Switching Modes

[gator2003]

Is there a way, without duplicating a sequence to another button, to switch between modes and have it do the power on cycle? Or at least switch from one set of inputs to the next.

For example, I'm watching my Apple TV and I want to switch to my PlayStation. Is the only way to turn off in Activity A, switch to B, turn back on?

[Nathan]

Right now we suggest just adding your HDMI switcher to one of the unused buttons on the activity. So if Playstation is on HDMI 2, you assign HDMI 2 to the 2 button on the remote in the playstation activity, flip over to that activity, and hit the 2 button. 

Recalling and updating states is planned.

[Jilas671]

Agree, without this being easy, its hard for me to have these out with the family as it doesn't make sense to them, compared to the aging Logitech's.  Not actually sure I've gotten it either to be honest, as I can't get it to switch when I've tried it (maybe its just the amp not working...not sure).  Until then there are sitting in their boxes unfortunately.

I'd love that if I want to watch TV (A) I press A, and everything is setup, if I press B for a Roku, channels are changed etc. ready for that  (agree you need entry and exit setups, to change channels, reset volumes etc, av amp modes).

But I don't actually control the power all of my devices via a remote on the whole, as I use home automation to control the powering of the core devices as they mostly not on standby.  Those that are on standby is limited to the bluray and a freeview box, both I'd toggle in the activity switching.  But maybe its useful to have a power button for them, but then I'd say, just press that activity again to setup everything.  the TV/Amp is annoying when they get out of sync currently, so removing them totally from the remote's control will be ideal for me.
 

[Maximo Piva]

Agree about Jilas View. 

You should be able to add buttons/actions, in the IN/OUT Activities. The same functionality you have in the power button.

Basically, you add a list of actions when you enter the activity, and if you want a list of actions when you exit the activity (IE: Turn off something).

IE: If you press A,

Enter Activities: HDMI1 on TV and turn on the XBOX.

Exit Activities: Could be turn-off the XBOX.

If you press B,

.......Exit activity from A will be triggered if any.

Enter Activities: TV, HDMI 2, and turn on Shield.

and so-on

In fact, if it was me, will recommend reducing the scope, of the on/off button, to turn on the tv, and enter the last activity user used when off, exit the activity, and turn off the TV when off.

Up to the user to select if the power button belongs to the activities, or is global.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MichaelSage]

I agree with this. I use TV for watching streaming channels (roku) and live TV (samsung). At the moment I have to turn off activity a to turn on activity b. I am about to put mine into "production" use today (I've upgraded my roku and thought it would be good to get rid of my harmony remote), but the family acceptance factor on having to turn off and on just to switch between TV and streaming (and back) is going to be annoying.. I can feel the complaints coming already!

I've seen some comments about input switching and that really doesn't work for this situation, for TV the remote is "mapped" to the Samsung stuff and streaming the remote is "mapped" for roku. 

I really hope activity switching is coming soon! Harmony does it and it didn't really know the state of devices as sometimes they would fall out of sync, for example, it would think the soundbar was on when it was off and you'd have to manually turn it on or off to get it back in sync. I don't think you need to do anything complex, just work on "best guess" state, rather than trying to work out if a device is actually on.

[NZHone]

I've been thinking a bit how I would like this to work (for me).
I'm not an ex-harmony user so not 100% sure how activities worked with these.

Most of my devices have discrete codes for Power On & Power Off, so assuming that the software and remote get to a state which supports it, I would create a macro on each Activity button that sends Power On to each device needed for that activity (e.g. TV, AV Rec, Roku), then sends input selects to relevant devices (TV, AV Rec).

Likewise selecting another activity might send Power On to TV, AV Rec and Disc Player, then input selects as needed (as you are only sending Power On commands, anything already on won't change state, but in the case the Disc Player would be also be turned on).

Repeat for the third activity.

Finally I would just map the Power Off codes for ALL devices to a macro on the Remote's power key. Ideally the power key could be set to NOT track state, and just have a single macro assigned (I haven't checked this as maybe this is the default behavior if only one of the states is configured), making it act like a "regular" button.
 

With this setup, regardless of current state, selecting an activity button gets you there, and the Power button is only needed when you have finished and just powers down everything.

While I'm dreaming, having the option to set a button (in this case, Power) to a "Punch Through" mode, where it works the same regardless of the currently selected activity would be great. In this instance it would save having to record the same macro three (or even six, if the state tracking mode can't be disabled) times. This might also be a good option for the Volume / Mute buttons as well as these are often just mapped to the same device (in my case the AV Receiver).

Just my 2¢, feel free to ignore at will.

[Benjamin Metzler]

Ideally I’d like to see every button as fully programmable with macros. This would allow people who want it to work like harmony can program it that way; and any who want it to work the it does now, can make it work that way as well.  Limiting some buttons to some paradigm limits what the remote can do, as well as the audience. When I had a JP1 remote, the hacking community did just this. It made the remotes incredibly easy to use by anyone. The trade off was that programming it was more complex.