Logitech introduces HARMONY ELITE remote. The Most Powerful Harmony Remote Yet (1 Viewer)

[George_W_K]

Ron, I was able to get each activity started, however it was pretty hit or miss with consistency. A big key is phrasing. My most reliable experience was saying, "Alexa, ask Harmony to turn on" and then name the activity. Still, it didn't always work. This is all new for me as you know I just received this stuff so I'm going to try some more things.

I haven't had any problems with, "Alexa, turn off my entertainment center" or " Alexa, turn on the TV" yet. The different activities are what have been giving me fits. I can tell she's not always hearing me correctly when I say Ultra HD bluray. Maybe some voice training will help. You can also add "friendly" phrasing to the activites that are supposed to work so I'll play with that a bit.

I have to work tonight, or I'd keep messing with it now.

One thing I thought was funny, I recorded a video of me trying out the commands and when I played it back, Alexa was going along with me talking in the video. To further the inconsistency point though, in the video when I say, "Alexa, have Harmony turn on the HD DVD" it worked in the video, but present day Alexa said, I don't see activity for "HD DVD". Finicky to say the least.

I'll update as I go.

 

[George_W_K]

Today's attempt went much better. When I played this video on my phone, the Dot switched inputs with the video. The one difference, in the vid when I was trying to switch to HD DVD, it didn't work on the first attempt, but in real-life it did.

It's not perfect, but the Echo Dot works well enough to use with the Harmony in my opinion. I have yet to have an issue with turning on initially and shutting system down. I hope Logitech and Amazon further progress on these two working together so it can work every time in all facets.

 

[Race Bannon]

I need it to recognize only my Activities. (On and off). I'll use remote or phone for everything else.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Pretty good, George. I take it you are just telling Alexa to turn on whatever you named the specific activity. Your video certainly gave me the incentive to finally try it.

You know, Logitech generally releases a new remote every two years. I think they have gone about as far as they can at this point. The ELITE has pretty much everything you would want in a remote. It's pretty much PERFECT.

I would be inclined to think that Logitech's next move would be to release a voice-activated remote. Let's see if that comes to fruition.

 

[George_W_K]

Yep. Using the activity name. I have to go and set my favorite channels up so I can have Alexa turn on to a channel for me too. Yesterday I came home from my buddy's house and wanted to catch the end of the Steelers/Chiefs game. I tried "turn on NBC", but she didn't know the activity. So when I set my favorites and "discover" them in the app, I'll be sure to try those out as well.

When you try out the Skill, there are two Harmony Skills to activate. Then you have to link your Logitech account in both.

I'm very happy with this remote, simple to set up, I like how you can customize the icons and background of the screen, and it does everything I need it to. The Echo Dot controls are just an extra layer of icing that I didn't need, but I'm happy to have. When I'm playing pinball in my room, I usually have Pandora on in the background, I like they idea of being able to say, "Alexa tell Harmony to turn up the volume" when one of my favor songs starts to play.

 

[MrConMan]

Hi there,

I am thinking of buying this to, but before I do it would be great to know if it can handle this:

1. Turn on my soundbar (a newer Logitech model)
2. Change the Input device to AUX (Where my ChromeCast is connected)
3. Set the volume to 16
4. Change sound mode to 'Music'

Is it possible?
Thanks in advance

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Welcome to our forum!

It should do all those things except:

3. I don't believe Logitech remotes can automatically turn the volume to a preset level
4. I don't believe that the remote will change the mode to "Music." I'd like a second opinion on that, though.

However, if you add your sounder as a hardware device during setup, it will get powered on and off. It will also change the input device.

Stay tuned for other replies.

 

[Hank_P]

well I did pick up the Elite and back from vacation/work to start setting the remote up. It is not that difficult to setup the basics but I definitely need some tweaking on it. Hopefully you guys can give me some pointers.

One that I want to tackle and make it easy for the spouse is for basic TV viewing. I setup the activity to "Watch TV", and selected my TV and cable box. But I don't ever turn my cable box off and when I setup the activity, it wants to "power on" both of them. Yep, resulting in TV turning on, and cablebox turning off. The goal is to Turn the tv ON and then let the Elite control all the cable box options.

I am guessing I need to go into the setup on that activity and "Add" the cable box or something like that. With the TV and Cable box options set to "Power On", it would not let me modify that since both were part of the Activity Setup.

I only added all my devices and a couple activities. I stopped at the Watch TV activity until I can get a little better control or understanding the software. I am pretty impressed with it so far. I added TV, Cable Box, Sony DVD, Oppo 203, PS3, Dune HD, Xbox devices. And the Oppo 203 was an option for devices.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Hank,

You should be able to go into the device setup for the cable box component and configure the remote to not power on/off your cable box. I have been able to do that in the past with other components when needed. You do this in the device configuration -- not the activity configuration. That way, the component will behave the same way with any activity you may create using that device.

 

[Hank_P]

I would have never thought about that. I would have 'assumed' it would need to be part of the Activity. Thanks, I will try that when I get home. Knew you guys could keep me pointed in the right direction.

 

[George_W_K]

So I just turned on my Ultra bluray activity in Taco Bell's Drive-Thru so it was ready to go when I got home. That is awesome!

 

[Hank_P]

Scott, that worked perfectly for my "keeping the cable box on". thanks

Now onto my next issue. None of the remote functions work for my Dune Duo. It found it as a device, and I even used the "learning" function on a few buttons, but nothing. It is very odd that NO buttons work with the Dune player; arrowup, down, enter, ON/OFF, etc..nothing. Can it be in the inter-delay or something?

Anyone have a Dune Duo that had issues with the Elite remote?

 

[Hank_P]

Scott, that worked perfectly for my "keeping the cable box on". thanks

Now onto my next issue. None of the remote functions work for my Dune Duo. It found it as a device, and I even used the "learning" function on a few buttons, but nothing. It is very odd that NO buttons work with the Dune player; arrowup, down, enter, ON/OFF, etc..nothing. Can it be in the inter-delay or something?

Anyone have a Dune Duo that had issues with the Elite remote?

ahhhh, the IR Blaster was not close enough or needed adjusting. Working great now.

And to add to my Harmony fun, the Echo Dot is working with it now too. "Alexa, turn off the TV", "Alexa tell Harmony to change channel to xxx". I don't have to move off the couch and even touch the Elite remote now. Alexa has become my newest BFF. lol.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Hank,

So, there is nothing extra I need to add to Echo (except perhaps enable Logitech skills) to start giving commands. Yes?

 

[Hank_P]

Hank,

So, there is nothing extra I need to add to Echo (except perhaps enable Logitech skills) to start giving commands. Yes?

There were two Harmony Apps I needed to install and both "Linked" to the Echo. I have the Echo configured on my tablet, so I set it up through that, as it is installed through the Echo application.

I came across this searching for some help:
https://support.myharmony.com/en-us/harmony-experience-with-amazon-alexa

It tells you what both apps will do, and they do work.
Alexa turn TV On
Alexa tell Harmony to change channel to ESPN
Alexa tell Harmony to change channel to FOX (favorites, etc)

You can see everything that is "linked" to it after you do the discovery. But you need to install both apps. I never took the remote out of the charger last night while watching tv. So I have not pushed the Echo-Harmony limits yet, but for basictv control, damn that will make me lazy. When I was ready to go to bed "..Alexa turn off the TV" and off to bed I went. That was pretty cool and glad I did it that way. I know the spouse cannot complain now about not knowing what remote to use now.

 

[George_W_K]

I bought a Harmony 650, on sale for $40, to use at my parents. Their menagerie of single-device remotes drives me crazy. I hit my limit and set up a new Harmony to control their tv and cable box.

The last time I did this, nearly 20 years ago, was with the Radio Shack RS-1994. It didn't go over well. My mom has hated uni remotes since.

The new Harmony might have won my dad over. And I like having it for my stay over the holidays.

I had recommended the 650 to a friend for a new remote / Christmas gift. He's been happy with it too.

So if you want a universal at a lower price, the 650 is well worth considering.

Well I've kept this post in mind since you posted it and I had my dad buy a 650 to replace his and my stepmom's 6 remotes.

I went over there today and programmed it for them and it worked out great. At first I was a little skeptical of it working for them because the TV was touchy in accepting commands. But, it turned out that the IR receiver was being blocked by the center speaker. After I adjusted the center speaker's position, everything worked smoothly.

The adjustments of these remotes are terrific. One adjustment I had to make was the remote repeating the commands to the TV too frequently. When I brought up the Smart TV menu, I'd hit to the left to move from Netflix, to the app next to it which was Amazon and the selection would go all the way left to the last choice. One of the adjustments in the Harmony software actually described this exact issue so it was easy to know what setting to fix.

Another benefit to this remote was being able to control their CD player. They never had a remote originally, but it has an IR receiver so they liked that.

Teaching my dad how to use the remote wasn't very difficult. The layout of the buttons is very good. He only had a few questions, but picked up on how to use the remote fairly quickly.

The only thing I'd view as a negative is that this remote is IR only. But, for $50, I can't really count that as a negative, now can I? For some reason, his tape deck wouldn't work from the chair next to his couch. It still had line of site, and really isn't that far to the side at all, but you had to be on the couch for it to work the tape deck. Goofy.

Anyway, I agree with the above quoted post, if you need a less expensive remote than the Elite, the Harmony 650 is terrific.

 

[Dale MA]

I've had the Elite as a part of my H/T for a while now and it's an essential bit of kit. It controls everything in my room, I've even set it up to control my rooms lighting (through a Lutron GrafikEye).

I always play a certain music playlist through my SONOS speakers throughout my home as guests get their snacks & drinks together and find their seats in my theatre. So using the Elite, I have set up an activity on one of the remotes buttons, now once everyone is seated, I press a button -- the music in my theatre dials down, the lights begin to dim and once they're off the movie begins.

I've also set my system up so that when I first switch everything on, my receiver automatically mutes -- to avoid the blasting of the studio logo/adverts/menu music. So my routine also includes a function to "unmute" when the movie plays.

Really cool the amount of the things that are possible with this remote.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Dale,

I am absolutely thrilled when I get to read experiences like yours --- especially for the fact that my automated functions are far less complex than what you have accomplished.

So happy to hear this remote has such extended functionality.

 

[DavidJ]

There were two Harmony Apps I needed to install and both "Linked" to the Echo. I have the Echo configured on my tablet, so I set it up through that, as it is installed through the Echo application.

I came across this searching for some help:
https://support.myharmony.com/en-us/harmony-experience-with-amazon-alexa

It tells you what both apps will do, and they do work.
Alexa turn TV On
Alexa tell Harmony to change channel to ESPN
Alexa tell Harmony to change channel to FOX (favorites, etc)

You can see everything that is "linked" to it after you do the discovery. But you need to install both apps. I never took the remote out of the charger last night while watching tv. So I have not pushed the Echo-Harmony limits yet, but for basictv control, damn that will make me lazy. When I was ready to go to bed "..Alexa turn off the TV" and off to bed I went. That was pretty cool and glad I did it that way. I know the spouse cannot complain now about not knowing what remote to use now.

I still haven't been able to get this to work. I'll have to give it another try.

 

[George_W_K]

I still haven't been able to get this to work. I'll have to give it another try.

Not even basic commands?