdown list of available IR codes. Any ideas? I'm going to try to "learn" them, but I don't know where to do that. Yet.

The "compiler" gets snitty about having keys with no function. I'm getting a slew of "Empty action" warnings for equipment I don't have. I don't HAVE a tuner. Maybe they need to add a component type of "Surround Processor" or "Surround Pre-amp" or something like that instead of forcing these devices into a "Receiver" catagory.

I don't see how to modify a key once defined, other than going direct to the XML, or deleting it and re-adding it. Hint: Keep track of the sequence number which gets assigned to each "activity" since all you will see later is a list of "Change Button Function nn" with no CLUE what key each one is or what function it performs.

David

PS. I don't actually have this WORKING yet, since I am still working through the error messages, but it IS possible to reprogram every single key, with potentially multiple functions. Every key can be essentially a "macro".

This message was edited by haysdb on 06/30/02 15:21.59.

To learn IR codes from an existing remote, click on the device and choose "Modify the language for this PVR (digitize infrared commands)". The Harmony Database had the codes for some functions but not for all. Some functions were not even listed, but it's possible to create new commands via the "Add a New Command" option at the bottom of the page. I needed to add Zones and ReplayGuide.

In hindsight I should have probably selected the Replay 3000 rather than the 2000. The IR codes are the same and I suspect the database for the 3000 is more complete?

I understand now what Slack meant about renaming the
activities just created. The activites are given default names like "Change Button Function 2" so there's no way to tell from looking at the activity name what button has been reprogrammed. Changing the name to something like "Key ChDown ReplayGuide" fixes this. Now if I could just figure out how to modify an existing "change button function" activity...

Oh, and after spending about 5 hours at this, all I have is a mess. I'm tempted to just start over from scratch and add just the minimum devices, get those working, and THEN add another device and another activity. I'm a little frustrated, but I'm not giving up yet.

David

In my experience all necessary ir codes were in the drop down lists. And they all worked as indicated. the names may have been a tad generic, but educated guessing would figure it out. I never had to learn a code.

I'd start from scrath again.
Make a picture of your replay modes, and the desired final button mappings. And start remapping. If memory serves I never had to re-map any of the the NAV & select keys, they were fine in their out-of-box respective menus 'Play Mode' & 'Mavigate Mode'

Has anyone needed to modify the Inter-Key delay? It defaults to 1/2 second, so sending repeated Quik Skip commands (for example) is awfully slow. I am going to try some shorter settings.

David

I set it to 100msec via xml.
Apparently you can't set it that fast through the web wizard.

I forget the actual syntax. But an email to techsupprt should get you an example. they suggested it after I complained about the minimum user entry on the web wizard.