Logitech 650 remote help

Hardware and technical stuff
1

I’ve got a couple of Logitech 650 remotes. My needs are pretty simple: I want a backlight and I want one remote to control my TV viewing, which is always either my Dish Hopper 3 receiver plus Sony AV soundbar receiver and Panasonic flatscreens, or my Roku plus the Sony plus the Panny.

Here’s my simple issue - I have an activity that is Watch TV. That turns on and turns over control of the remote such that the remote volume controls the volume through the Sony to the speakers, and the channels, DVR, etc. controls the Dish Hopper 3.

The other Activity is Roku. That turns on the Roku and TV and Sony and volume control goes to the Sony, all other commands go to the Roku.

And hear’s the problem. If we’re watch TV on the Dish, then decide to watch a show on, say, Amazon Prime on the Roku, there’s no way I can see to simply switch to the remote sending commands to the Roku and volume to the Sony (oh, forgot to mention, Sony has to be set to the HDMI input for the Dish or Roku, built into the Activity) and Input on Sony to Roku without hitting the Off button for the Watch TV activity then hitting the Watch Roku activity to turn everything back on and to the right setting. It’s a minor thing, sure, but it irritates me.

What I want is a way, while watching TV on the Dish, to simply switch the Sony to the Roku input and the remote to run the Roku. If I just go to devices and select the Sony and switch the input to the Roku, and then go back to devices and select the Roku, I can see and run the Roku, but the volume controls while I have the Device set to Roku no longer send the volume up and down to the Sony. And I see no way to set the Device settings for the Roku to send volume controls to the Sony. I seem to only be able to do that as an Activity. Which is where I am now, i.e. the only way to switch is to turn one activity off, wait, then turn the other one on.

Is there a way to do what I want simply? (Simply = easily explaining to my tech-phobic spouse how to do it.)

2

Do you mean Logitech 650?

3

Yes I do.

4

I’m super confused trying to read that, but it seems that if you can get a sony soundbar to support HDMI-CEC, then adjusting volume on TV will adjust on soundbar so you can ignore soundbar.

5

Yeah, typed in a hurry between meetings (even got the title and remote name wrong.)

It only makes sense if you have Logitech remotes and know how they work. ;)

6

You should be able to press the button for “Watch Roku” and the harmony automatically does everything in the background to make it work.

You should be using activities for this, but you should not need to turn one activity off before turning the next one on.

7

I think what i need is for you to scribble a diagram of what stuff you have and then upload a picture :)

8

Duh. I have Watch TV on the screen and Watch Roku on the screen, with the associated screen buttons, and that’s what I use to run on each activity. I completely forgot I can assign the “hard” buttons above the screen such that Watch TV can be assigned to the Watch TV activity and the Watch a Movie button can be assigned to the Watch Roku activity. That should the the extremely simple solution.

Thanks for saving me from looking at all kinds of programming workarounds!

9

The screen buttons should do the same thing, though-- if moving to hard buttons fixes your problem, I don’t understand it, but cool.

10

Yeah, this should do it (I don’t use my Harmony any more, but when I did, I just pressed whatever the next activity was, without switching off). But if for some reason it doesn’t, you could always set up a “switch” activity that does what you want.

11

Once I turn on the, say, watch Dish activity, the screen buttons now change to what I have assigned for that activity, i.e. the Watch Roku activity is no longer on the screen.

12

Ahh, OK. You can customize those buttons so it does show up there in the app. Or just assign hard buttons, that would work too.

13

There should be a way to bring the activities back up on the screen. Looks like it’s the “More Activities” button on the 650. But if you haven’t configured the hard buttons to match your actual activities, then of course do that.

14

Yeah, I only have two activities, Watch Dish and Watch Roku, so just assigning the Watch TV and Watch Movie buttons will be quick and simple and effective. And my spouse will be very happy to know that’s all she has to do to switch between the two.

Thanks!