Logitech Harmony and Apple TV2

[BeachChair]

I just got the Harmony One. It's not as fast as Apple's IR remote, there is a slight delay when clicking buttons quickly. The delay is already set to 0 ms in the Logitech software. Any ideas?

The other thing is, I heard there are some extra commands (like 30 sec skip forward) that are possible with the Harmony?

 

[spblat]

I've been a Harmony user for years, currently using an 890 with my ATV2 with satisfactory but not perfect results. You'll never get the response to be as snappy as it is with the native Apple remote IMHO. I hadn't heard of a commercial skip feature. But I have a button set for 30 second skip on the TiVo, and when we watch ATV2 my wife hits it sometimes without thinking about it. Annoyance and hilarity ensues

 

[newagemac]

I just got the Harmony One. It's not as fast as Apple's IR remote, there is a slight delay when clicking buttons quickly. The delay is already set to 0 ms in the Logitech software. Any ideas?

The other thing is, I heard there are some extra commands (like 30 sec skip forward) that are possible with the Harmony?

Yes, there is a 30 second skip forward for the ATV2 as well as a 10 second skip back. I think in the Harmony Settings it is labeled somewhat differently than what you would expect. I assigned mine to the extra up/down rocker near the top of the remote.

Most people don't realize this but 30 second skip forward and 10 second skip back are built into the ATV2 playback controls and you can even do it with the little aluminum Apple remote or assign it to buttons on any regular remote. You don't need a universal remote like the Harmony to do it.

On the Apple remote you press and hold the left button to skip back 10 seconds and press and hold the right button to skip forward 30 seconds. Works great with commercials. Works even better on the Harmony since it's just a simple button press.

 

[dgalvan123]

Yes, there is a 30 second skip forward for the ATV2 as well as a 10 second skip back. I think in the Harmony Settings it is labeled somewhat differently than what you would expect. I assigned mine to the extra up/down rocker near the top of the remote.

Most people don't realize this but 30 second skip forward and 10 second skip back are built into the ATV2 playback controls and you can even do it with the little aluminum Apple remote or assign it to buttons on any regular remote. You don't need a universal remote like the Harmony to do it.

On the Apple remote you press and hold the left button to skip back 10 seconds and press and hold the right button to skip forward 30 seconds. Works great with commercials. Works even better on the Harmony since it's just a simple button press.

Odd. . . I can't replicate this 30-second skip behavior on my logitech harmony 300 remote. I think it has something to do with chapters.

For example, when I try to skip forward 30 seconds on a video that does not have built-in chapters (like, say, a home movie I took on my iphone and then made available to apple tv), the skip-forward button does skip ahead 30 seconds. But when I try it on a video that does have chapters (like an eyetv recording exported to itunes, or a ripped dvd in itunes) the skip forward button does NOT just skip 30 seconds, but instead skips to the next chapter.

I looked at all the button options on myharmony.com website. (I'm using the "Apple Apple TV" device from Harmony's database.) There is a "next chapter" button and a "skip forward" button. I've put them on different buttons of my remote, and for the life of me they seem to do the exact same thing as one another in every situation: When there are chapters, they both skip to the next chapter. When there are no chapters, they both skip ahead 30 seconds.

Am I doing something wrong? I'd like to be able to just skip 30 seconds ahead and 10 (or 30) seconds back in every situation, but I can't figure out how to do this when there are chapters involved. I don't like using the regular fastforward.

 

[dgalvan123]

Ok so I've thought about this more:

I am indeed able to replicate the behavior mentioned by the previous poster: If I hold the right ARRROW button on my harmony remote (which does the same thing as the right arrow button on the aluminum remote), I can get a 30 second skip. But this is a pain to use, since if you hold it too long or too short you go into fast-forward mode.

Using the Apple TV preset from logitech harmony's database, I still can't find a 30-second skip option.

What I think I will do instead is to just use the Apple TV's "learn my remote" feature to tell the apple tv to use the skip forward button (the one that currently jumps to the next "chapter") to jump ahead 30 seconds. That is much more wife-friendly.

 

[newagemac]

If you know what you are doing, you can program the Harmony to do the 30 second skip forward and 10 second skip backward thing. I am sure that it's already in the Harmony Remote software for the Apple TV though. It just might not be used by default. Try going into the settings and assigning the additional buttons and you should find it.

 

[eTip]

...a little off-topic but my Harmony can't be programmed anymore (USB port broke off) so I ended up using the learning feature and an old TiVo remote and I dont notice any delay like I did when I had the Harmony set up with my old ATV. The TiVo remote works great & can also turn the TV off & on, control volume & change inputs.

 

[dgalvan123]

If you know what you are doing, you can program the Harmony to do the 30 second skip forward and 10 second skip backward thing. I am sure that it's already in the Harmony Remote software for the Apple TV though. It just might not be used by default. Try going into the settings and assigning the additional buttons and you should find it.

So I finally fixed this last night.

I first tried going into the Harmony settings for the Apple TV preset and moving buttons around. There is indeed a "skip ahead" and "skip back" button, which I assigned to my ff and rw buttons, but when I actually used it, it jumped to the chapter markers, not 30 seconds. (There also is a "next chapter" and "previous chapter" option, which I assigned to different buttons. They did the exact same thing: jumped to chapter markers.)

So, as a workaround, and based on suggestions I'd seen elsewhere, I selected Tivo Premiere as the preset for my Harmony remote (even thought I don't have a Tivo), just so I could get a remote with all the buttons I wanted emitting some infrared signal. Then, I used Apple TV's "learn remote" feature to assign functions to the buttons I wanted. This made the remote work in exactly the same way as it had before, when I was using the Apple TV Harmony preset, with the exception that this time, the skip forward and skip back buttons actually did do the 30-second skip forward and 10-second skip back. Bit of a kluge, but it works great.

Not sure why the Harmony Apple TV preset skip forward and skip back buttons don't do the same thing as the skip forward/back assignment in Apple TV's learn remote function, but oh well.

(Also note I'm sure you could use a Harmony preset other than Tivo premiere. I just chose one that I thought would provide enough button functions to make the Harmony buttons I wanted to use active. If you leave a Harmony button unassigned, it won't emit an infrared signal.)

 

[NAHMME]

Harmony One Setup for ATV2

I can get the Harmony one to switch to my Apple TV2, but all of the other commands do not work. What steps must I take to properly set-up the Harmony One?