Review on Logitech Harmony Control 915 000256 Renewed by Rob Rogers

Apparently, Revain keeps mixing reviews of different models of Harmony remotes. This is for the Ultimate Home Touchscreen Remote bundled with the Harmony Hub: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ZYFUW72/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1My HarmonyOne remote which is about 10 years old should. , has been misbehaving lately, and since it's just an IR (line of sight) signal, it can't control newer devices (like some Rokus, Nvidia SHIELD). The Revain deal got me looking at current Harmony remotes and I'm glad I did. The new Harmony Hub architecture is incredible. I went back to a remote control to control everything. I don't have to point the remote at the entertainment center for it to work - the hub device emits IR signals, not the remote itself. The hub also emits RF and Bluetooth signals, so it works with today's entertainment devices. The kit I bought comes with two IR blasters that connect to the hub with 6ft cables in case you want to completely hide the hub. Blaster modules are small, black, and unobtrusive. From the kitchen, I can control devices in the living room without line of sight, although it was too far to go to another room. To explain the architecture of the Harmony Hub a little better, the hub device is a small 5 inch square box that does all the actual work of sending remote control commands to your devices. It connects to your Wi-Fi network. It can communicate with Rokus and other devices that use Bluetooth or RF instead of IR, and it has a built-in IR blaster that's pretty powerful - now it sits behind all my components and controls them perfectly. I mean, it's like taking my TV remote and making it work. The IR hub functionality is quite powerful. The command the hub sends to your components can be used in the Harmony app on your phone or tablet, or with the dedicated Harmony remote. None of them require line of sight to the hub. in the entertainment center while everything turns on and off. Within reason, you don't even have to have a remote control in the same room. If you prefer, you can also just buy the Harmony Hub device and use your smartphone/tablet as the actual remote control. But I recommend getting a dedicated Harmony Ultimate (or Elite if price isn't an issue for you). There are cheaper Harmony remotes that don't have the Ultimate's touchscreen. If you want to get one of these, you can just use your smartphone. The best seat in the Harmony range is the Ultimate. The Ultimate's touchscreen is very responsive. There is support for gestures. The ergonomics are great, with two different ways to hold the remote depending on what controls your entertainment component needs. When programming a remote control, the default values are not only reasonable, they come close to wisdom. It ran all the components well enough for my wife's purposes within 15 minutes. It took me a few hours to fully set it up for audio control and other tweaks, but it's the same as my primitive HarmonyOne. (Anyone who says I'm sexist, don't complain to me. You obviously aren't married to a straight woman.) If you want to do some serious tweaking with that remote, consider installing Windows/MyHarmony desktop software for Mac. Not only does it have some features that tablets/phones/remotes don't have, but it also allows you to combine many commands from different devices for each action to test it. Many thanks to the developers of Logitech Harmony for updating the desktop software user interface. Since you don't have to point the remote at the TV to check every change, it was also very easy for me to set everything up on the big-screen computer. They've also simplified the syncing process, no longer forcing you to turn off all devices before testing changes. Everything that got me interested in my HarmonyOne is supported in the new Harmony Hub: ridiculously expensive Elite, you're limited to 15 devices. Some editions of the hub obviously limit you to 8 devices. Logitech does a terrible job of presenting its various devices and features in any spreadsheet format. You should just trust me and get Ultimate. Not much more expensive than the editions below. Unless you're the kind of person who hires people to come and set up your remotes because you're rich as hell and have so many things, I doubt you need the elite.