Harmony 950

[all2ears]

Been using my reliable and much loved Pronto TSU 9400 for many years but thought I'd look around and see what the latest greatest remote offerings were .... my main criteria was a remote with IR capabilities as my Epson projector doesn't have wifi capabilities

Enter the much acclaimed Harmony 950 - After two weeks of wrestling I've been through one issue after another with their very polite tech support team but nothing has been resolved other than a very long ineffective email stream - They can't explain the problems or offer a solution - The remote has been a huge disappointment

Any suggestions on a reliable IR based touch screen customizable remote .... wifi works with all my other components but I need IR for the projector

PS --- Ivan before you suggest I'd prefer not buying a new projector - LOL

[Masterlu]

Ha! URC aka Universal Remote Control MX-990

[cleeds]

Originally Posted by all2ears

... the much acclaimed Harmony 950 - After two weeks of wrestling I've been through one issue after another with their very polite tech support team but nothing has been resolved other than a very long ineffective email stream - They can't explain the problems or offer a solution - The remote has been a huge disappointment ...

I've had excellent experience with Harmony remotes! Can you please tell us what issues you've had? Perhaps someone here can be of some help to you.

[For The Love of Music]

You may want to consider a home automation system, like Control 4. It’s modular and you do most anything that has an outlet, switch or component.

I believe Ivan works with Control 4.

[W9TR]

Originally Posted by all2ears

Been using my reliable and much loved Pronto TSU 9400 for many years but thought I'd look around and see what the latest greatest remote offerings were .... my main criteria was a remote with IR capabilities as my Epson projector doesn't have wifi capabilities



Enter the much acclaimed Harmony 950 - After two weeks of wrestling I've been through one issue after another with their very polite tech support team but nothing has been resolved other than a very long ineffective email stream - They can't explain the problems or offer a solution - The remote has been a huge disappointment



Any suggestions on a reliable IR based touch screen customizable remote .... wifi works with all my other components but I need IR for the projector



PS --- Ivan before you suggest I'd prefer not buying a new projector - LOL

As an ex-Pronto user I feel you pain. You won’t get the level of functionality you had with a Harmony product.

I have learned to live with my Harmony Elite - it has a hub and a decent phone app.

However the Lutron integration and Hunter Douglas PowerView integration are buggy and tech support is unable to fix it.

I second Ivan’s suggestion.

Another hint - if you have to call tech support you are probably trying to do something the remote is just not capable of doing. The OS and workflows are so strict that if you deviate from them even a little bit you will be in the weeds.

If you can get the devices working correctly first you can then start to program activities. I found a lot of the McIntosh device libraries to be incorrect, so I had to do some code capture to get it right.

[all2ears]

I'm coming to the same conclusion .... years of Pronto use has set my expectations beyond the capabilities of a Harmony Remote

100% correct on the the McIntosh commands for my MX150 and D100 DAC .... also the commands for my Auralic Aries - For the most part I had to teach the Harmony Remote all the commands ... the harmony library was useless for those components

Even a simple component like the Roku Ultra has issues - There are three basic Roku commands -- Home -- Options -- Back .... the default layout puts Home and Options commands on the touch screen and places Back in the middle of the remote - I edit Back for placement on the touchscreen but the Harmony remote varies placement with each sync sometimes leaving the button in the edit position and sometimes reverting to the default position

The Epson projector commands are worse .... the component has separate buttons for power on and power off - The Harmony hasn't been able to adapt even though it has the projector listed in its library and the custom option has a a provision for components with separate power buttons - I can only get a single power command

Programing my own remotes has been a hobby for 25 years (remember the days of the original RTI remotes) so I'd much prefer to program myself - I have another week before the return window closes so I'll try a bit longer but I'm leaning towards exploring other options

A priced right tablet with an IR blaster and wifi capabilities would be perfect ...... I guess a fella can dream

Thanks for everyone's input - The forum continues to rock !!!!

PS --- Ivan we should chat

[Masterlu]

I am a Control 4 and Savant dealer also. I find that URC does some of the most complex systems; mine included.

[all2ears]

Wanted to share an update from Harmony support - Their conclusion is that Harmony 950 remotes are not compatible with overhead projectors - Harmony support felt the 950 remotes were better geared with simpler mainstream components with all the components in front of the seating area ... with a projector being behind and above the seating area it was beyond the capabilities of the remote - Now my Pronto and RTI and even my $25 RCA worked fine bouncing the signal off the screen and activating the components .... evidently the Harmony has a more narrow transmission field

They did mention the Harmony Elite with the included hub and ir blasters might, possibly, maybe, perhaps, god willing, it's a 50/50 shot work - Does anyone have any experience using a Harmony remote with an overhead projector in their set up?

[W9TR]

That conclusion is pretty much nonsense. All my remotes work fine bouncing off the screen to the front IR sensor on the PJ.

I have a Harmony Elite/Hub and a JVC RS-500 4K DILA Projector. I did wire one of the blaster outputs to a remote IR sender located at the back of the JVC PJ. I then disabled the front IR sensor on the PJ.

It all works perfectly. I use the second blaster output to flood the cabinet where all the source equipment and Pre/Pro are located. That all works as well.

Also I'm surprised you are having trouble with the MX 150 / MX 151 interface, because in my system it works just fine. I am using alternate IR codes for my C 1100 - Logitech support choked on that one even though I gave them the HEX codes to make it work. So I just created a C 1100 component and captured all the codes. It works.

My beef with Logitech is their Lutron lighting and Powerview shading interface just doesn't work. I think it must be web API based because it is slow and clunky.

One other thought - if you don't like the interface, in your example a ROKU interface, try one for a different, maybe simpler model. My Roku interface works very well. I think i have a Roku 3. Not sure.

Also one of the things I've found you MUST DO for every component is to measure the amount of time it takes between receiving a power on command and being able to respond to an IR or RF command. You have to use this time to carefully sequence all the gear so that you don't send an IR sequence to a component that is not ready.

[all2ears]

Well wanted to finish up this thread - The Harmony 950 is strictly a line of site ir remote - Would be ok as long as all your components are in front of you - If you have mainstream components the harmony library should work - The app does allow learning and some basic layout and the Harmony support team will answer questions on a 24 hour turn - In my theater the ir transmission field was to narrow for both activating my front facing components and bouncing off my screen to activate my overhead projector behind me in a single click .... it took two clicks (I could have played around with delayed timing and repositioning the remote between activities but that's a big learning curve for the wife - LOL)

For a system with front facing components and an overhead projector the Harmony Elite with the satellite ir blasters and hub might be a better choice

That said my 10 year old pronto tsu 9400 can do one click activation (your results might vary but works fine in my system) and offers a lot more customization so no sense spending $300 to take a step down

Thanks for everyone's input ..... now It's off to enjoy my turntable which has no remote what so ever !!!!