Harmony Tips and Tricks: What to Do if Your Device is Not in the Harmony Database

Are you are shopping for a new 3D television, or the latest Blu-Ray player but are unsure if it will be controlled by your Harmony remote when you get the new gadget home? Or, perhaps you are considering the purchase a Harmony remote and are unsure if Harmony supports your home entertainment setup.

We have a compatibility checker that allows you to enter in new and existing devices to search if that specific device in included in the Harmony database. You can find it by going to the following site logitech.com/harmony/components

If you enter in a Manufacturer & Model number into the search box and get don’t get the green check mark have no fear. Most often this is due to an incorrect or incomplete model number being enter into the search. Some people enter in the serial rather than the model number, or use the number that appears on the original remote. To better assist you in how to locate the correct information for successful setup please see this help article here. Also provided within the compatibility page is the worksheet for easily recording down all of your device information.

If all of the information is correctly entered, and the device is truly not in the Harmony database a Harmony remote can easily be taught to control any IR (infrared) device. All Harmony remote controls come with an IR learning port and when setting up your device you would be asked to teach in a few commands from the original remote. Again, have no fear as a Customer Care representative is available to help if you run into any trouble along the way.

Be sure to check back every week for more Harmony tips and tricks and feel free to send us your comments.

Author

Product Specialist, Remote Control Business Unit

7 comments

  • What if the device is in the database but very little in the way of the devices functions actually work using the Harmony 900 remote? I had a Harmony 676 for which all the same components worked just fine, but after going through the trouble of configuring the Harmony 900 for the same devices (was not able to just transfer to new remote) I have almost no important features working on the Harmony 900. For example, with the Motorola PVR from our Cable Company (SHAW), there is NO way to get Skip forward to work. The button mapped to skip does not work, teaching that button doesn’t work, nor does mapping the skip to one of the colored buttons do anything. Same issue with my BluRay player where the only functions aside from the standard stop, play, pause, RW, and FF that work is Exit. No menu options.

    • Hello Dr Schertzer,

      Normally, if a command or two are missing, you can teach in the signal from your original remote. Once you’ve taught the commands into the Harmony remote remember to assign those new commands onto the buttons in the Activity that you are using. Customizing the buttons in the wrong section of Devices or the wrong Activity is common, so ensure you do it in Watch TV. You may also need to learn the command in more than once if a button doesn’t respond.

      If all else fails, contact support as they can examine your settings and troubleshoot the problem to get all the commands working. They can also compare your 676 settings and copy across any missing information.

      Regards,
      Dane

  • Hi…I have the Harmony 1000 and use a PC as the core of my home theater, which also houses my blu-ray drive. I can find a “Media Center PC” as a device to add but when I do it gives me nothing in terms of control. I can’t seem to get a straght answer anywhere (including Logitech support) as to how I can best control the PC with my Logitech. I would like to control the PowerDVD application interface or Windows Media Center interface. Can I get some advice and pointed to some specific instructions on how to accomplish this. Thanks in advance.

    • Hello Ambrogino,

      Most Media Center PCs use the Microsoft set of ‘Windows Media Center’ commands. If you’ve added your PC using the following:
      Manufacturer: Microsoft
      Model: Windows Media Center
      and you are not getting control, then the computer may be using a different IR sensor or a configuration issue may be the cause.

      Check out the Logitech forums at forums.logitech.com for some additional guidance from other Harmony users who’ve set up their remote to control the computer.

      Best,
      Dane

  • During the past few days with my new Harmony 900 remote I found a lot of issues compared to my previous Harmony One model, here some of the most important:
    – The 900 sometimes lose the upper display functionality (the touchscreen sometimes goes blank and you have to remove the remote battery to have it back), I think this is a remote firmware bug;
    – Another big issue is that the web configuration interface has lost two times all the commands/configuration of two different devices and I have had to re-configure them from scratch (I’ve not deleted those devices or removed any commands, just they disappeared from the configuration). I think this is a web interface bug, perhaps connected with the Mac OSX version.

    Those issue are very annoying since the Harmony 900 is by far superior to the previous One model but the One is superior in software stability and maturity. I hope all those 900 issues will be adjusted soon.

    Regards

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