I found a great solution for Xbox One owners so that they can enjoy the best features of their Harmony Remote and the Xbox One. It was a process of trial and error, but after fooling around for a while, I was able to find a system that works really well. And by the way, if you arent' a Harmony Remote owner, none of this will make sense. Also, if you aren't using your Xbox One with a cable box plugged into it, none of this is necessary either. But if you have a Harmony Remote, an Xbox One and a cable/satellite TV subscriber, this will greatly improve your experience with Microsoft's new all-in-one box.
I was wondering for months prior to the Xbox One if I would still be able to use my Harmony remote control in conjunction with the X1s many features. The PS4 wasn't working with it, and I was worried there would be issues with the Xbox One as well despite the fact that I'd read that Logitech was supporting the Harmony remote for the One at launch. However, when I was programming the Activity for my new Xbox on launch day, it became clear that the features of the Xbox One were going to present some problems with the Harmony. Namely, it was tough coming up with a way to be able to control my TV stuff like DVR and On Demand while also being able to jump around the Xbox dashboard, video services and various menus. The solution involves creating 2 Activities, one called Xbox1 and another called Xbox1 TV, which I will walk you through. Here's the following steps for creating these two complimentary activities.
Adding the Xbox 1 Activity (for everything on the Xbox One other than TV):
1. Add a Game Device with DVD>Microsoft>Xbox One, and create a new activity called Xbox 1 (Or Xbox One or whatever).
IMPORTANT: If you already tried adding an Activity/Device for the Xbox One on or before launch, you must delete both before moving forward. They had a problem on launch day with their Xbox One data (my Xbox One wouldn't turn on, for example), so if you already have an old Xbox One device, the Harmony software will add a new device called Microsoft Game Console with DVD which you can rename as Xbox One after you delete the original. Also delete any activity you made for the Xbox One as it will use the old commands. We'll start fresh here with the updated info.
2. When you go through your setup, at the end it will ask if you want to make changes. Say YES, then add an additional device - then add your cable box to the activity. If you review your settings, it should show your cable box as being added to the list of used devices for the activity. Don't worry that the activity will turn on your cable box when you start the Xbox 1 activity even when you aren't planning on watching TV since modern cable boxes with DVRs are always on anyway.
3. Once you have the activity called Xbox 1 finished, go to 'Customize Buttons' for that activity and assign all of the Xbox One specific buttons to their respective Harmony dedicated buttons and touchscreen specific functions. (e.g. put Xbox One's 'Guide' command on 'Guide', etc. . Make sure and do this with all the Xbox One specific commands. There's a few odd ones like 'View', which does I don't know what, and 'Xbox Nexus which is simply the menu. Redundantly, there's also a 'Menu' command which does the same thing as Xbox Nexus, but I just assigned Menu to the Harmony's dedicated 'Menu' button and had 'Nexus' on the touchscreen.)
You are done with this activity, which will navigate Netflix, Xbox Music, and all of the Xbox One's other menus. While it will control the OneGuide, this Activity will NOT control is your advanced cable box functionality like DVR and Video On Demand, but we will now make a second, complimentary Activity for that now.
Adding the Xbox 1 TV Activity (for TV watching only):
1. Create an Activity called Xbox 1 TV.
2. As before, follow step 2. listed above to add an additional device to the profile - your cable box. Everything should be identical to the previous Xbox 1 profile you created, which will ensure that nothing powers on or off when you switch between the two activities.
3. Once you have finished, go to Customize Buttons for Activity again, but this time, assign your DVR/Cable box controls to all of the dedicated buttons on your Harmony. Create any virtual buttons you need too, like 'DVR' and 'On Demand' - though I like assigning these to the + and E dedicated keypad buttons for ease of use.
You are done with the Harmony programming after you update the remote!
Setting up the Xbox for use with the Harmony.
In the Xbox One's Power On/Off Settings in the System Settings Menu, you will need to disable the Xbox One's "Turn on Xbox One by saying 'Xbox On'." Likewise, disable the "Turn off Xbox with voice" feature. Using this feature will create problems with the Harmony remote, but it's not really a problem considering you will have complete control of your sytem.
Using the two complimentary profiles:
When you want to do non-TV related things, just hit the Xbox 1 activity and you're all set. Easy. If you decide to watch TV, fire it up first either with Harmony or voice/gesture commands, then hit the Xbox 1 TV activity after you see the TV feed. You can now control your DVR etc. (but won't be able to navigate the OneGuide.) When you stop watching TV, select the Xbox 1 activity and hit the 'Menu' button to return to the Xbox Home screen.
If you - like me - plan on using the Kinect and want to watch TV straight away, just turn on the Xbox 1 TV activity, and say "Xbox Watch TV" and you're all good. If you are planning on disableing Kinect (or just don't want to talk) and want to go straigt to watching TV, always start by pressing Xbox 1 (without TV) to begin, navigate to TV and then once watching TV, select Xbox 1 TV from your activities. If you wish to go back to non-TV viewing controls, simply press Xbox 1 (without TV) again.
Either Activity will correctly turn off your equipment, so that's nice.
Anyway, I hope this helps people who, like me, felt like I was going to lose the ability to control my Xbox One setup with my beloved Harmony Remote. Here's hoping they add PS4 support soon.
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