Logitech Harmony - which one?

[Smudger]

I've been thinking of getting a Harmony for a while, and today there's a Harmony Elite + hub on sale at Amazon for £129, is that a good price? The Ultimate was on sale recently for £87 I think, is that a better deal? What's the difference between the two?

I will be controlling:

Amp
Telly
UHD player
PS3
Chromecast (plugged into amp)

Everything is set up to use ARC and HDMI-CEC, does this confuse these things?

Edit: I tell a lie, according to Camelx3, the Ultimate was £79, so £50 difference.

[jimborae]

The Ultimate at those prices didn't include a hub if I recall, I think the cheapest price I've seen the Ultimate with Hub was £99. I got one but haven't set it up yet. Still using my old One from a few years ago.

To answer your question though it should work fine with your equipment, I love Harmony remotes and have one in most rooms where we have kit. Some use ARC & CEC and it doesn't seem to cause any issues.

[Dashers]

I've got a 600 series one - can't remember exactly which, but the buttons on it are failing on it. I need to get some pencil in on the contacts to see if I can breath some life in on it.

I use the TV less these days, with HDMI control via the receiver, both my TV and Receiver remotes will control everything, but the harmonys give more flexibility.

[Biscuit]

I got the ultimate and hub and its great. Took ages to set up, but its made my life so much easier not having to explain everything to my partner every other day.

I think the Hub is the same for all of them, the difference is in the remote... so really not a huge amount between.

[Smudger]

The Ultimate at those prices didn't include a hub if I recall, I think the cheapest price I've seen the Ultimate with Hub was £99. I got one but haven't set it up yet. Still using my old One from a few years ago.

To answer your question though it should work fine with your equipment, I love Harmony remotes and have one in most rooms where we have kit. Some use ARC & CEC and it doesn't seem to cause any issues.

The one I searched for was
Logitech Harmony Ultimate Remote Control and Hub, works with Alexa (Hub software update required) (B00C80JFSS)
in Consumer Electronics » Accessory » Logitech

There is one without a hub, that's about £87... So the difference comes down to the handsets. Shall have to do some research...

[Smudger]

I think I'm coming down on the side of the Elite, thing is, looking at the list of my stuff, if that's all I've got, why am I using 10 plugs?

And the answer is I've got a modem, router and switch behind the telly as well... Keep forgetting that bit.

So I'll need to find a plug for the hub...

Do these things work with Google Home yet? I know they were going to, but last I heard it was US only...

[Smudger]

So, I got the Elite, and it does now sync with Google Home, which is nice.
My question is: can you set the harmony to use Netflix on the telly? I get it to bring up the menu, but then it just flops through the app icons and there doesn't seem to be the option to choose an app

[Biscuit]

So, I got the Elite, and it does now sync with Google Home, which is nice.
My question is: can you set the harmony to use Netflix on the telly? I get it to bring up the menu, but then it just flops through the app icons and there doesn't seem to be the option to choose an app

Every television works differently, so it's hard to say yes or no, but there should be a way to program it, be that via a macro or otherwise.

I had to do some pretty serious macro fiddling to get my TV to work as I have it on a power socket that switches off when everything is in standby, then detects the TV power IR signal to switch everything back on. The problem is the TV takes ages to switch on and if you don't get it right, everything switches back off.

I found a few different ways to make it work, but it took a lot of experimentation.

[Smudger]

Every television works differently, so it's hard to say yes or no, but there should be a way to program it, be that via a macro or otherwise.

I had to do some pretty serious macro fiddling to get my TV to work as I have it on a power socket that switches off when everything is in standby, then detects the TV power IR signal to switch everything back on. The problem is the TV takes ages to switch on and if you don't get it right, everything switches back off.

I found a few different ways to make it work, but it took a lot of experimentation.

Yeah, i found you can add menu steps (home, right once, select) but it seems to ignore this, go right 4 times, then make the menu disappear. Very frustrating. Also found that on the smart TV setting (Netflix, amazon, etc) , it somehow doesn't feed the audio back to the amp, which it did before...

[Biscuit]

Yeah, i found you can add menu steps (home, right once, select) but it seems to ignore this, go right 4 times, then make the menu disappear.

Could be something to do with how long each signal is sent per button push, this is also configurable.

[Smudger]

I'm beginning to think about sending this back, but I'm not sure if the problems are with the TV or the Harmony.
Example 1: ARC not working on Smart TV, I think this might be because I've got an amp function to change to AV4 in the activity set, whereas before switching to on board apps would automatically set the amp to AV4. Maybe I need to let the amp sort itself out
Example 2: Last night, at random times, while we were watching the Adrian Chiles documentary on boozing, and it would cut to the Rakuten channel, then when you try to get it back to TV, it would jump to Blu-Ray. Annoying. I think this might be the TV though, I've tried to get rid of that bloody app a few times, but it always comes back.

[Biscuit]

I have never experienced anything like that. Is it just connecting to the devices via IR, and not some kind of ethernet protocol?

[Smudger]

It is just IR/BT or RF

[Biscuit]

It is just IR/BT or RF

Hmmm... perhaps the TV/amp isnt detecting the switch in the same way it used too because of the order of things happening. Might be worth experimenting without the harmony to see if you can reproduce it, then adjust the delays and such in the activity to correct it.

As far as the second thing, if its just IR, then I dont see how that could be the Harmony.

[Smudger]

As far as the second thing, if its just IR, then I dont see how that could be the Harmony.

That one I'm prepared to blame the telly for. I keep getting rid of the Rakuten app but it keeps re-appearing... And I've lost count of the amount of times I've set up the remote to control the amp, BR and V6, only for it to come up with a completely different setup the next time it gets switched on.

[Biscuit]

Are you setting up with the desktop application?