Harmony (Logitech) - Still Worthwhile ?

Is this with the newer U2 remote by chance? It seems decent in terms of button placement and device support. I believe even a reviewer on YouTube mentioned using Apple tv without issues.

 

I was just using Apple TV as an example, with harmony remote you create an activity which starts up your devices
example: turn on tv, turn on blu ray, turn lights off, turn on receiver set input to blu ray.

Later you want to watch your tv tuner, the harmony knows which devices are on so it turns off the blu ray, leaves everything else on and changes the input to tv tuner.

The sofa baton can create these macros but it doesn't remember what is currently on so it would send a power command to devices that are already on which will actually turn off some devices because they use the same button for on/off

Anyway if you are used to Harmony you will likely be disappointed, as it works differently and I found the scroll wheel button awkward and no touch screen

 

This is why the Harmony is still the best. Tragic that Logitech stopped making them.

 

Seems to be Logitech's MO -

1. Buy cool tech company
2. Milk it for a bit
3. Abandon it...

 

Yes. I don't have harmony remote, and ebay seems quite pricey compared to the sofabaton. Lol

 

What I can see the Sofabaton is about £200. You can get a Harmony Elite for half that price on eBay.

 

In Canada it's around $90, and about the same or little cheaper than harmony elite on eBay.

 

$90 for the X1S?

 

I still use my harmony elite, works perfectly, I’ve stuck with LG oleds for my last 3 TV’s, even the many zidoos I’ve had and Apple TV upgrades over the years haven’t had any remote code changes so everything has been working seamlessly even through equipment upgrades. I couldn’t live without it, hit one button and everything turns on, switches to the right inputs, volume levels, lights go off, enjoy the movie/gaming session, press another button and everything turns off and lights come back on back to dim, or off depending if it’s day or night, too good when you get used to it!

 

100% agree. In the past I've owned other universal remotes but nothing has ever come close to the Elite.

 

Yio remotes are the future, but extremely expensive and still very hard to acquire. https://www.unfoldedcircle.com/

 

Yes, maybe the future, but it's still far from Harmony, although there are some new different concepts.
I think integrating it with Alexa would be a better option than having your own voice assistant. It has a complicated way to program activities.
Тhere is only a limited set of commands for Zidoo at the moment, I guess it's the same for others and they will have to be entered manually.
Either way, it has a long way to go until it reaches Logitech Harmony elite, but I hope someone succeeds.
***And of course a more reasonable price, otherwise they will remain boutique with high prices and poor support.***

 

Yes I hope there will be a successor at some point. I will use my Harmony Elite (and replace if necessary from eBay) until that day comes.

 

Logitech has its problems, is slow (everything set correctly), so I switched to the Sofabaton U1 3 years ago and still use it. Sofabaton X1S has too few buttons, so it wasn't an option for me.

 

The U2, I believe X1S is more expensive.

 

That's why I asked. The Elite is a premium device so a replacement would be the X1S and not the cheaper U2.

 

I love mine and use it every day. One of the best additions to my HT.

 

Makes sense. I was looking at the U2 for a more simple approach without the hub. I only have a few devices that I would use universal remote. The Harmony elite is almsot half of the price of what I paid for z9x 8k. Lol

 

And I am waitung eagerly for my Remote 3 from Unfolded Circle (Unfolded Circle Remote 3 by Marton Borzak — Kickstarter). Shipping is announced for mid of March.
My Harmonys USB interface is dead - I can not change its configuration anymore.

 

I'm going to have a fettle later with my Harmony, which is currently charging.

Now as we all know CEC is the work of the devil and LG's version of it (Simplink) also screws things up. Careful use of CEC-less Adaptors has solved most of the problems these days and I think my new Receiver has helped a lot. A couple of years ago I read that Harmony remotes have a command to toggle Simplink on and off and so I'm wondering if there is a way to modify the activities that require Simplink to toggle it on when starting the activity and toggle it off when end the activity? The option though for Simplink in my TV's settings menu, is buried deeply. I'd set it up to turn off at the start of the activity and turn it off again at the end, just to be sure it didn't switch on in between.

If there is such a toggle for Simplink, has anyone got it to work with their Harmony? Thanks