Just got myself a Harmony One.  I'm impressed with it but I'm thinking I may not be using it to its full potential.

Anyone else with a Harmony have care to share how they're using it, any tips 'n tricks?

I really like it.  About the only changes I did was for some of the activities I changed some of the default buttons so I did not have to go to device specific modes.  For example toggling Surround mode and direct mode on my amp without having to go selected the receiver.

I have a Harmony 885 and loving it. Made lots of activities to control my TV, audio receiver, DTV receiver, Logitech squeezebox and AC Ryan media player. Takes a while to configure, but it really pays off.

MarEll, while in an activity, you still can control your devices separately (with their own key layouts).

I love my Harmony One. It replaced 5 remotes for my Onkyo Receiver, Panasonic 3D Plasma HDTV, Panasonic 3D Blu-ray player, PS3 and my portable A/C unit .

I'm also confused by MarEll's habit of turning off the TV and AMP when taking a smoke break .

When I'm watching a movie and need to do something for a few minutes I'll pause the movie then manually change the input from HDMI 1 to TV. I do this because I have a Plasma HDTV and want to avoid image retention as much as I possibly can. When I return I just change the input back to HDMI 1 and start watching my movie again.

Quoting EdwinK:

Quote:
I got the same one but I often want to through it out. Recharging often fails, and I have to put something heavy on it before it wants to recharge programming it is a pain in the ***. Even with equipment that is very common you still have to teach the thing the codes. You would think it would download it from their server. After some use the buttons will not work properly

Well, I have the One.  And I've only had it about a month or two.  But I've never needed to weight it down to recharge.

And I've yet to need to actually learn from another remote.  I did have to change my HD-A2 (HD DVD player and to be perfectly exact, it's an HD-D2) to an HD-A3 because the A2 profile doesn't have the discrete on/off commands.  I know customer service could have added the codes for me, but this was quicker and easier.

It's controlling my Panasonic plasma TV, DVR, PS3, HD DVD, receiver and lights.  No learning required and everything works just about perfectly.

I've also not had a problem with the software.  But I'm a computer programmer, so probably not the best person to compare to.

Here's another tip.  I of course put my most used commands on Page 1 on the touchscreen.  My next most used commands either go on page 2 or the last page since either is accessible with a single click.

Also, look into Sequences.  It's what Logitech calls macros.  I've set one up for Netflix on the PS3 for kids and guests.  One button push gets you out of Netflix (as opposed to holding the PS command, then moving to Quit, then moving to Yes).  I hear you can only do 5 commands in a Sequence, but from what I've read, you can string them together.