Question

I have two TV's in my living room, both that can be controlled by a Harmony Hub and Alexa. About 99% of the time it is getting the same image as my main TV, just use the smaller one when working on my computer. I have noticed that Harmony will only control 1 tv at a time. If TV #1 is on, i tell Alexa to turn on TV#2, it will turn off TV#1. I am thinking to program TV#2 as anything but a TV, using the Harmony Remote to learn the IR commands. I just cant think what i could program it as. I already have a activity to turn on my TV, cable box, Stereo, and video switch. Any thoughts?  

Answer 1

Can you make groups or rooms?  

Answer 2

The problem is, when you tell Alexa to turn one off she turns that activity off. You'd have to create an activity that turns on both TV'S

Comments

Or a different activity that one. turns just one on. then another that turns both on. its a idea. thanks

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This is the right track. The real problem is that when Harmony starts one activity, it ends the one that is currently on. So if TV one is already on via Harmony, then it will turn it off to end that activity, then turn on the next activity. I’ve tried to disable the “activity off” feature but have t found a way. Best to use the one hub would be 3 activities, one for TV one only, one for TV two only and one for both at the same time.  

Answer 3

You can edit the power settings on the devices so they dont turn off when you change the activity, it can always stay on or only turn off when you turn the hub off. You could also create an activity that has both tvs in it. But the easiest setup would be a second hub. I have 2 tvs in my living room and each is on it's own hub. Its 1000 times easier to manage than when I used both on one hub, but I also had several activities and wanted to switch back and forth on controlling activities on whichever TV when I wanted.  

Answer 4

The issue is TV’s use the same IR command for on and off. I have Alexa control my TV using a broad link RM and it doesn’t matter if I say turn tv on or turn tv off it’s going to do the opposite of its current state. Now with two TVs in the same room if they are the same maker (or different maker but use the same IR stack) you’re going to get the result the OP has experienced. I’m curious how others have resolved this.  

Comments

I had an issue like this recently, i got a new TV in the living room, and the IR codes to control the main tv would make changes to the other TV thats close to it (powering the big tv on would toggle power of the other tv, turning it off would change inputs, all kinds of weird stuff). my work around was to put a CEC enabled device before the TV and then control that. Now i turn the sound bar on thats connected to the big TV, which turns on the tv and manages volume. Now the secondary tv is fine to be controlled with the second harmony hub and controlling the first one doesnt make changes to the new one.  

Answer 5

Are the TVs the same brand?