Logitech Harmony Universal Remotes

[ewelin]

So, Tigerdirect had the Harmony 520 on sale for $24 the other day so I picked up two of them. Man I can't believe I have waited this long to pick up one of these remotes. Then thing is fairly easy to setup, but it did take me most of the day to get it fully configured. My living room setup isn't anything huge, it's just my HTPC running SageTV, my AV Receiver and an older TV. Pretty much everything runs through Sage, so it was a matter of sorting out the buttons and making sure everything works correctly, but I think I've got it running pretty smooth. Will have to let the wife try it shortly, should improve the WAF a bit since prior to this remote we'd have to turn the TV and AV Receiver on by hand, then control everything with the MCE Remote I have. I did pick up a second remote as we plan on putting a Sage Extender in our bedroom with a new TV and definitely did not want multiple remotes for the bedroom. My only complaint is that it appears that you cannot have multiple remote configurations on the same account with Logitech, which, IMHO is pretty lame!

Anyone know if you can control Air Conditioners with the Harmony? :D If so that's another remote I can toss into the draw and never use again.

[MrMagic]

I've had one of the Harmony's for more than a year and I wouldn't trade that pup for a truckload of anything else. I've spent more hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars on 'universal' remotes that weren't, this dog hunts!

[MrMagic]

You might be intersted to know that some of the Harmony series remotes support X10 IR signals. I have an old 8 address X10 IR receiver and I set it right beside my TV. Those 8 addresses respond just fine to the Harmony remote. I use them as triggers through the X10->Insteon protocol bridge to do things like turn on the Bedroom lights when i shut off the Home Theater downstairs to go up to bed.

Don't discount the ability of HCA to use these old IR devices with the Harmony remote in a situation where you are running Insteon gear. I have found the protocol bridges to be a HUGELY beneficial feature in HCA. I can still use the old reliable X10 motion sensors and my Harmony remote to either directly talk to an Insteon device OR kick a program that will do several things with several insteon devices.

I had this old 8 address receiver laying on a shelf and decided not too long ago to try to find some use for it. Turns out that now, in combo with the Harmony remote, I have 8 triggers that I can kick without ever getting out of my chair, with the same remote I use for the Home Theature. HCA pulls this off without a hiccup!

Steve

[ewelin]

that is quite interesting... no x10 gear in this house though. I had a few pieces but they would only work about 30% of the time...

[MrMagic]

that is quite interesting... no x10 gear in this house though. I had a few pieces but they would only work about 30% of the time...

For a lot of people thats true. Me, I have the lines in the house fully conditioned to carry X-10 as well as Insteon and REALLY, have zero trouble with this.

Thats one thing I like about HCA 9. About anything I dream up, it will let me do, even mixing all three protocols into the mix. Flexibility is the name of my game and HCA fits it to a DOUBLE TT.

Steve

[ewelin]

speaking about dreaming... I just spent this afternoon dreaming up how to power cycle my HD-PVRs for my HTPC... they work best if they get power cycled regularly.... and since they're the only option for recording HD on an HTPC then there's not much choice. Now I just need to sit down with HCA and and create a little program that'll shut down the SageTV Service, cycle the HD-PVRs, then start the SageTV service back up... shouldn't be too bad. A lot easier than the other options ppl have come up with. LOL