Welcome to Thunderdome

We have a Harmony remote from the late 2000's (Harmony 880) which was awesome for the late 2000s, but has been showing its age (battery life, IR remote, cannot control BT devices, etc).

So we finally upgrade to a Harmony Companion Remote + Hub. It was only sale for $79. There are a lot of one-star reviews but so far, I found it super easy to setup (Our world isn't very complicated: TV from 2009, Soundbar+Woofer, Fire TV, ChromeStock, Wii U, Xbox One).

Basically the remote talks to the Hub, but the The Hub does all the work. It talks WiFi, Bluetooth, and IR.

Now, back to one remote to rule them all. And, it works with Alexa, so I can just tell Alexa to turn everything on. Also, since the remote doesn't do IR itself, if we lose it, we can just use an app to talk to the Hub to control everything.

I have two Harmony Ones in the house... and I am about 80% satisfied with them.

I think the One is the future version of what I have, but before the Hub thing. I was looking at the Elite, but it was $250.

Honestly, I really like the "Alexa, Mute the TV" type of stuff. I can just sit here, typing with you, and still control my TV without lifting my fingers up.

The "hub" didn't exist when I last looked at Harmony remotes, 2 or 3 years ago. Back then you still needed a special adapter for IR, and the big remote was still $400. I only have 2 'Ones' because I bought a new battery for my first one that didn't work, and they compensated me buy giving me half off any product. SO I got another 'One' for like $100.

It isn't quite as programmable as I'd like... I'd love to be able to tweak delays between devices, and stuff like that. I heard you CAN if you contact Harmony tech support and they can write you a custom script... but who has time for that.

The new stuff is all app-setup. You can do customizable delays, etc.

Like i said... haven't looked at them for three years-ish, when I last had to set one up. They were already on their second-gen of the PC program that you use to program your devices, and stuff. But it was still limited.

Maybe four years. It's been a while.

GORDON wrote: Like i said... haven't looked at them for three years-ish, when I last had to set one up. They were already on their second-gen of the PC program that you use to program your devices, and stuff. But it was still limited.

Maybe four years. It's been a while.

That PC Program was garbage back in the day, I hated it. The app stuff is much better.

The first program was sort of rubbish, the second iteration was better. It still can't turn on my bedroom TV without hitting the "Help" button.

GORDON wrote: It still can't turn on my bedroom TV without hitting the "Help" button.

You always have problems turning things on in the bedroom.

What's the deal with the Harmony phone app.... does it turn your phone into a universal remote?

GORDON wrote: What's the deal with the Harmony phone app.... does it turn your phone into a universal remote?

Maybe. Mine talks to my Harmony hub via wifi, so it's kinda a universal remote, but only with the hub.