Harmony Remotes Being Discontinued?

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Evil_Attorney

What are the alternatives to the Harmony remotes? Looking around, there doesn't seem to be a popular alternative. It looks like Philips has a line of similar remotes, such as this one.

I think URC makes remotes that are much better than Harmony. They're built better, they feel better in your hands, they don't have tiny plastic buttons, and IMO they're way easier to program.

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

PC Clients win again.. :-) With Girder, and a USB-UIRT, I can use any remote I can find for any remote.

I did this for a long time with my Streamzap remote. It's fine for "commands" for which your remote has hard buttons (play/pause/etc), but works really poorly with any "soft" buttons, you end up having to map them to unlabeled or incorrectly labeled buttons and remember what does what. Stuff like Aspect Ratio toggle, like, don't like, etc.

[wayner]

Is anyone using Girder or Eventghost with their PC to send IP commands to components? I just got a new Sharp TV and it can be controlled via IP commands which I have tested from a telnet session. This seems to be the way to go in the future since IR has a lot of drawbacks.

And I agree that the title of this thread is rather speculative. Logitech may think that they can get a lot of money selling this division so it may allow Harmony to thrive under other leadership.

But if they do shut down the back end servers then we are all screwed.

[nyplayer]

I got 2 of these remotes mainly for the transceiver... the remotes work right out the box for SagetV.. and the transceiver and blaster can be used with eventghost or girder using any remote. You cannot beat them for 19.99 free shipping.

[stuckless]

Well that really is bad news... i think for me, that's almost worst news than SageTV getting bought

I use 4 Harmony remotes, and maybe there are alternatives out there... but I really like the "Activity" based buttons and the soft buttons

For example, when I hit "Watch TV", I need the TV to turn on, set to HDMI2, SageTV to turn on, Bose to Turn ON -- Set to TV Input", and then send the TV Mute command to the TV.

I can do all of that manually, but I like being able to just use a single button

And the soft buttons are even handier... since I map a command to a readable button with text, instead of some generic red, greed, blue, yellow button that I can't remember what function that I programmed

Oh well... I'm sure I'll find an alternative solution... Once again the "cloud" sucks

[Evil_Attorney]

I don't think we need to panic here. As I mentioned in a subsequent post, it actually appears that Logitech intends to sell of the Harmony division, not just kill it off entirely. This makes much more sense from a business standpoint, since Logitech originally paid around $29 million to acquire the previous maker of the Harmony remotes and, while not performing well, appears to still be making money. I bet another company picks up the Harmony division for a steal, then runs with it. There is a lot of potential there if someone actually focused on product/software development.

[Evil_Attorney]

Here is what Logitech's CEO posted about this:

In a thread posted on the Logitech forums, Darrell told Logitech fans that the company has “publicly announced a plan to hold the Harmony business for sale.” He also assured users that “Logitech is not shutting down the Harmony business and certainly not the service.” The sale will not impact Harmony users, and customer support and warranties will still be provided.

So, I think that settles it.

[Peter_h]

Originally Posted by darcilicious

Now that's interesting. We have several non-HTPC devices connected to our primary TV and I have really liked the 550 we have. Simple to set up and use.

I'll have to file this away just in case...

I found it too limiting. You don't get full control of every button on the harmony remotes. It's been a long time but there were a couple of buttons that could not be reprogrammed to what I wanted.

The URC aren't easier to set up but they are much more powerful. Once you get them all setup, they make the experiences that little bit nicer.

[Peter_h]

Originally Posted by stuckless

Well that really is bad news... i think for me, that's almost worst news than SageTV getting bought

I use 4 Harmony remotes, and maybe there are alternatives out there... but I really like the "Activity" based buttons and the soft buttons

For example, when I hit "Watch TV", I need the TV to turn on, set to HDMI2, SageTV to turn on, Bose to Turn ON -- Set to TV Input", and then send the TV Mute command to the TV.

I can do all of that manually, but I like being able to just use a single button

And the soft buttons are even handier... since I map a command to a readable button with text, instead of some generic red, greed, blue, yellow button that I can't remember what function that I programmed

Oh well... I'm sure I'll find an alternative solution... Once again the "cloud" sucks

URC remotes can do all that and take it a step further.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by Evil_Attorney

Here is what Logitech's CEO posted about this:



So, I think that settles it.

Hey... don't the the facts get in the way of a good old fashion lynching/panic

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by Peter_h

URC remotes can do all that and take it a step further.

That's good to know.

[jchiso]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

I got 2 of these remotes mainly for the transceiver...

He is right about this. For this remote and a few others the transceiver is the more valuable piece, particularly if you don't have a USB-UIRT. I have a couple of DVico transceivers (one that came with a PCI OTA ATSC tuner card and another with a WMC remote) that I use in conjunction with any number of JP1-enabled remotes. Really, all you are interested in is the number of buttons (and/or functions) that the remote can handle. You can then use a wide array of programs to execute commands ...

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by stanger89

I think URC makes remotes that are much better than Harmony. They're built better, they feel better in your hands, they don't have tiny plastic buttons, and IMO they're way easier to program.



I did this for a long time with my Streamzap remote. It's fine for "commands" for which your remote has hard buttons (play/pause/etc), but works really poorly with any "soft" buttons, you end up having to map them to unlabeled or incorrectly labeled buttons and remember what does what. Stuff like Aspect Ratio toggle, like, don't like, etc.

That's why I use a htm mx-500, with its rename able buttons. I don't use most of its 'features' because of girder. Just power on and off macros and a single 'mode'.

[darcilicious]

Meanwhile, Logitech has announced two new remotes:

Logitech has announced two new home control remotes — the Harmony Ultimate ($350) and Harmony Smart Control ($130) — that can both use an iOS app for control. Harmony Ultimate is a full remote with 2.4” color touchscreen that can control up to 15 devices through swipes and taps. It can also control the Philips Hue lighting system.

Harmony Smart Control works mainly through the Harmony smartphone app, though it also comes with a simple remote. It can consolidate up to eight remote controls into one app. Both remotes are compatible with 225,000 home theater devices, and both include the Harmony Hub, which turns RF signals from the remote into IR and Bluetooth commands for home theater device compatibility. The Harmony Hub also allows users to control devices through cabinets and walls. Harmony Ultimate is expected to launch this month, while Harmony Smart Control should be available in May.

From: http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/new...ntrol-remotes/

[wayner]

I love Harmony remotes, I have been using them for over a decade and I probably have about 8 of them in use today, but...

When you consider that an iPod Touch can be bought for $299 it seems hard to justify spending $350 for a Harmony remote. I don't want to use an all touch device as a remote but when you consider all of the other things that an iPod touch can do it is hard to reconcile paying more for a remote with very limited functionality.

[stanger89]

I'd gladly buy another URC for my HT (or I should say I'd gladly buy one again if I needed one), ever for way more than an idevice, my MX880+MRF350 was possibly the best thing I ever did in my HT, certainly the best value.

There's just no substitute for having real, quality, hard buttons for navigation/transport/entry. There's no way I'd want to use a 100% touchscreen device for controlling TV, you just use the remote way too much, and having to pick it up, wake it up, unlock it (eg if it's your phone and not a spare), find the button you want with your eyes and push it, just to do something simple like skip forward or back, or pause, etc.

The one exception to that would be for a dedicated system for running movie "events" (like movie night). Then a tablet with all of your movies on it that you could browse in your hand and launch the presentation (trailers, intros, then movie) with a press, now that would be cool.

But for everyday use, hard buttons all the way.

[mistergq]

Originally Posted by stanger89

There's no way I'd want to use a 100% touchscreen device for controlling TV, you just use the remote way too much, and having to pick it up, wake it up, unlock it (eg if it's your phone and not a spare), find the button you want with your eyes and push it, just to do something simple like skip forward or back, or pause, etc.

The simple includes a remote control which controls 3 activities. So you don't have to use the touch screen all the time.

[hemicuda]

The true geek in me is waiting on the Samsung S4 and its IR i/o capability. Will have to start learning how to build a custom app I guess.

[valnar]

I have four URC MX-700 remotes and can program them from my PC. I love them.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by valnar

I have four URC MX-700 remotes and can program them from my PC. I love them.

My MX-550 is still great, and I actually like the button layout better than the later MX-650 and higher. The MX-550 and 600 had both levels of skip buttons near the main home circle, which is very important to how we use sage. I, at one point, was looking into what it would take to have some remotes custom built just for sage (because even the hauppauge based sagetv remotes are not optimal to sage use) - but since my mx-550 is laid out pretty good, I've just continued to use it.

[stanger89]

I want an MX890 now (just saw it)