Universal Remote

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Universal Remote

1 | 2 | 3

timmmay

20579 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2099603 1-Oct-2018 19:37

pdh:

The almost worn-out batteries on the 'One' gave me the final push.

One sync with the computer and my One battery goes from full to warning how empty it is. Otherwise it works well for a couple of days.

Might be time to replace before long.

lchiu7

6476 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#2099646 1-Oct-2018 20:30

I have a Harmony one which works really well until the channel up button started to stick and required a lot of pressure to make it work. I have since replaced it with a Harmony Ultimate which I can use Amazon or Google to control my equipment which is really cool.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

timmmay

20579 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2102322 5-Oct-2018 20:18

Does anyone use the Harmony 350? After having a Harmony One for years I don't really like the touch screen on the 650. We have fairly simple needs - turn on TV, turn on Roku, turn on Kodi on R.Pi, turn on radio, then play / pause volume. Plus our toddler will probably destroy it anyway.

Update - I see there's no "help" function to retry if the first go doesn't work, and there's only one button that can turn a bunch of things on. I guess it's the ugly silver 650 then.

askelon

876 posts

Ultimate Geek

ID Verified

#2102415 6-Oct-2018 09:45

Just a note on the Veon TV's. I had to replace my TV a couple of days ago so I got a Veon 50" 4k TV. Set it up on my Harmony One as the Veon 55" 4k and it works perfectly - menuing etc all works fine. Cant say that it'll be the same for all models of the Veon TV's though.

Mar1

93 posts

Master Geek

#2102460 6-Oct-2018 11:12

We have had Philips Prestigo SRT9320 for years now and are very happy with it. It's IR only though and the model is no longer sold, but I reckon you could find one in TradeMe or Amazon. The great thing about it is you an charge it with a wall adapter, and it lasts for a good few months until you have to charge it again. I like its touch screen and the many options it provides. We've got the LG smart tv, Panasonic non-smart tv, MySky HDi, an old Sony tuner/amplifier and a MacBook Pro remote programmed into it. Read more about it here.

timmmay

20579 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2112894 23-Oct-2018 20:39

Another question about the Logitech 650. Reviews say it can only do five steps in a sequence. My main sequence is:

Set TV to on
Turn MCE keyboard on
Turn media center remote on
Turn Onkyo receiver on
TV is set to HDMI3
Receiver is set to input "TV"

That's six steps. Can the 650 do that?

stinger

628 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

#2112976 23-Oct-2018 23:14

timmmay:
That's six steps. Can the 650 do that?

Yes.

Quic Broadband

Move to New Zealand's best fibre broadband service (affiliate link). Note that to use Quic Broadband you must be comfortable with configuring your own router.

timmmay

20579 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2293177 9-Aug-2019 19:47

I have a new contender - the Inteset 4 in 1 Universal Remote (Amazon Link), US$26, and it ships direct to NZ. I have one and I'm happy with it, and my wife is fine with it too. It works fine with my older LCD TV, Onkyo receiver, and Kodi on Raspberry Pi. It doesn't work with my Roku because the Roku has no IR receiver. It's robust, feels fine in the hand. It's backlit after you push a button.

They're simpler than Harmony remotes, with no screen and the ability to control four devices - you could control more devices by learning buttons from an existing remote if you need to, but the memory is limited - not sure how limited. Basically you set up a device (TV, receiver, etc) on one of the four device buttons by looking up a code online and trying the selection of a few codes until you find one that works best. You select a device by pushing a couple of keys then the device code. Sounds fiddly, but it's pretty easy. There were four codes to try for my TV, and six for my receiver. Some codes mostly worked but the odd button didn't work (like power), but I found one that worked fine.

You can set up macros that can do sequences such as "turn everything on, set it to that channel". You can program buttons from existing remotes. You can copy buttons around the remote. You can "punch through" buttons so say the buttons on device C (Kodi) work when you've selected device A / B / D, which is convenient. It comes with sticky labels so you can physically label buttons.

The punch through facility doesn't work perfectly. I tried punching through buttons from A to B and C, from B to C and A, and from C to A and B. I found it just wouldn't work. I did manage to get A and C punched through to B, which is good enough, but it took a lot of time to work out, and support while replying promptly wasn't effective at all. Mode / input selection is a bit fiddly - the number keys map to my Onkyo inputs, but I remapped them to the color keys. I haven't actually told it to set the TV channel because we never change it, but I probably could.

All in all for about $50 shipped to NZ it's pretty good. I like that's it's simpler than the Harmony remotes but that it does everything I need.

1 | 2 | 3