logitech harmony remote and sony receiver versus me

okay, so here’s my story about the new remote the potts’ got me for xmas. it’s the logitech harmony remote 676. it’s a universal remote that uses a usb connection to download the codes for your devices from logitech’s website. after entering my stuff and going through the steps, everything basic worked on all of my devices…except my a/v receiver. it’s a sony str-da2000es. i spent a couple of hours over several days mucking around with the remote, trying to get it to control the receiver, but pretty much to no avail. i could get it to change the volume, but not turn it on/off or change inputs. i eventually got frustrated trying to use logitech’s troubleshooting guide and knowledgebase, and repeated attempts at deleting/re-configuring the remote and getting it to “learn” the ir commands from my working remote.
last night a google search turned up a page that said in order to work with universal remotes the sony receiver needed to be in “av1” mode instead of “av2” (the default). for the receiver, you turn it off, then hold down “input mode” and hit the power (I/O) button. each time you do this, it switches between “av1” and “av2”. i then also had to do this on my remote (rm-lg112) so the original remote would work with the device. for it, hold down the “use mode” button and press the main power (I/O) button. you should see “main” or “2nd” show up on the screen. use the easy scroll button to see “main” and push the easy scroll key to select it. use the easy scroll key to select between “av1” and “av2”, then press it to select. the use mode light will blink once for “av1” or twice for “av2”. having done this, i once again went through the online setup process and prepared to enjoy my working remote.
except it didn’t work. bleh. on the good side, it could now turn on the receiver — but it didn’t change inputs, or turn it off. after another hour or more of messing with it, reconfiguring and deleting both activities and the device, i eventually stumbled onto something. the list of what command it would use to change to an input was blank. saying “i have my remote and know what to do”, which meant it was “learning” ir commands, never worked. i did it over and over and it never worked. power toggling never worked correctly either. eventually i chose “i don’t have the remote, but i know what needs to be done” and chose ir commands from the dropdown list. i did this for every input. and it worked! my inputs changed when i changed activities. if it was off it’d turn it on and set it to the right input.
but it wouldn’t turn it off. *sigh* i went back into the online config and told it my remote has a separate button for on and off (which isn’t true) and then instead of telling it i had my remote i told it i didn’t but i knew what needed to be pressed and picked “poweron” and “poweroff” from the drop menus. i then yet again uploaded the config via usb to the remote (for the i-don’t-know-how-many-th time). and FINALLY the basic functions of each device worked, and everything turned on and off at the appropriate points.
the whole thing was certainly a much more painful process than i’d expected, and i had to do roundabout methods that weren’t intuitive or accurate for my remote in order to get it to work. i’m assuming that most people probably just enter their devices and things just magically work, no sweat. but not for me. on the good side, now that i’ve got the basics worked out i can move on to creating all kinds of crazy one-button custom codes to control my a/v devices as a whole.