Hardware Review Logitech Harmony Elite: Home Theater Forum Review (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

Robert,


When I do a review of a piece of hardware, there is usually the need to put it through its paces rather quickly to get a synopsis us as soon as possible.


Now that I have been using the Logitech Harmony Elite over the past few weeks, I am convinced that it is a necessary upgrade to the prior model.


Ergonomically, it feels a bit better in the hand and I do love its new design.


It is the best all-in-one remote I have ever had the pleasure of owning.


So happy you finally discovered a Logitech remote and enjoying it.

 

[Ron Kaledas]

Nice review. I see one of the issues I have with the harmony is resolved - having the power button all by itself on top of the screen, instead of *right on top* of the skip back button...way too easy to press the wrong one!


But, have they fixed the other issue? This being - the inability for us to control and get "into" the power on and power off sequences? I have the ultimate, and was dismayed to find out that I can't interject commands during the power on and power off sequences. I need to a) change the tivo to the "my shows" screen from any live show that may be playing during powerup, so I don't get spoiled by picture or sound (after talking to them, they may have addressed this for me, since tivo doesn't have a power-on button) and more importantly, b) I need to interject a 15 minute pause in the power off sequence, so that I can run the system fan to cool down the hush box before I turn it off...and their pause is a max of 20 seconds. cumbersome - if it's even possible! c) separate on-off commands don't seem to be available, unless you trick the remote into thinking "power on" is some other (additional) button, and same for power off...ugh! d) I also want to interject a lights up command to turn on the lights as soon as I hit the "system off" button - can't seem to do that! or maybe I haven't tried it enough? I just got so disgusted by the lack of flexibility that I haven't gone back to the remote for a while to try to work these things out - if there's even a way.

I also haven't yet figured out how to pause a dvd or tivo show and have the lights come up and vice versa like I can on the pronto...I imagine I can with an activity, just haven't had time to look into it.


Man, I so loved my pronto - having complete control over every single button and every button could be a macro, so easy to program (once you got it set up initially) and a decent amount of hard buttons for "sightless" operation. They still work (I have 3), but I'm trying to plan for the day when they die!

 

[Ronald Epstein]

The Logitech Harmony Ultimate is $99.99 at Best Buy. That is $200 off List Price

 

[Robert Crawford]

The Logitech Harmony Ultimate is $99.99 at Best Buy. That is $200 off List Price

Damn, if I only waited on my third remote. That's an excellent price.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Crawdaddy,


Did you buy all Elite remotes or did you downgrade the other remotes?

 

[Robert Crawford]

Crawdaddy,


Did you buy all Elite remotes or did you downgrade the other remotes?

I bought two Elite remotes for my main two HT setups and this model for my Computer/Office HT setup.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Not to try to make things more complicated for you....


Can you return that remote to Amazon? I believe they have a 30 day return policy. You would be getting a touchscreen remote for less money.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Not to try to make things more complicated for you....

Can you return that remote to Amazon? I believe they have a 30 day return policy. You would be getting a touchscreen remote for less money.

Yup, just did so. I already bought the Ultimate from BB too. I'll be making a pit stop to UPS tomorrow.

 

[DaveF]

That's the previous model getting clearance blowout? Any sales on the current one, the Elite?

 

[Ronald Epstein]

That's the previous model getting clearance blowout? Any sales on the current one, the Elite?

Not that I am aware of. Hopefully there may be Black Friday sales forthcoming.

 

[DaveF]

Ok thanks. I'm in no hurry for the Elite. But a good deal would get me to buy sooner than later.

 

[Robert Crawford]

The Logitech Harmony Ultimate is $99.99 at Best Buy. That is $200 off List Price

It's gone up to $149.99 so I'm glad I acted when I did. Perhaps, a mistake on their part.???? Anyhow, got my shipping notice yesterday and I just got back from UPS to ship that other model back to Amazon.

 

[[email protected]]

My new Harmone Elite is less that 60 days old and the touchscreen is not responding. Its Saturday 3:30 PM in California. I called customer support and after I HAD to listen to a LONG recorded message (from the manager of customer support) I finally get thru to the Elite customer desk and I am disconnected... I did an online reset and my touchscreen is still not responding. I I guess I'll just have to wait until tomorrow to see if I have to replace it. Also, when it was working, the number keys would dissapear and it would go into some strange mode making the keys unresponsive. Had to reset activities to make keys functional.

 

[[email protected]]

I will update my previous post after I contact Harmone support in the morning.

 

[Robert Crawford]

The Logitech Harmony Ultimate is $99.99 at Best Buy. That is $200 off List Price

For clarification purposes that remote on sale for $99.99 wasn't the Ultimate. The model that was on sale was the Harmony Touch model 915-100198 while the Harmony Ultimate One is model 915-000224. Both are IR remotes, but can be paired with the Ultimate Hub in order to use RF and/or bluetooth. The difference between the two is the native hardware. The Ultimate has a tilt-sensor (motion detector) and a vibration feedback mechanism so that when you touch the screen, the remote gently vibrates so you don't have to look down to verify. The Harmony Touch doesn't have those two features. With that said, I'm happy to have the Touch for $99.99 purchase price because unlike my other HT setups, this remote will be within direct sight of the HT components it controls and just six feet away from those components. By the way, I see the price is now back up to $199.99

 

[Fofer]

Speaking of TiVo: it looks like Logitech has killed dedicated buttons for jump back and jump forward (vs Rewind and Fast Forward). How do you use those features? Is it easy, since those are the bread and butter of TiVo watching?

The Harmony Elite, like the Ultimate before it, allows you to customize "short press" and "long press" for each physical button. So for TiVo, I programmed the FF button's short press to to be jump forward, and long press to be FF. And the Rewind button's short press is skip back (i.e. instant replay) while the long press is rewind. I also set up gestures for the touch screen, swiping forward lets me fast forward...


All in all, it works well. I am most relieved by the new, more appropriate placement of the transport buttons to the middle of the remote. It was very annoying on the Ultimate that they were placed all the way at the top. The overall ergonomics of the Elite are much better.


I have had many Harmony remotes over the years. I have very few complaints with the new Elite. I'd recommend it to anyone with a fairly complex AV setup. It works well.

 

[DaveF]

I've had zero interest in the Amazon Echo, until I read this essay.

You know what else supports IFTTT? Yep, the Amazon Echo. Even more recently, the Echo added an ability to trigger IFTTT workflows of your creation with a phrase that you designate.

Well, that was too good an opportunity to pass up. So I created a recipe that allows me to say “Alexa, trigger Apple TV,” which in turn tells the Harmony Hub to turn on the TV and receiver, and set them to the correct inputs for the Apple TV. I added similar scripts for over-the-air TV, the Fire TV, and my Xbox One. I also added a script that allows me to turn off all those devices

https://sixcolors.com/post/2015/12/talking-back-to-your-tvs-more-fun-when-it-listens/

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I love the Amazon Echo. It has the potential to do a lot of things. Don't buy it for more than $149. The price does drop on occasion.


The IFTTT setup can be very easy or rather complicated to understand. I was able to set it up to find my iPhone on command, but there are other commands that require additional downloads and not as easy to comprehend setup.


I also don't like having to say things like "Alexa, TRIGGER find my iPhone." that TRIGGER command should be eliminated, but I am sure it's the only command to link IFTTT to ECHO.


Sooner or later, Logitech is going to do something on their own with voice commands. Either make the Echo and Harmony remote pairing easier, or come out with their own voice-command device. Just my opinion.

 

[Raul Marquez]

My new Harmone Elite is less that 60 days old and the touchscreen is not responding. Its Saturday 3:30 PM in California. I called customer support and after I HAD to listen to a LONG recorded message (from the manager of customer support) I finally get thru to the Elite customer desk and I am disconnected... I did an online reset and my touchscreen is still not responding. I I guess I'll just have to wait until tomorrow to see if I have to replace it. Also, when it was working, the number keys would dissapear and it would go into some strange mode making the keys unresponsive. Had to reset activities to make keys functional.

Updated my Harmony Ultimate Remote yesterday since I wanted to include a new activity. After the usual steps which I have done on several occasions before, the remote touch screen is frozen on a logo of a computer with the words myharmony.com below.


Has anyone experienced this and fixed it? I like this remote BUT their Customer Support is awful. It appears this has been a longstanding problem since 2014 according to posts on the Logitech Harmony Forums.


I've wasted over 3 hours trying to fix this with the various solutions offered to no avail. Any ideas?


Raul

 

[nanook]

Raul-


I can feel your pain-! I have two Ultimates - one regular and one Home, and I love them both - when they work - which, honestly, is about 99.7% of the time. The 'downtime' usually revolves around an unsuccessful update - either thru a Harmony update, or a change I initiated. When those situations rear their ugly heads, you can usually get past them with some patience.


It sounds as if somehow the remote/hub is stuck in 'mid-sync'. I don't know if you're using the phone/tablet app or the MyHarmony app on a computer, but I would suggest using the MyHarmony desktop/laptop app, and perform the following:


Open the MyHarmony app and select your remote. Connect your remote to your computer using the USB cable, then select "Sync" in the upper right hand corner of the page. That should re-sync and update the remote & hub. Whatever you do - don't lose patience during the synchronization. It may creep up to 100% and may very well seem to stop somewhere near the 97, 98 or 99% mark and not appear to be moving forward; but continue to hang tight.


If this doesn't work, you may need to try this method for syncing... https://support.myharmony.com/en-us/harmony-fails-to-sync And don't underestimate the Community Forums or the Harmony Support pages to help you find answers.


Let me know what happens.


-Steve