The Logitech Harmony Elite Experience: Ultimate Control
by Brett Howse on February 14, 2017 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Accessories
- Logitech
- Remote Control
- IoT
- Smart Home
- Harmony
No devices is perfect, and the Logitech Harmony Elite is no exception. Luckily, the downsides are pretty minor. The initial setup is a bit cumbersome, but once you get everything set up, it’s generally smooth sailing.
Really the one major hurdle when using any of the Harmony products is to understand that they have a knowledge of state. A Harmony can work very well if you use it, and only it, to control your devices. Harmony remotes have an understanding of what devices are turned on, what are turned off, and what inputs are selected, so if you use another device to control your equipment as well, it can cause some frustrations. If you’re watching TV, and turn it off by pressing the button, the Harmony remote is still going to think it’s on. If you then switch to an activity that doesn’t use the TV, the remote will send the TV a power signal, which may turn the TV back on. Some of this has been helped over the years by devices having both a power on and power off control, rather than just a toggle, but if you can get it into your mind to only control things with the Harmony, things will go smoother.
Logitech has thought of this, of course, and for a long time they have included a troubleshooting guide on the remote itself. On the less expensive remotes, it will just re-send the codes, but on the higher end models with displays, it will ask you questions like “is the TV on?” which you can step through to sort out most issues.
The point is, once you set up the Harmony, the other remotes really should be put away. If there’s some feature you need on them, set one of the buttons on the Harmony to do that, and your life will be easier. It may seem obvious to some, but for those coming from a per-device control world, it can be a bit jarring to go from a remote per-device, to a Harmony, especially with the activities.
Multi-Touch
Logitech includes some multi-touch features in their smartphone app, and either someone had some time on their hands, or someone just made a poor decision, but they decided to port the multi-touch features into the Harmony Elite. You can drop an on-screen shade down over the display, and then use several different gestures to use the remote.
Multi-touch in the smartphone app is almost identical to the on-remote gesture support
Swipe up can be volume up, and swipe up and hold could be change channel up, and you can tap, double tap, and more. It’s impressive in the fact that it exists, but there is no extra functionality added to the remote by being able to do the same things that the remote buttons can do, but with gestures. In fact, it’s kind of silly. Why would you draw down an on-screen shade, then use a gesture to adjust the volume, when you could just use the volume button?
Luckily this feature is easily not used, and who knows, maybe there is one or two people in the world who would buy a remote and then use gestures on it instead of just using the buttons.
Battery Life
The final sore point on the Harmony Elite is the battery life. Logitech has included rechargeable batteries in the higher end models for some time, and the Harmony Elite features a Li-Ion battery, and charging stand. Thanks to the color display, and every button on the remote being backlit, there is more power draw than a standard remote.
Normally we would run extensive testing on battery life, but a remote is not a laptop, and such tests would be difficult to say the least. From my experience, the remote lasts four or five days before it needs to be charged, which is not bad, but it is definitely worse than the last two Harmony remotes I have owned.
If you are organized enough to always but the remote in the charging stand before bed, you will just never run into issues with the battery, but if you are, well let’s say “less organized” like in my house, the remote ends up sitting out for days at a time. I’ve not run into a situation where the remote was ever dead, but just be aware that it does need to be charged every few days.
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JeffS - Wednesday, February 15, 2017 - link
We have had a Harmony Elite in our home theater for a year now, and it has been a really fantastic product. My wife was basically afraid of using the system until we got this remote, and now she has no problem using it even when I'm not home. The hard buttons are all intuitive, and the touch screen really makes it work. We don't have a particularly complex system and are probably the perfect target customer for the product, but it is complex enough to require multiple remotes if you don't use the Harmony. There's an Epson projector, an Integra AV receiver, a TiVo Mini, a current-gen Apple TV, and a Blu-ray player. The activities on the touch screen are straightforward- "Watch Apple TV," for example, does everything you'd expect. The IR blasters flood the entire room and are so powerful that even reflected IR from the walls controls components. When you're done, the hard "off" button shuts everything down cleanly so that the projector isn't left idling and using up bulb life.We have a lot of tech gadgets in our house. This one is near the top of the list for reliability and ease of use.
fanofanand - Wednesday, February 15, 2017 - link
I'm trying to imagine how ticked off I would be when my kids misplaced a $300 remote.Ratman6161 - Wednesday, February 15, 2017 - link
So, $300 is way more than I'm willing to spend. But I'm intrigued by the hub part which can be purchased separately ($96 on Amazon). Anyone using just the hub and the app without the actual remote?As to the limitations mentioned for the app, I have an older (from 2013) Android phone that doesn't have cell service and continues (at least for now Its android 4.4.4) to run current apps. So if I use this old phone as my remote, or my tablet for that matter, I'm thinking I wouldn't really need the actual remote.
Anyone actually tried this?
rmack350 - Wednesday, February 15, 2017 - link
I also have a Harmony Companion and feel that the Less is More aspect of it works really well. But the specs listed are wrong.The Companion is an RF remote with a coin battery. The coin is supposed to last a year but mine has lasted longer. No recharging required. You can use it anywhere and don't need to be within line of sight, and the remote is simple. The basic learning curve is really short. Honestly, I just use it for TV/STB, TV/Roku. and TV/BlueRay. It has three function buttons for that and you could assign different functions to them for short and long presses but I just skipped the long presses. I bought the thing to simplify the remotes, after all.
The cool thing here is the hub. It's actually the IR emitter and it just flashes the signal at the entire room. It's pretty much always got line of sight this way and it makes the remote more reliable. The problem with a universal remote is that it has to send a set of codes to each device it's controlling. Very often the user would set the remote down out of line of sight before it was finished. Pushing the signalling to the hub gets rid of that fail point. It's very reliable.
There are very few flaws to the Companion remote, except that the buttons are small and unlit. If it weren't for that the companion would make a great gift for elderly people.
CircuitWizardry - Thursday, February 16, 2017 - link
The lack of a hard number pad is a major fail in my opinion. I much prefer to quickly type in the 3 numbers of a channel I want to go to, than use a guide, or a favorite channel list, where I have to look down at a screen on the remote.In my opinion, they had the physical layout correct with the Harmony 900, and it included a blaster. I own three aging 900's, and the IP control would be a nice addition for several devices, but I'll deal with the occasional issue, in exchange for having the numpad.
The real competitor to Harmony is URC, but they won't allow end users access to their programming software... so my money goes elsewhere.
ceomrman - Thursday, February 16, 2017 - link
This whole thing makes me feel old. I used to love this hyper-complicated stuff. I had a Harmony back in the day, but now I use the stock TV remote only, 100% of the time. I have a very good 2.1 system plugged into a mid-range AVR plugged into a smart TV that has Plex and Netflix and Youtube apps. I press "on" and everything fires up. Two presses later and I'm looking at an app menu or watching TV. No need for a hub, since the line of sight to the TV is never a problem. I can adjust my LED lights with their free app. I do sometimes miss the AVR remote for changing the sub level, so I do have to twirl that little knob a couple times a year. Sometimes we put on the radio, but usually for a party or cleaning or something, when using the input knob is no more PITA than using the remote. Sound modes and stuff are gimmicks. I listen to the sound how it was recorded, or admittedly down-mixed if was encoded only in surround. Why would you want to listen to a club mix in Stadium mode? If the movie should have rumbley bass, it'll have it. I've never had any complaint beyond the occasional crappy over-compressed file quality. When we want TV, pressing the "on" button on the remote automatically preempts the radio. I just can't think of what I'd do with a disc player, or what else I'd like a universal remote to do for me. I suppose it'd be nice to control a Roku, but what I'd really like for that (and for the other SnartTV apps, actually) is QWERTY, which Logitech doesn't help with.Kakureru - Friday, February 17, 2017 - link
Ug, still using that garbage "cloud" based software. I need it to 1' work entirly offline without an harmony account, 2, a way to manipulate the codes directly as the software keeps misinterpreting what actually is learned in.Kakureru - Friday, February 17, 2017 - link
Also, I require ACTUAL macros that control my devices AND the remote itself. The "activities" thing does not do what I want.beyondtool - Saturday, February 18, 2017 - link
I cannot fathom why the battery life is still so abysmal. It's definitely the sore point of my Harmony one, over the years there have been many frustrating hours waiting for the damn thing to charge its special battery. It's enough to go back to multiple remotes, rather than pay $300 for this replacement...stangflyer - Saturday, February 18, 2017 - link
I use my Harmony and hub along with an Echo dot to do everything by voice. Now I can pause, forward, reverse anything from my Tivo,UHD player and Roku Ultra. The only thing I have to do is put the disc in the tray as it automatically opens and closes the tray after 10 seconds.