RF Universal Remotes

[Bones13]

I use Harmony with hub currently. My wife could never use the very wonky Control4 system we started with 5 years ago. Lots of flexibility, and they keep updating it, and the supported device list.

In my previous house I used an IR remote receiver (wired) to a small IR signal repeater box to send the signals to devices that were inside the cabinet. Another consideration for you. The box had a wall wart, and allowed me to plug in the little wired IR emmiters.

[W9TR]

Logitech Harmony Elite w/Hub here. It runs all my gear, the Lutron Caseta lighting, and Hunter Douglas PowerView Shades.

Unless you are looking for deep integration it works great. By deep integration I mean one touch events like placing the source in pause raises the lights to 30%. That is now a 2 step process because the home automation functions like shades and lights can’t be combined with simple device control actions. At least I haven’t figured out how to do it yet.

Lots of flexibility in power on and power off sequences, including lights, shades, etc. So for example when I start the gear for a movie, all the blinds go down and the lights turn on at 50%.

There is a huge library of devices to choose from, although the McIntosh list is a little thin in spots but still very workable. If your device isn’t listed you can always learn its codes, a little tedious but easy to do.

I have an MX 151, C 1100 and the HT passthru works perfectly. I have several activities programmed;
Listen to Vinyl
Listen to Tidal
Watch a Movie
Watch TV
Watch Roku

Highly recommended.

Tom

[nicoff]

I should mention that the Logitech Harmony can integrate with Amazon Alexa. So it is possible to integrate a series of Alexa controlled devices to a single voice command. For example, a command such as “Alexa, turn on the TV” can close shades, turn down the lights and trigger the Logitech Play TV activity.

[edkoz]

Maybe it's time to move from the MX880 to the Logitech Harmony. I like the idea of integration with alexa.
Ed

[dixon007]

Thank you everyone for input. The Logitech Harmony is a compelling one.

[Paret]

Does anyone know how to program the alternate remote codes for a C2600 on a Harmony 650?

I’m using it with Passthru in conjunction with my MX-151 and have the HT part all programmed.

To listen to music it powers the MX and not the C2600 which I have setup with the alternate remote codes.

I can use the Mc remote just for this but the Harmony works great with everything else and it would be awesome to use just one remote.

Thank you.

[-E-]

Used to do Logitech, now I'll only touch URC. PITA to program but once you do, holy cow now that is a proper remote!

[clpetersen]

Originally Posted by nicoff

The Logitech is one of the easiest to use and easiest to program. But you definitely have to have at some computer knowledge. Maybe a friend can help you set it up. Once it is set up properly, it should just work.
Maybe someone else can chime in with other options.

We also use Logitech. Have had the 650 (best value at about $70), the Harmony 'Companion' (~$100) which uses the RF 'Hub' and now the Elite ($300) which also uses a Hub. The remote to the Hub is RF, Hub to components is IR, but you can add IR extenders to go inside cabinets, etc.

The Elite is worth the money in my opinion. Easy to program using the iPad app or a computer, but the app is better.

Tip: the best thing we did to get this working seamlessly in our media room is give everything ample time (like 8 seconds or more) to turn on before sending more commands. HDMI handshaking, the bane of home theaters these days, was the biggest headache solved by adequate turn-on timing and getting the turn-on sequence right.

[Mr. Big]

I know I'm in the minority here, but I found that the URC MSC-400 Base Station and MRX-1200 remote was much more flexible and easier to program than the Harmony in terms of programming discrete codes and macros. With any of my RS232-capable components, I can program events such as powering on my home theater and 2-channel systems with a single touch of a button, and setting all the right inputs in any order I want to get me going. The Harmony just didn't allow me to program specific events and inputs in any order. This was a few years ago and maybe things have changed, but I'm afraid I'll have to find something else sometime soon because URC has discontinued the MSC-400 and it cannot be programed on anything but a 32-bit Windows system.

[Weirdcuba]

Are URC’s programmable by consumers or does one have to have a dealer do it? I would be doing this on an apple. The URC website indicates dealer programming only so far as I can tell.