This sort of goes against one of the main reasons to get a universal remote in the first place: to make it easier for people to use your home theater, instead of staring at a pile of controls on the coffee table and wondering which is the right one. It’s also not useful to anyone who doesn’t have the Harmony app already installed on their phone, so your guests will have to rely on you if they’re trying to watch a little TV when they’re visiting. This means unlocking your device even for basic functions like adjusting the volume or changing the channel. It’s a handy tool, but the biggest downside is that you need to use your phone to control everything. It was pretty cool to watch the controller navigate through the PlayStation’s menus to shut it down when I was done for the night. The app emulates the buttons as well, so you don’t need to dig out your DualShock just to hit the PS or other controller-specific buttons. The Harmony Hub also works with game consoles via Bluetooth, so I was able to set an activity to “play games” where a tap in the app can turn on my TV and set it to the proper HDMI input, while also powering on the PS4. There’s also an option to scan your WiFi network for devices, which is how I got my Chromecast on board. For your IR-based devices you enter the manufacturer and product number and the software automatically sets them up. It does need to be plugged in to AC power to work, so make sure you have a free outlet. Mine sits below my TV and can reach the cable box several shelves below it. It’s basically a black saucer-like object that lives near your home theater where it can send infrared signals to all your devices. The Hub is also included with the Harmony Companion and the Harmony Elite, which is how I got to try it out. The next step up is the Harmony Hub, a $100 device that lets you control your various devices via your phone. Pros: Simplest (and cheapest) Harmony remote, uses standard AA batteriesīuy Logitech Harmony 665 at Best Buy - $60 Logitech Harmony Hub Granted, remotes are low-power devices and a pair of AA batteries should last a long time, but it just feels silly. Despite needing to be plugged in to a computer to be programmed, the control itself does not run on a rechargeable battery. The buttons are rather small (especially the power button up top, which is a 3/16-inch square) and it’s a little too easy to fat-finger the controls. The 665 worked at that point, but I didn’t love it. This obviously isn’t a real fix if you have to buy more remotes just to get one to work. The Harmony 665 then appeared and functioned as normal. Later on I was able to get the 665 to function… after adding a completely different remote to my Logitech account. Nothing changed and, if I unplugged the remote and tried to use it, it would simply display the USB icon that indicated it needed to be connected to my computer to complete setup. I closed it and restarted to no avail, rebooted the computer, and even uninstalled and reinstalled the software completely. It was here that the software froze up, not letting me go any further. The next step is to set up the activities. Simply type the companies and model names or numbers of your various TVs and set-top boxes and the software will program them into the remote. You install the (incredibly dated) Harmony software on your system and set up an account, and then it guides you through the process of adding your devices. Unlike Logitech’s more advanced remotes, the 665 is IR based, so all setup has to be done by plugging it into a computer via USB. Unfortunately, that’s where I hit my first snag with the 665, and it was a doozy. It’s actually a really nice feature offered across the entire Harmony line. On the screen you can toggle between controlling individual devices, or a suite of devices grouped under activities like “watch TV” or “listen to music.” Basically, when you want to do a particular thing, you can push a single button to have the remote turn on every single product associated with that activity, like the TV and cable box when you’re going to watch a show. There’s a 1.5-inch color LCD screen toward the top, which automatically turns on when you pick up the remote. The cheapest remote Logitech currently offers is the Harmony 665, a $60 device that the company claims can control up to 10 devices.
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