Universal Remotes

Started by Lazybones, July 29, 2012, 01:41:34 AM

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Lazybones

After discussing the short commings of the harmony remotes I did some poking around and found some useful links

Clicker Picker
http://www.remotecentral.com/features/clicker.htm

Seemingly these are the two top alternatives
http://www.remotecentral.com/reviews/acoustic_research_xsight_touch/index.html

http://www.remotecentral.com/reviews/urc_r50/index.html

Tom

Turns out Logitech changed its mind about selling off and/or killing the Harmony business. After they released the Harmony Ultimate Remote, things went gangbusters..


They also have a new product, which is just the hub part of the ultimate. aka: Harmony Ultimate Hub. Long story short, its the IR blaster device, and is controllable AND programmable via smartphone app.

I almost just bought one, but it seems its not available in canada yet. Which is weird, it seems like its supposed to be out by now..
<Zapata Prime> I smell Stanley... And he smells good!!!

Tom

Just fiddled with updating my Harmony 650. The myharmony.com "software" has been completely revamped. It's not slow, or buggy as far as I can tell. My only issue is that it wont let your re-order the activities in the LCD list, or assign custom activities to the hard activity buttons. So I swapped back to the older Harmony 7.7 software. Worked well enough.
<Zapata Prime> I smell Stanley... And he smells good!!!

Melbosa

Somebody was up early or late...
Sometimes I Think Before I Type... Sometimes!

Tom

Quote from: Melbosa on August 28, 2013, 08:54:15 AM
Somebody was up early or late...
You could say its both. woke up at about 2am :)
<Zapata Prime> I smell Stanley... And he smells good!!!

Mr. Analog

Quote from: Tom on August 28, 2013, 08:56:50 AM
Quote from: Melbosa on August 28, 2013, 08:54:15 AM
Somebody was up early or late...
You could say its both. woke up at about 2am :)

I was gonna say heh
By Grabthar's Hammer

Thorin

Quote from: Tom on August 28, 2013, 03:17:19 AM
Turns out Logitech changed its mind about selling off and/or killing the Harmony business. After they released the Harmony Ultimate Remote, things went gangbusters..

Glad to hear that, I really like my Harmony remote and its programmability.  I just wish my TV would respond to the HDMI3 command so I could hook up three HDMI connections without special steps (right now the remote sends the HDMI2 command, then sends a Next Source command).  But that's a problem with the TV and/or with the Harmony software not having the right code to send in its database.
Prayin' for a 20!

gcc thorin.c -pedantic -o Thorin
compile successful

Tom

Quote from: Thorin on August 28, 2013, 11:16:02 AM
Quote from: Tom on August 28, 2013, 03:17:19 AM
Turns out Logitech changed its mind about selling off and/or killing the Harmony business. After they released the Harmony Ultimate Remote, things went gangbusters..

Glad to hear that, I really like my Harmony remote and its programmability.  I just wish my TV would respond to the HDMI3 command so I could hook up three HDMI connections without special steps (right now the remote sends the HDMI2 command, then sends a Next Source command).  But that's a problem with the TV and/or with the Harmony software not having the right code to send in its database.
If you have the original remote for that tv, you can learn the hdmi3 command easily enough, assuming you have a remote like mine. Assuming you haven't already tried that, that is.
<Zapata Prime> I smell Stanley... And he smells good!!!

Thorin

I half-heartedly looked for the remote and didn't find it.  I can't even remember what it looks like.
Prayin' for a 20!

gcc thorin.c -pedantic -o Thorin
compile successful

Tom

Quote from: Thorin on August 28, 2013, 01:44:46 PM
I half-heartedly looked for the remote and didn't find it.  I can't even remember what it looks like.
Lol. I can imagine it'd be hard. Big house, a bunch of young kids, and two older kids.  ;)

I'm amazed I can still find all my remotes.
<Zapata Prime> I smell Stanley... And he smells good!!!

Lazybones


Quote from: Tom on August 28, 2013, 01:58:12 PM
Quote from: Thorin on August 28, 2013, 01:44:46 PM
I half-heartedly looked for the remote and didn't find it.  I can't even remember what it looks like.
Lol. I can imagine it'd be hard. Big house, a bunch of young kids, and two older kids.  ;)

I'm amazed I can still find all my remotes.

It doesn't take even that, you just need that one person in the house that tends to take the remote to the kitchen with them or has no consistency at all.

Tom

Quote from: Lazybones on August 28, 2013, 02:10:42 PM

Quote from: Tom on August 28, 2013, 01:58:12 PM
Quote from: Thorin on August 28, 2013, 01:44:46 PM
I half-heartedly looked for the remote and didn't find it.  I can't even remember what it looks like.
Lol. I can imagine it'd be hard. Big house, a bunch of young kids, and two older kids.  ;)

I'm amazed I can still find all my remotes.

It doesn't take even that, you just need that one person in the house that tends to take the remote to the kitchen with them or has no consistency at all.
Would I happen to be related to said person by blood? ;) I like to do that a lot.. Or I used to. some how I've managed to partially train myself to leave the remote on the couch or a table long before I get up, so I don't end up taking it with me.
<Zapata Prime> I smell Stanley... And he smells good!!!

Thorin

The harmony remotes are great because they have a charging stand that you can train yourself to put them in every time you get up.
Prayin' for a 20!

gcc thorin.c -pedantic -o Thorin
compile successful

Lazybones


Quote from: Tom on August 28, 2013, 02:16:04 PM
Quote from: Lazybones on August 28, 2013, 02:10:42 PM

Quote from: Tom on August 28, 2013, 01:58:12 PM
Quote from: Thorin on August 28, 2013, 01:44:46 PM
I half-heartedly looked for the remote and didn't find it.  I can't even remember what it looks like.
Lol. I can imagine it'd be hard. Big house, a bunch of young kids, and two older kids.  ;)

I'm amazed I can still find all my remotes.

It doesn't take even that, you just need that one person in the house that tends to take the remote to the kitchen with them or has no consistency at all.
Would I happen to be related to said person by blood? ;) I like to do that a lot.. Or I used to. some how I've managed to partially train myself to leave the remote on the couch or a table long before I get up, so I don't end up taking it with me.
Yes.

Also my children are even worse.

Magnavox used to have a two way remote and a button to page the remote on the TV, no idea why new TVs do not have this.

There are some kick starters that have location tags you can use with your phone but I am not sold on those

Tom

Canadians can kickstart now. Maybe you/we/us should work on some kind of remote sensing rig? ;D
<Zapata Prime> I smell Stanley... And he smells good!!!