How useful are universal remotes?

I agree with Logitech Harmony. I have 2 and I cannot go back to a regular remote or other universal remotes.
You can find used or ebay lower end Harmonies for $50 or less.

Just popped in to recommend a harmony remote too. I have the 880, and it does everything. It can even control my fan. They also have remotes that work on radio frequencies if you want to control lighting. Great product despite a few minor flaws.

No kidding? I’ve had a Harmony for years and never even considered that it mightwork on items beyond the A/V. Makes perfect sense though.

One stupid question… can it differentiate between multiple fireplaces or is it a blanket on and off? If so, does it require a certain “level” of Harmony, model xyz or higher? I’m about to get another because I’ve worn mine out and would like to have that capability.

I guess if you had multiple electric fireplaces (of the same make) in the same room you would have some issues.

But if they’re different makes, and use IR remotes you can control them with a Harmony.

I had 3 different Air Conditioner units (window size) and was able to control all 3 seperately with the remote.

Again, I can’t say enough about the power of Harmony remotes.

MtM

I just have to add my voice to the Logitech Harmony chorus. I have not come across a single piece of A/V equipment that it can’t control.

For me the biggest PITA about my pre-Harmony remotes was that the remote would not “remember” what was on and what was not. If I was watching TV, and then wanted to watch a DVD, I would have to hit the master “Off” switch to power everything down, then press the button for “Watch DVD”. With the Harmony, you just select “Watch DVD” (or whatever you call it), and it knows to leave the TV on, turn off the satellite box, turn on the DVD player, switch the input on the receiver, etc.

In my experience the initial set-up through the web interface will get you 85-95% of the way to perfect control of all your processes. From then on it’s just a matter of digging in to the details to get the remaining stuff to work.

I have a logitech Harmony One and I love it. It even supports “Functions” (macros) So you can create buttons for things that do not have buttons. For example turning on my CC on my Sat Reviver. It takes 6 button presses going through menus but I have that taken care of with a button macro

I found DISHDVR-625 in the Logitech Harmony database. If this works it is most remarkable.

Would you please evaluate the Logitech Harmony with regard to Dish?

Am I the only person who doesn’t see the appeal of a remote you have to look at to figure out what to press? Are there Logitech Harmonies that don’t have the screen?

Just in case anyone hasn’t mentioned it :), I use the Logitech Harmony and it’s the cat’s pajamas!

Some time back I was thinking “If I could design my own remote, it would do exactly what we do with these four remotes. It would know that I just want to watch TV, so grab remote 1, press this, grab remote 2, press that, do something else, etc.”

And the Harmony One does exactly that. Worth every penny.

I really like setting my favorites buttons up. On the little iPhone-like touch screen I have all of our favorite channels, with colorful icons. Rather than remember that History HD is channel 747, I just press the History Channel button (and I know that many remotes do this, but none so nicely).

Telephone support is excellent; they will walk you through setting up arcane activities.

What you are looking for does exist to a certain extent.
The HDMI standard defines a subchannel for communicating commands between devices, and RF remotes have been around for years.
There are setups out there where a single RF remote will control everything, all orchestrated through the HDMI wiring between components.

The problem is that this extra comm channel is not supported by the cheap devices that most of us buy. If you are looking for a sale at BestBuy on Blueray players or HD TVs, you likely won’t be going home with one that supports CEC (Consumer Electronics Control). Or, you will buy devices that are from different manufacturers that don’t talk to each other.

I imagine that if you bought nothing but high-end Sony gear, you would be happily integrated with BRAVIA Sync, their CEC implementation.

In short, it’s there, but it isn’t for the average Joe.

I know you were asking whether a Mac can be used to program the remote (and the answer was given that, sure, it works fine). However, the other question has a positive answer as well: The Harmony remotes can control Macs like the iMac that can be controlled by Apple’s remote, since that uses IR.

The Harmony remote is one of the reasons I’m still married.

Coming soon from Logitech.

I’ve been in the consumer electronics industry for most of my career. I’ve seen amazing schemes to tie all consumer electronics devices together many different times at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and the Custom Electronics Design and Installation Association (CEDIA) shows. The engineers invent it, work with their counterparts at other companies, show it, then…nothing. Actually, what happens is the executives kill it. I can easily imagine what happens in some meeting “You want our products to work with our competitor’s product?” So, an idea that might work well dies. I’ve seen it a dozen times.

I just set up a Harmony for a Mac consultant just yesterday. I programmed the Harmony 900 on my Vista laptop (because I needed to be right by the AV system) then had him modify it on his Mac.

I’ve also used a Harmony to control a Mac Mini, both with Apple’s own horrible, brain-damaged remote and the less horrible KeySpan one (what the FUCK is wrong with buttons, Steve?)

I’ve used them with Dish receivers. Hell, I’ve used them with 20+ year old C/Ku receivers. I’ve used them with Beta decks. I’ve used them with PAL/SECAM universal VHS decks. I have yet to stump one of them.

Pony up and buy it already. The best part, the absolute best part, is that all the programming is safely stored on Logitech’s servers.

If:

[ul]
[li]You lose the remote[/li][li]The dog eats the remote[/li][li]You decide to upgrade to a better Harmony[/li][/ul]

…all the programming works. Just pick up a replacement, open the Harmony software, log in, plug it in and all the configuration will go onto the replacement remote.

It’s genius.

Bah on Harmony. They are too lazy to make their U-remote work on Sony Visiontouch receivers.

Really? The only reason I can think is that Sony has:

[ul]
[li]Refused to make the codes available.[/li][li]Built communication in some way to prevent recorded IR codes from working.[/li][/ul]

In my dealing with Sony, their corporate policy is “remote codes are propitiatory information”. That said, I’ll bet there is some way of making it work.

Huh? How many Harmonies have you looked at? Most all of their models have just 4 buttons associated with the screen - and the reason for that is for you to assign a label of your choosing to them for activities (“Watch TV”, “Listen to a CD”, “Watch a DVD”, etc.). Mine has labelled buttons that you’d find on ANY remote - the standard fast forward, rewind, play, pause, record for DVR/DVD functions, channel buttons, volume buttons, Menu button, etc. Take a look:

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/remotes/universal_remotes/&cl=us,en

The screen is really only needed for advanced functions like open/close disc tray 98% of what you do on the remote will not be done with the screen

I need to only replace three, Dish with DVR-625, a DVD player and a TV. Does Logitech have any cheaper than the 550 sold at WalMart for $80 which will handle these three appliances?

My solution is to press the ‘Watch DVD’ button first. Then load my DVD.

They have a 300 series which is due to come out anytime for $50. I was just researching these. It looks like on Ebay my best choice are the 628 for $30 or the 880 for $50. (The 628 seems to be suitable for me, but it sure is ugly, and it’s selling from Hong Kong which makes me a little suspicious.)

BTW, thanks for the info everybody.

Another Harmony lover here. I agree – muscle memory is much better than having to read a screen, and I do almost everything with my Harmony by feel, based on the button positions. In fact, when I bought my second Harmony, I purposely chose a less expensive model because most of its main buttons were arranged in a circle around the main “select” button, which makes it easier to differentiate the buttons without looking.