Logitech Harmony Ultimate Remote Control

mossym

Got one from Xmas along with two dots. Have one in the cinema room with the harmony controlling the Blu-ray player, lights, Xbox, htpc, sky box, projector, audio processor and power amps. Linked to the echo dot and the voice control has been flawless. Delighted with it.

bk

Shane732 wrote: »

Any good deals on this? Thinking of taking the plunge.

I have Phillips Hue, Sonos, Samsung TV, Virgin Media (****ty Horizon box), Xbox, Apple TV and just got Alexa. Would the Harmony be a runner for all these?

Any deals at present?

I think the Harmony Ultimate was £99 on amazon deals this morning, but looks like it is over now. Keep an eye out for it and the Elite, they are always dropping in price. Use camelcamelcamel for price watch notifications.

And yes, Harmony Hub based products should be able to control all of those devices.

Irish Gunner

bk wrote: »

Yes, but two things:

1) As I mentioned above it only works for Echo's set to a US account for the moment.
2) You can't play/pause/change the channel, etc. You can only set it to launch a particular channel on startup, but you can't subsequently change the channel, at least not without creating an activity for each channel, which while possible for one or two channels, definitely wouldn't scale for many channels.

BTW all the above is already possible in UK/Ireland indirectly via Yonomi.

How did you do this via Yonomi be interested to know

bk

Irish Gunner wrote: »

How did you do this via Yonomi be interested to know

Well first of all to point out that the Harmony Alexa skill has improved greatly, and you now have far greater control over Harmony via Alexa, including play/pause/mute/volume up/down/ change channel, etc.

Yonomi is very simple, just install the app on your iPhone or Android phone and follow the instructions to link it to you Harmony account and Hue account.

Alexa needs to be connected to yonomi inside the Alexa app, more info here:
https://www.yonomi.co/blog/hey-alexa-meet-yonomi/

Irish Gunner

bk wrote: »

Well first of all to point out that the Harmony Alexa skill has improved greatly, and you now have far greater control over Harmony via Alexa, including play/pause/mute/volume up/down/ change channel, etc.

Yonomi is very simple, just install the app on your iPhone or Android phone and follow the instructions to link it to you Harmony account and Hue account.

Alexa needs to be connected to yonomi inside the Alexa app, more info here:
https://www.yonomi.co/blog/hey-alexa-meet-yonomi/

Hmm...I need to get a Harmony Hub so I can turn even lazier...

Cheer's

eddiem74

Was setting up the favorite channels via the myharmony software for the Eilte remote using Sky Ireland as the service provider however I notice not all channels are correctly reflected.

I know I could manually add channels so I assume a message to Logitech is needed to request them to update the list?

Anyone done that or aware of the process?

mossym

Which ones are you seeing as wrong and I'll check?

The high horse brigade

eddiem74 wrote: »

Was setting up the favorite channels via the myharmony software for the Eilte remote using Sky Ireland as the service provider however I notice not all channels are correctly reflected.

I know I could manually add channels so I assume a message to Logitech is needed to request them to update the list?

Anyone done that or aware of the process?

Just add them and edit the number after. You can Google for the missing picture icons too and add them as well.

eddiem74

mossym wrote: »

Which ones are you seeing as wrong and I'll check?

101 was showing as RTE and not RTE HD, some other like that also and was missing 135 Channel 4 and some others. Not at the remote currently so that's off the top of my head.

eddiem74

The high horse brigade wrote: »

Just add them and edit the number after. You can Google for the missing picture icons too and add them as well.

Yeah I know I can do that but would prefer to see if Logitech can fix. Takes me back to Windows Media Center EPG always being off...and always reporting to Microsoft.

The high horse brigade

eddiem74 wrote: »

Yeah I know I can do that but would prefer to see if Logitech can fix. Takes me back to Windows Media Center EPG always being off...and always reporting to Microsoft.

They are forever changing, it's best to just edit yourself a decent set of favorites, that way you'll just have to edit the number of the odd channel when it changes.

mossym

eddiem74 wrote: »

101 was showing as RTE and not RTE HD, some other like that also and was missing 135 Channel 4 and some others. Not at the remote currently so that's off the top of my head.

when you chose the channel line up there was a sky hd and sd option, did you pick the right one?

eddiem74

mossym wrote: »

when you chose the channel line up there was a sky hd and sd option, did you pick the right one?

Tried both.

AndersLimpar

Is it possible to open an app on an android box as part of an activity? For example, if I have Watch a Movie then the android box gets turned on along with tv etc and then the PLEX app is opened. Anyone do anything like this?

Or do the same when a Netflix activity is programmed and obviously Netflix rather than PLEX is opened??

Zascar

I just got the harmony hub and it works great with Alexa, I can turn on and off my tv etc with my voice. But I have a problem I hope someone can help with: When setting it up, I was asked to choose a channel guide. There were 3 options, one was Saorview, I'm with UPC/Virgin but they were not listed, so I picked another one. The channel numbers are all different to whats on my upc box. I tried to set some favourites but many work incorrectly.

I cannot find how to Edit this and get the correct channels? Does anyone know?

Nelbert

Anyone setup more than one harmony hub with Alexa / echo/es?
I know there is a limitation as regards one Echo can control one Hub..... is this a limit per Amazon account or could you have an echo in one room controlling one hub and another in another room controlling another hub?

Shane732

Just one other question - is there anywhere that sells this in a bricks and mortar shop?

Zascar

Zascar wrote: »

I just got the harmony hub and it works great with Alexa, I can turn on and off my tv etc with my voice. But I have a problem I hope someone can help with: When setting it up, I was asked to choose a channel guide. There were 3 options, one was Saorview, I'm with UPC/Virgin but they were not listed, so I picked another one. The channel numbers are all different to whats on my upc box. I tried to set some favourites but many work incorrectly.

I cannot find how to Edit this and get the correct channels? Does anyone know?

I found it eventually, you make the changes in the Desktop app and then Sync.

So ti works great for turning the TV on and off, or changing to Chromecast etc. The main problem I'm having is I can ask it to put on RTE1 or RTE2 and it will change channel no problem, but if I ask for Sky news or BBC News, it will play it on Pandora Radio. Anyone know how I can get around this?

Irish Gunner

Ok have Hue lights, Netatmo and Echo and was looking at the Harmony. However price putting me off.
What is the main difference between the Harmony Home Hub and the Elite other than the price difference. Would I be able to get control of TV etc with just the Home Hub and Elite?

Nelbert

Irish Gunner wrote: »

Ok have Hue lights, Netatmo and Echo and was looking at the Harmony. However price putting me off.
What is the main difference between the Harmony Home Hub and the Elite other than the price difference. Would I be able to get control of TV etc with just the Home Hub and Elite?

The elite includes the hub..... personally I don't think the elite is worth the extra, especially if you already have a tablet (or a kindle fire would be cheaper if you really want touchscreen).
It's personal though some people I'm sure would swear by the elite. I think the screenless remote that comes with the hub (companion remote) is more than enough.

It's the hub that integrates it with Echo but voice control obviously would be slow to navigate menus etc.

Shane732

Well I've taken the plunge on this

mossym

Nelbert wrote: »

The elite includes the hub..... personally I don't think the elite is worth the extra, especially if you already have a tablet (or a kindle fire would be cheaper if you really want touchscreen).
It's personal though some people I'm sure would swear by the elite. I think the screenless remote that comes with the hub (companion remote) is more than enough.

It's the hub that integrates it with Echo but voice control obviously would be slow to navigate menus etc.

as you said it's personal, but having had a number of harmony's and gone down the tablet route and designing my own control interface for it, i think the elite is worth every penny for the following reasons:
-tablets are fine but the screen locks/turns off, which is a royal pain in the ass when you are fast forwarding through ads, the program starts again and you can't get the screen unlocked and end up rewinding back
- physical buttons for volume, channel, pause, play, mute are vital in a dark room
- tablets tend to go missing as people want to use them
- if it's not a dedicated tablet, kids/those without smart phones are limited in what they can do, if anything
screen less remote solves a lot of those, but not having programmable buttons severely limits what it can do, having one touch access on the main screen to things buried deep in the menus you use often, like turning on night mode for me, is important. cannot do that with the screen less remote, or if you do, it's very very limited.

the elite is pricey, the lower model is quite a bit cheaper, (the ultra i think) and comes with the same hub. it has the same touchscreen, it has the playback buttons above the screen which i don't like, but that's a minor gripe.

i think it would be far better than a tablet or screenless remote

bk

Zascar wrote: »

So ti works great for turning the TV on and off, or changing to Chromecast etc. The main problem I'm having is I can ask it to put on RTE1 or RTE2 and it will change channel no problem, but if I ask for Sky news or BBC News, it will play it on Pandora Radio. Anyone know how I can get around this?

You could rename the Sky and BBC favourites to something else that you might remember. Maybe Fox for Sky and Beeb for BBC.

I couldn't agree more with mossym, the Elite is fantastic, I've both the Elite and Ultimate.

Using the smart phone app, is very slow and just a pain in the ass as mossym describes. I'd at the very least get the companion remote.

But the Ultimate and Elite remotes are so good. Remember they come up in Amazon sales every few months. The Ultimate is available regularly for £99 and I got the Elite for £130. Well worth it at those prices.

Nelbert

Those prices include the hub?

For that price I'd agree. I have the companion remote and it does a fine job.

I'm looking at getting a third hub and remote so might keep an eye out for elite & hub at that sort of price.

bk

Nelbert wrote: »

Those prices include the hub?

For that price I'd agree. I have the companion remote and it does a fine job.

I'm looking at getting a third hub and remote so might keep an eye out for elite & hub at that sort of price.

Yup, they include the hub, of which I've two now!

Set a price watch on camelcamelcamel for them.

mossym

Interesting. Are you using both with Alexa, and if so, what's the setup?

bk

mossym wrote: »

Interesting. Are you using both with Alexa, and if so, what's the setup?

Not yet, I'm currently out of the country, so I haven't had the chance to play with this new skill yet.

Missing playing with my new HA tech toys, but the sun and hammock are making up for it

mossym

ah right, my understanding was you could only link one so was wondering if you had figured out how to use more

Nelbert

mossym wrote: »

ah right, my understanding was you could only link one so was wondering if you had figured out how to use more

One with the harmony skill.... more with yonomi..... I'm thinking of setting my main one up with harmony skill and others with yonomi..... (my echo and second hub is up north with parcel motel at the moment)

The high horse brigade

Question re Hue and Harmony remote. Is it possible to set a Harmony activity without a start and an end, Say turn on all lights. I seem to be only able to make an activity that toggles two states, start and end but I just want to start lights.