Logitech Harmony Smart Control review: Controlling devices
#HARMONY HOME CONTROL COMPATIBILITY TV#
It’s very handy being able to activate an activity that merges 4 or 5 different steps into a single action, and makes watching TV that little bit more enjoyable (and cool!). The timings can be edited in the settings menu, but it does take time and it can be a pretty tedious process and the end product is definitely worth it. Our Freeview box is a bit slower starting up than Harmony expects, and will try to change the channel before the box is ready. You may need to tweak the timings of your activity, as we had to. It does however require you to use the Harmony smart control exclusively, as using a standard remote control may confuse the system. Harmony has a way of knowing the state of all connected devices, so say for example you’re watching TV and activated a “Watch Apple TV” activity that would usually turn your TV on, it wouldn’t repeat the command and accidentally turn your TV off. Once you’ve completed the initial setup of the Activity, things start to improve. The more devices you decide to include, the more complex the activity becomes to set up.
#HARMONY HOME CONTROL COMPATIBILITY SERIES#
After you’ve selected the devices you want to include, things start to get complicated – the app will ask you a series of poorly-worded questions about your TV setup, including which output your DVR is set to and which input your TV uses. Once you’ve selected your activity, you are then presented with a list of available devices that you’d like to include (amp, freeview box, etc). However if none of these appeal to you, you can also add your own custom activity.Īnyway, back to our setup of the “watch TV” activity. When you first set up an activity, Harmony will suggest certain pre-set activities that include listening to music, watching TV or (in our case) watching Apple TV. The idea is a lot better than the execution, though. For example, you could program the hub to turn on your TV and Freeview box and change to your favourite Freeview channel, or organise a set of actions to automatically navigate your smart TV’s UI and access Netflix. The idea is that you can program a number of actions in a specific order to streamline your media viewing experience. Once we’d made it through the (slightly stressful) initial setup process, it was time to add our first activity – watching TV, of course. Logitech Harmony Smart Control review: Activities It’s a handy feature to have though, as we’d prefer 15 minutes of repetition to not being able to use the Goodmans Base with the hub at all. That wasn’t the case however, as we had to manually add and label every single button used on the remote, and then had to check that the hub had correctly read and stored each signal.
It warned us that it may take up to 15 minutes to manually add, but we assumed that it’d only take us 5 minutes as we’d like to think of ourselves as technically proficient. However it didn’t end there, as there’s an option to manually add the device to our setup, so of course, we did.
Even though the Hub boasts compatibility with 225,000 devices, it seems that our audio system, the Goodmans Base, isn’t one of them. 2/2 was great, but could it go for 3/3 devices? Sadly not. So it’s working now, but it could change on a whim in the future.Next up was our Apple TV, which was automatically recognised and added along with our TV.
Luckily, there was a peasant uprising, Logitech changed their minds, and they re-enabled it. The only thing to keep in mind is that Logitech has a history of ignoring or outright blocking the DIY automation crowd and they unceremoniously shut off the XMPP network interface to their hubs one day in a new firmware release. With HA integration, I can start activities from automations, use the remote state to control automations, or send raw keystrokes if I like, all while keeping the remote and hub in sync. It’s lightyears better than the Harmony 900 that I had years ago. It has great device support, completely remappable buttons, sequences, etc., and it can all be set up via the phone app if you like. Even Harmony’s “Pro” line are mostly repackaged or identical versions of the consumer remotes.Įven though they have some home automation buttons, I only use my remote to control my entertainment setup. They are still consumer remotes and Logitech isn’t trying to compete with RTI, high-end URC, Crestron, Control4, etc. It also has some support for IP- and Bluetooth-based devices, where the hub just talks directly to the device, but you still need to use IR blasters for too many network-connected devices in my opinion. The Harmony hub and remote actually connects to Wifi, so you can use them anywhere you have a strong signal on the same network. You used to have to go high-end for it (like the MX-980), but luckily it’s becoming more prevalent in consumer remotes. No, and RF communication has always been a requirement for me.
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