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Scott Merryfield

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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.
I cannot speak for the LG display, but Roku continues to support IR codes, even for their devices that include RF remotes. I have the latest Roku Ultra with Dolby Vision support, and it works fine with my Harmony 650. I did not have to do any re-programming of the remote when I swapped the new Roku with my old Ultra.
 

Todd Erwin

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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.

I cannot speak for the LG display, but Roku continues to support IR codes, even for their devices that include RF remotes. I have the latest Roku Ultra with Dolby Vision support, and it works fine with my Harmony 650. I did not have to do any re-programming of the remote when I swapped the new Roku with my old Ultra.
The Roku Express (HD), Premiere (4K), and Ultra (4K) accept both IR and RF remote codes, likely due to their footprint as an external box. The Streaming Stick (HD) and Streaming Stick+ (4K) are RF only, so do not play nice with most Harmony remotes. Amazon's Fire Stick line are all Bluetooth, so those also do not play nice with Harmony (although they did back when you could get a Bluetooth adapter/repeater for your Harmony remote).
 

DaveF

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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 update the remote if you’re using a recent version of macOS. My Harmony One was frozen in time.

That’s why I bought a new Harmony last year around when I got a new TV. I knew I couldn’t update my One programming so needed a new remote now that I was upgrading gear.
 

TonyD

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So the 665.

Doesnt work well with the Apple tv.
Wont replace the ATV remote.

Still working on getting it to work well with the Comcast X1 box.

Several buttons donT work incuding the dvr button.
 

Scott Merryfield

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So the 665.

Doesnt work well with the Apple tv.
Wont replace the ATV remote.

Still working on getting it to work well with the Comcast X1 box.

Several buttons donT work incuding the dvr button.
The 650 works fine with my Apple TV 4K and Comcast X1 box. You would think the 665 would be the same.
 

TonyD

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Hey!

Could be.

Im still getting the ins and outs figured out.

I’ve been watching baseball on the Atv so haven’t had a chance to really try it yet.

So far I’ve found that I don’t have FF or RW using the 665 while watching on the mlb app.

I tried the X1 cable box from comcast for minutes and it wouldn’t open the recordings so going to need to figure that one out.
 

TonyD

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Scott, is the 650 rf or ir?

The X1 box is RF but the 665 seems to control IR devices
 

JohnRice

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Scott, is the 650 rf or ir?

The X1 box is RF but the 665 seems to control IR devices
All Harmony remotes are IR.

It works with the ATV, but there isn't any touchpad, so it's somewhat limited. I actually use my Harmony to control by ATVs (Gen 3 & 4K) most of the time. On the Gen 3 there's no difference since it doesn't use a touchpad.
 

JohnRice

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I’ve found the mobile app to work nearly identically and as well as the older desktop app.
OK, on the Elite in my HT, I made a mistake and have one input on the touch screen labeled as "Balancd 1" when it should be "Balanced 1". How do I fix that with the mobile app? It appears to be impossible. In fact, the mobile app appears to have virtually zero control over most of the touch screen controls. As far as I can tell, the mobile app seems to be designed to modify and fine tune a remote, but for the actual primary setup, it's seriously limited. It actually has some fine tuning features the desktop app lacks, like fine tuning on and off procedures and automated functions. For the life of me, it appears to be almost useless for the major setup process.
 

DaveF

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I think these are what you’re looking for. I found editing some soft buttons not obvious and took some trial to find the options. At one point my remote got out of sync with the app. Took a while to fix. But I’ve gotten to to do what I want within Harmony’s abilities.


 

DaveF

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I can say, I’ve soley used the mobile app to wholly set up and configure my Elite. No choice since the desktop no longer runs on macOS.
 

TonyD

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I can’t find anything on X1 and the 665 compatibility.
Allegedly they are but unless I have a faulty remote I can’t get ff or rw or a handful of other buttons to control the x1.
 

Brian L

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Looks like a few members here are taking a defensive posture and going with Elite systems from IR only Harmony remotes. I just did the same. I was not planning to use the hub, but since I have a Fire Stick in my set-up, and the hub does BluTooth, I thought, why not?

The documentation online and procedure that pops up using the Harmony app that describes how to pair the hub with a FireStick is....wrong. There is a key step missing. You will not get it to work following anything that I have found posted by Harmony or Amazon. After about 90 minutes of searching, I found the attached procedure posted to AVS.


This works. Bless this man's pointy little head!

In my set-up, nearly everything is visible to the IR emitter on the remote, so I have configured the remote to use IR from the remote only for everything but the FireTV and AppleTV. I did not want to clutter up my rack with the two included IR emitters (been there, done that), so I was happy to see that the remote could be set-up to just use IR for devices that have IR and were visible from my couch.

I will say that there was a bit of a learning curve to get the Elite set-up using the iOS app, and there are probably still some things I have to tweak and tricks I have yet to discover but once the FireStick issue was solved, things are looking up.
 
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DaveF

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I'm mostly IR only. I think the AppleTV might be comanded by WiFi? My receiver is too old to support IP or bluetooth control. The TiVo Roamio is wifi only; I don't know of a way to command it by bluetooth or wifi for faster response.

The Harmony Elite sees my smart lock and thermostats by wifi. But that's just a party trick and of no practical use to me.
 

Lord Dalek

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The 650 works fine with my Apple TV 4K and Comcast X1 box. You would think the 665 would be the same.
665 is an IR remote. If the Apple TV box runs exclusively on Bluetooth or RF it wont pick anything up. Its the same problem with my Shield Pro.
 

Brian L

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I'm mostly IR only. I think the AppleTV might be comanded by WiFi? My receiver is too old to support IP or bluetooth control. The TiVo Roamio is wifi only; I don't know of a way to command it by bluetooth or wifi for faster response.

The Harmony Elite sees my smart lock and thermostats by wifi. But that's just a party trick and of no practical use to me.
I was looking forward to having it see my Nest thermostats and Wemo lights and switches, but neither are supported. I do have fine native apps on my phone for those things, but I was at least going to give it a shot.
 

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That's hysterical! Every single button is wiped clean, I've never seen anything like that before. Maybe you need another hobby? :P

I don't buy the "everyone is streaming" rationale as a reason to leave the market.

Yea, I'm with you. Certainly there are many who stream, but it's very far from "everyone". Who knows what happens 5-10 years down the line, but for now I suspect there are plenty of potential customers.

I ordered a new Harmony Companion with Hub from Best Buy on Saturday and it was delivered today. It's new in the box for only a few dollars more than the refurbished ones on Amazon. I couldn't find anything new on Amazon.

I bought a 665 from BB for the same reason. I like buttons myself, although maybe not as much as Tony does... ;)
 

JohnRice

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In my set-up, nearly everything is visible to the IR emitter on the remote, so I have configured the remote to use IR from the remote only for everything but the FireTV and AppleTV. I did not want to clutter up my rack with the two included IR emitters (been there, done that), so I was happy to see that the remote could be set-up to just use IR for devices that have IR and were visible from my couch.
You're losing one of the best features of the Elite by not using the hub to send IR signals. The best way to use it is to set up the hub across the room, aimed at the equipment. Then you don't have to aim the remote, ever. I don't use the remote blasters. Just the hub aimed at the equipment. In fact, after I rearrange my HT, I'll have the hub on top of one of the rear surround speakers.
 

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