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The Logitech Harmony Elite Experience: Ultimate Control. Of course I was debating getting the Elite but I didn't want to shell out over twice as much for the touchscreen. I used to have a.
You might be thinking of getting a new, maybe even a new stereo system. However, if you want to control them all, as well as, say, a or gaming system, and not have half a dozen remote controls cluttering your coffee table, you'll want to get a universal remote. With it, you can automate a number of tasks—such as turning on all the components, and having them change to the right settings—with a single button press.However, when it comes to universal remotes, the choices are less than universal.
After testing all of Logitech’s line of Harmony remotes, the best universal remote is the Logitech Harmony Elite ($279). It can control up to 15 devices including such as and, integrates with and, and has a touchscreen that lets you access every setting for every linked remote control.The ($100) is a much more affordable option, and has all of the features of the Elite except for the touchscreen. The best budget universal remote is the ($49), which can control up to 10 devices, and has a great design. Latest News & Updates (August 2019). Caavo has introduced several new features, including the ability to view a Nest Cam in the Caavo interface, compatibility with Sonos speakers, and support for search and playback on Smart TVs such as Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV and Android TV, including models that support Dolby Vision. SevenHugs launched two new universal remotes, the ($199) and the ($299). Both remotes are full touchscreens, can control up to 80 devices, and work over Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and infrared.
The Smart Remote X has an additional contextual awareness feature, so it knows where various smart home devices are located in a room. For example, you can point the remote at a smart home device, such as a smart light, and press a button on the remote to turn the light on or off. Dish's Hopper receivers are now compatible with Google Assistant; Dish also released a new remote control with a Google Assistant button, which lets users search through content, control smart home devices, and more, using the remote. Dish customers can see if they're eligible for a free voice remote. Here's.Best Universal Remote Control. Logitech’s top-end remote, the aptly named, can control up to 15 devices at once.In addition to physical buttons, it has a color touch screen from which you can quickly select a favorite channel. You can also create custom buttons, such as Watch a Movie, to automatically turn all your devices to the right settings.
The Elite works in conjunction with the Harmony Hub (included), enabling you to hide electronics in a cabinet. It also works with several smart-home devices, including and the thermostat. Plus, it can be connected with Amazon Alexa, so that you can issue Harmony Elite commands using nothing but your voice.What Owners Are SayingThe Harmony Elite averaged 3.5 out of 5 stars among. More than 80 percent of those reviews are legit, according to Fakespot.com, which uses algorithms to determine whether owner reviews are fake.Those who wrote reviews on Amazon generally praised the Elite’s comprehensiveness, but noted there’s a bit of a learning curve.
“It takes awhile to figure out all its capabilities but after you realize how it can control pretty much all your entertainment needs, it's wonderful,” said one reviewer.Another person, who rated the remote 3 out of 5, took some issue with its ergonomics. “When you hold the remote it's rather difficult to reach the touch screen and some of the buttons with your thumb.The smart home buttons on the bottom of the remote are a nice touch, but I feel they’re a bit more of a novelty than a necessity since there are plenty of other standalone switches & voice control devices that can do the same job.” Best Value Remote. A Best Buy exclusive, the Logitech Harmony 665 has a small display (which is not a touchscreen) with buttons arrayed around it, letting you quickly access activities, favorite channels and more. On-screen help makes it fairly easy to troubleshoot any issues. However, the Harmony 665 works via infrared (IR) only, so you can’t hide any of your entertainment center’s components, and this remote can’t be used to control smart-home devices.What Owners Are SayingThe Harmony 665 has been reviewed more than, with an average rating of 4.4 stars (out of 5). Most praised the remote's design and robust programming features, but cautioned that setup could be a little intimidating, especially for novices.' The Harmony 665 is a very capable device, but there is a learning curve if you’ve never used one of these,' wrote one user.
'Frankly, most of this learning curve comes from trying to navigate Logitech's MyHarmony support site and their desktop software (needed to program the remote).' Best Voice Control. While the Caavo Control Center can only control four devices at once, it separates itself from Harmony's remotes in that it offers a unified interface, through which you can search through content on any device, as well as a number of streaming services. The Caavo remote has built-in voice search, and a unique section of lists of shows and movies curated by others—That's something Harmony doesn't have. To get all this, though, you'll need to sign up for a Caavo subscription ($1.99/month, or $59.99 for a lifetime membership).What Owners Are SayingThe, with an average rating of 4.1 out of 5 stars. 'After a few months using the Caavo, it is still working well,' wrote one customer. 'My two minor issues currently are the remote and the lack of updates/news from support.
The remote works, but since it's just plastic it continues to feel super cheap compared to my other remotes (Shield TV and Apple TV have glass and metal).' Another person commented 'I don’t have to set up routines i.e. Programs as I did with the Harmony. Hit the on button and the system is up in seconds.
The remote has almost all the commands/functions that I use. What’s really cool is if put your finger on a button a small pop up on the screen shows you what you’re touching and the function. This is especially helpful with the TiVo.' Other Universal Remotes. Similar to the Harmony Elite, the Harmony Companion can also control smart-home devices in addition to your entertainment center. The biggest difference is the Companion’s lack of a screen of any kind, so you’ll have to designate physical buttons to enable Watch TV mode, for instance. It, too, comes with the Harmony Hub, allowing you to not only hide components, but also let you use Alexa to control your TV and more.What Owners Are SayingThe Harmony Companion received, some of whom liked it more than the pricier Harmony Elite.
Of the reviews on Amazon, more than 90 percent are accurate, according to Fakespot.com.This is a really fantastic universal remote system, especially if you have home automation devices like lights or blinds,” said one reviewer. “Adding the Home Control buttons towards the top made them shift the play/pause section down lower where your thumb naturally rests.In fact, this shift is why I would recommend this remote over the Smart Control even for users without home automation devices to control.”The biggest complaint was the lack of backlit keys. “The only downfall is the key pad has no backlight,” said one reviewer. It’s difficult to see the correct button to push when it is dark in the room.”.
It's been awhile since Logitech added a new universal remote to its Harmony lineup. Last year, the company introduced the Harmony Link module that allows you to control your A/V gear via your smartphone, but the last time we saw a new dedicated controller was back in 2008, with.
With that in mind, you'd think there would've been more fanfare over the release of the Harmony Touch, but this new $250 model quietly appeared in stores last summer. The Harmony Touch is essentially a replacement for the Harmony One; it falls in the middle of the Harmony line, price-wise - above the $80 Harmony 650 but below the $350 Harmony 900 and Harmony 1100. (Models like and Harmony 700 are no longer listed on the company's product page, although you can still find them for sale online.). See reviews of and.The Harmony Touch has a traditional handheld design that combines hard buttons with a 2.4-inch color touchscreen.
The front face is a brushed black (not as glossy as the Harmony One), while the backside is textured charcoal with a rubbery feel. The remote can control up to 15 devices and includes Harmony's activity-based controls, such as Watch TV and Watch a Movie. Compared with its predecessor, the Touch is smaller, measuring about 7.5 inches long by 2.25 wide. To reduce the Touch's size, Logitech has reduced the number of hard buttons, moving things like the number pad, help button, and page-up/-down controls to the touchscreen. They've also moved the touchscreen closer to the middle of the remote to make it easier to reach when you're holding the remote near the bottom - which, because of the remote's ergonomic design, you pretty much have to do.
Simply put, this baby's got back. View the remote from the side, and you'll see a pronounced bump at the bottom end, which is designed to allow the remote to sit more comfortably in your hand (more on this in a moment).Logitech has added a few new features to the Harmony Touch, including a larger Favorites page on the touchscreen where you can store up to 50 channels and display them via colorful channel logos. The remote also has a Gestures touchpad, through which you can control playback and navigate menus by swiping the screen.Programming the Harmony Touch is accomplished via the acclaimed MyHarmony Web interface, which is compatible with both PCs and Macs.
If you've never used a Harmony remote before, you simply go to MyHarmony.com and create an account. Connect the remote to your computer via the supplied USB cable, and the program will automatically detect which remote you have. From there, you add devices, create activities by answering a few questions about how those devices are connected, and choose channel favorites. Then you sync the remote and try it out with your gear. I noticed a few minor differences during this programming session, compared with ones I've done in the past. For one, I no longer had to choose a device type before entering the manufacturer and model name. This time, I simply input the name of the gear, and Harmony determined the product type for me.
After I finished inputting all my devices (a Panasonic TV, DirecTV HD DVR, and Onkyo receiver), the setup wizard immediately took me to the Watch TV activity setup. Once that was complete, I added a couple other activities: Watch a Movie through my OPPO player and Listen to Music through my Onkyo receiver's Net streaming service. The Web interface provides a bit more summary information during the setup process than it used to, which newbies will likely find helpful.Since the Harmony Touch can control up to 15 devices, you can easily program it to control multiple systems around the house. The setup menu includes activities called Watch TV 2 and Watch a Movie 2 (you can rename them), as well as the ability to create custom activities.
I also programmed the remote to control my living room setup, which includes a DVR, Blu-ray player, and AppleTV.All in all, the Harmony setup wizard is still second to none in terms of its speedy results and user-friendliness. All of my devices were in the code database and, within just a few minutes, the remote was properly set up and ready to go. The macro sequences all worked correctly, and the major buttons did what I expected them to do. The Harmony Smart State Technology properly detects the state of devices to make sure that the on/off sequence doesn't get mixed up when executing a macro. As with other Harmony remotes, if a macro is not properly executed for whatever reason, you can press the Help button, and the remote will walk you through the necessary steps to find and correct the problem.If you do find that the remote isn't controlling your devices exactly the way you want or you don't like the options offered on the touchscreen within each activity, you can go back into the MyHarmony program and do some tweaking. You can reassign buttons and learn commands from your gear's remotes. The touchscreen has some, albeit limited, customization.
You can add, delete, rename, and change the order of buttons, but you can't change the button size/shape or the general layout of each screen.Another new feature I like is that you can do some reprogramming and repositioning directly via the remote itself, without having to go back to the computer. Via the Settings menu on the touchscreen, you can (among other things) change the inputs that you designated for each device, should you make any physical changes to your A/V setup. You can change/reset delays during the macro sequences. You can move buttons and add/delete channels from your Favorites. This addition makes it even easier to tweak the little things without having to go through the Web interface and re-sync the remote. The next time you connect the remote to your computer, it will upload these changes and save them to the remote's profile.There were other small touches that I appreciated.
For instance, when I switched from the Watch TV activity page directly to the Panasonic TV device page, the remote automatically switched the volume buttons from my receiver to the TV, without me having to manually reprogram it. This is helpful if you're still using your TV speakers for Web services, like DLNA sources, Netflix, or Amazon.I found the Harmony Touch's response time to be good; it executed IR commands quickly and reliably. This model is not compatible with the Harmony RF extender; for that, you have to move up to the Harmony 900 or 1100. I found the touchscreen to be responsive and reliable, although the number-pad buttons are pretty small. So are my fingers, so it wasn't a concern for me; however, I could see the smaller buttons being a source of frustration for those who have larger hands.For me, the biggest ergonomic concern was the physical shape of the Harmony Touch. Its rotund bottom end did indeed allow the remote to sit comfortably in my palm, while my thumb easily navigated the buttons that are positioned near the bottom of the remote, including volume, channel, exit, menu, DVR (list), guide, info, OK, navigation, and color buttons. I could also easily navigate the touchscreen using my thumb.
However, I could not reach the buttons that were located at the top of the remote (the transport controls and Off button) without shifting the remote down in my hand. At that point, its bottom-heavy design made it awkward to hold and use.
I had to either use my other hand to press those buttons or hold the remote from the top and use my index finger. I found this to be somewhat frustrating. That is, until I discovered that the Gestures control allows you to perform tasks like fast-forward, reverse, play, pause, and page-up/down by swiping/tapping the touchscreen. The ergonomic design then became less of a concern, because I didn't need to access those top buttons as often.
The Gestures options vary per activity and can be customized.Read more about the high points and low points of the Harmony Touch on Page 2.