I was pulling my hair out. With the Harmony, and also with this Remote 3, I couldn’t find predictability when turning on devices. Though the inputs of my TV and A/V preamp were set properly as scripts, often times I couldn’t get them to properly rest on the correct inputs. I’d engage my AppleTV script and the TV would turn on, set to the correct input, the A/V preamp would do the same, but at the end of script one of them might change to the wrong input, or not change to an input at all.
No stability nor predictability. No matter what I changed I couldn’t get this to work right every time.
Then I realized that my AppleTV, my A/V preamp (a McIntosh) and my TV all had HDMI communications turned on. So, for instance, the TV would turn on, set to the correct input, but then the preamp would also change its input and then send a message to the TV to change. Or vice versa.
I have since turned off HDMI communication on all devices, properly built all inputs into my scripts, and it works perfectly, every time! Headaches diverted.
Just a tip for anyone else who’s been struggling to get their devices to behave.
yes, this is something that seems obvious in hindsight but is often overlooked. Whenever you use an “intelligent” remote that is able to set all states and input you really need to disable all settings for HDMI CEC. Unfortunately although CEC should be a standard it is named differently by every manufacturer.
LG – Simplink
Samsung – Anynet+
Sony – Bravia Sync
Panasonic – Viera Link
Philips – EasyLink
Toshiba – Regza Link
Sharp – Aquos Link
Hisense – Anyview CEC
Hitachi – HDMI‑CEC
Pioneer – Kuro Link
Onkyo – RIHD (Remote Interactive over HDMI)
Denon – HDMI Control
Yamaha – HDMI Control
Marantz – HDMI Control
Disable ALL of these if you want to use Remote 3 successfully as it will interfer with the settings that you set using the remote…
I have had this problem and tried turning off CEC but a side effect of turning off CEC was that ARC/eARC stopoed working and I could no longer use the TV as anything other than a monitor (unless I used the TV speakers for sound). There is a small HDMI in/out adapter available that breaks the CEC line while still allowing eARC to work. That seemed to work for a while but then eARC stopped working and I had to remove that device. I still don’t fully understand what all is going on. This was with an LG G5 connected to an Anthem AVR. I would like the option to use media clients in the TV and get sound our of the AVR but I haven’t had the patience to try again.
I would use discrete source codes (like HDMI) but unfortunately they aren’t available for my Samsung Q990C soundbar and so I am stuck using CEC. One thing I learned is that some devices do not fully shut off and just go into standby mode and that can mess things up when switching devices. So what I did for that device was I deleted its power features in the activity’s on and off sequence and that has seemed to help.
This is also what I found out. I still have 2 rooms (activity groups) were I need CEC. I prepared when I had my 1st R2. Instead of switching on/off needed devices I configured CEC so that one device does the rest. In both rooms I have a TV and 2/3 devices.
It is not bad at all because I also changed my Harmony configuration and now I can use the original remotes, Harmony or R2/R3. It is better than using IR.
For your soundbar you could ask on discord if someone has a better idea.