Logitech bows out of the Harmony Universal Remote market (1 Viewer)

[Mark Booth]

I turned a friend into a Harmony believer when I finally convinced him to get a 650. He loved it! Well, a few years later, his dog made short work of the 650. He went to buy another and all he could find was the 665. He purchased one and says he has had nothing but trouble ever since. He DESPISES the 665.

I have an Elite and a 650. The 650 is the remote for the wife. The Elite is primarily used in the Booth Bijou Garage Theater.

With Logitech dropping Harmony I'm sure some other company will eventually fill the void. I've just got to prevent my wife from spilling her beverage all over the 650 in the meantime.

Mark

 

[marter]

So is the 950 the same remote as the Elite without the hub? I have a 665 but wonder if I should grab another now, and if so which one. I'm happy with the 665 so wonder if the 950/Elite would be worth the extra cost.

BTW, I started with a Philips Pronto back in the early 2000s, and still have a Harmony One. I'd use the One but the battery is tired and programming interface OS requirements are not optimal.

 

[TonyD]

I had an 880, well two because one stopped charging and the second one just stopped working.
Had them after the Pronto and before the Companion.

 

[Brian L]

So is the 950 the same remote as the Elite without the hub? I have a 665 but wonder if I should grab another now, and if so which one. I'm happy with the 665 so wonder if the 950/Elite would be worth the extra cost.

BTW, I started with a Philips Pronto back in the early 2000s, and still have a Harmony One. I'd use the One but the battery is tired and programming interface OS requirements are not optimal.

That is my understanding.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

I turned a friend into a Harmony believer when I finally convinced him to get a 650. He loved it! Well, a few years later, his dog made short work of the 650. He went to buy another and all he could find was the 665. He purchased one and says he has had nothing but trouble ever since. He DESPISES the 665.

I have an Elite and a 650. The 650 is the remote for the wife. The Elite is primarily used in the Booth Bijou Garage Theater.

With Logitech dropping Harmony I'm sure some other company will eventually fill the void. I've just got to prevent my wife from spilling her beverage all over the 650 in the meantime.

Mark

Isn't the 665 practically identical to the 650, except the 665 can handle a couple more devices?

I guess your friend just happened to get a rare lemon for his 665 to replace the 650.

My only issue w/ getting a 665 instead is I probably can't reuse the existing programming of my 650 and have to redo it from scratch. As relatively simple as the programming is, it'd still be a bit of pain to have to redo from scratch for my setup...

_Man_

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I had an 880, well two because one stopped charging and the second one just stopped working.
Had them after the Pronto and before the Companion.
View attachment 94553

I had a couple 880's, too. Had the same issue with the charger on the first one. Some buttons stopped working on the 2nd.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Horrible news.

Instead of waiting for the unlikely news that the Harmony line will continue on via some other company (or another reprieve my Logitech), I made the rash decision tonight to order a back-up Harmony Ultimate remote...on the chance that the one I am currently using were ever to stop working. I figure there's a good chance that my hub and docking station will last longer than the used-daily remote itself. So I pulled the trigger on a moderately priced remote-only unit which will sit on my shelf as an insurance policy for me.

I LOVE my Harmony remote and am heart broken that this era is coming to an end.

[...especially since I was so simple for me to be able to add my new Brennan B2 media player to the devices controlled by my remote and create an activity to easily integrate the B2 into the rest of my system.]

*EDIT*: I should add that I HAVE HAD "hard" buttons on former Harmony remotes stop working correctly. So that's why I figure this might be a good investment for me.

 

[Raul Marquez]

I for one saw this coming when they discontinued their desktop app for Mac. I still don’t understand why we can’t get a simple touchscreen panel universal remote.... I have 2 Elites but ever since they changed to app based programming I’ve had nothing but problems.
Having recently upgraded my home theater to a 13.2.4 system with an 85” Sony and Denon A110 AVR I’ve been looking for a universal remote system, but without luck. A new one from a company called Savant looked promising, but user reviews have been terrible. I’m like Sam now with multiple remotes for the Sony TV, Denon AVR, AppleTV, Roku TV, FireTV cube, Oppo 203, Oppo 103, Hue lights, etc.

 

[Chewbabka]

I just ordered a spare 665 from Best Buy. Hopefully by the time that dies there will be a smartphone-based solution that works for me.

 

[Scott Voth]

I tried harmonys twice. They both sucked because there is no intelligence in the transport. If one thing fails to flip on the whole system is out of sync and gets f’ed. It’s easier for me to juggle 6 remotes.

One of the best remotes i ever had was the Phillips Pronto. It was easy to program and was one of the first touchscreens out there. I have a couple of Harmonies but the first one has a proprietary rechargeable battery that doesn't last long and I never got around to programming the next one - it's still in the box. Another problem is manufacturers having been moving away from IR remotes - My LG TVs and Roku use RF so I've been making due with juggling three remotes without too much problems.

 

[Todd Erwin]

I own a Harmony 650 (in the living room) and a Harmony Touch (in my office/reviewing area).

 

[JohnRice]

So is the 950 the same remote as the Elite without the hub? I have a 665 but wonder if I should grab another now, and if so which one. I'm happy with the 665 so wonder if the 950/Elite would be worth the extra cost.

BTW, I started with a Philips Pronto back in the early 2000s, and still have a Harmony One. I'd use the One but the battery is tired and programming interface OS requirements are not optimal.

Yes, the 950 and the Elite are essentially identical, with the Elite having the hub. I have both models and use them daily.

BTW, replacement batteries are readily available, even for the One, relatively cheap and extremely easy to replace.

 

[JohnRice]

I for one saw this coming when they discontinued their desktop app for Mac.

But there's still a Mac app for the models that don't have a hub, isn't there? It really makes no sense that it would work with some models and not others. The mobile app is half baked at best.

 

[Rob W]

BTW, replacement batteries are readily available, even for the One, relatively cheap and extremely easy to replace.

Details, please ?

Thanks in advance !

 

[JohnRice]

Details, please ?

Thanks in advance !

The simplest solution is to go to Amazon and search for the battery you need. You'll get about a hundred hits.

 

[Chewbabka]

But there's still a Mac app for the models that don't have a hub, isn't there? It really makes no sense that it would work with some models and not others. The mobile app is half baked at best.

Yes, but it sucks. You can’t customize buttons or the screen. It also lives in a non-resizable smartphone-sized window. I suspect what happened is that they farmed out the original software, and whoever made it wasn’t around to implement the relatively simple process of porting it to 64 bit when Apple dropped 32 bit support from the Mac.

I made a Mac OS Mojave USB boot drive for the sole purpose of programming my Harmony 665. I had hopes they’d update it eventually (as their site said for years), but now I guess I’ll be doing this until my current and spare remotes conch out.

 

[Johnny Angell]

Yes, but it sucks. You can’t customize buttons or the screen. It also lives in a non-resizable smartphone-sized window. I suspect what happened is that they farmed out the original software, and whoever made it wasn’t around to implement the relatively simple process of porting it to 64 bit when Apple dropped 32 bit support from the Mac.

I made a Mac OS Mojave USB boot drive for the sole purpose of programming my Harmony 665. I had hopes they’d update it eventually (as their site said for years), but now I guess I’ll be doing this until my current and spare remotes conch out.

Without the desktop app, how is the remote updated? I recently did an update and it went fine. I’m still 32 bit.

 

[DaveF]

But there's still a Mac app for the models that don't have a hub, isn't there? It really makes no sense that it would work with some models and not others. The mobile app is half baked at best.

The config app for the One is not supported for the last two (?) macOS versions. Tested and confirmed personally.

I’ve found the mobile app to work nearly identically and as well as the older desktop app.

 

[Chewbabka]

Without the desktop app, how is the remote updated? I recently did an update and it went fine. I’m still 32 bit.

you can’t. Hence why i boot into mojave on an external drive

 

[TonyD]