A Remote Upgrade
I've been wanting to upgrade our collection of television/media remotes. Sheila doesn't even have a clue how to access anything on the television at all so I have been on a hunt for a good universal remote. The deciding factor was that I like technology which truly makes life easier... not just technology because, "I can"... but technology which makes my life easier. A good and effective universal remote could indeed make our lives easier!
Logitech has a good selection of advanced remotes and I have had my eye on one of them but the price was crazy. I've been in no hurry (as in almost all of our purchases) so I would periodically check the price. I've been doing this for about eight or ten months.
I finally found a good bargain just after the Thanksgiving weekend so I immediately put the remote in my cart and pressed the "Place Order" button.
I bought a Logitech Harmony Ultimate One remote. It arrived today and I spent an hour or so setting it up...
You need to download some software... connect the remote to a computer through a provided USB cable... then start inputting all the devices you want the remote to control. In my situation, I input info for my television, cable, BluRay player, surround sound, computer (for when I connect my laptop to the surround sound for other media), and my Fire TV. The only remote I could not replace was my Fire TV remote because of various features, one of which is voice search.
Then you set up "Activities" you want the remote to do... ie, "Watch TV". The software shows a screen of your devices and you need to select which ones you want to be turned on to watch television. Then you need to select which settings for each device... ie, HDMI 1, or HDMI 2, or AUX 1, etc.
You also set up which device to use for volume control. In my case, I set it up to use my Yamaha surround sound system.
Set up was pretty easy because I already had all the model numbers of all my devices written down so I didn't need to go on a search for model numbers on the back of devices. That made the setup fairly painless.
So far, I'm really loving this remote! If I have any problems with it, I'll report it here...
It will be nice to only need to grab this one remote and not try to figure out which remotes to pick up and which devices need to be turned on or off.
And, there is now less clutter on the coffee table!
UPDATE: Now that I've used this remote and played with it for a few hours I wanted to write a few thoughts...
I can honestly say that I'm really loving this remote!
I've been thinking about all the so-called "universal" remotes which never worked correctly... and all those so-called "universal" remotes which seemed to be some sort of puzzle to configure correctly... if it was possible at all!
This Logitech Harmony Ultimate One remote was easy to set up... Just download the software and follow the directions. It was a piece of cake. Also, this Harmony remote is easy to use... simple, in fact. Everything seems to be quite straight-forward. These points are a tremendous departure from all those so-called "universal" remotes!
Needless to say, after a few hours of use, I'm happy with this purchase!
UPDATE 2: Wow! I only needed to click one button to shut everything down for the night... an "Off" button!
And, it works as advertised!!!
UPDATE 3 - Dec 10th: I experienced a small glitch with the new remote this morning. I wanted to turn on music (Pandora) so I picked up the remote and clicked on "Fire TV". This should have turned on the television and my surround sound... the surround sound never came on and the television remained dark.
I again clicked on "Fire TV"... nothing. I knew the command was registering (meaning I clicked on it hard enough) because I felt the remote do it's little vibrating thing when it receives a command. Nothing happened this second time I attempted to turn on "Fire TV" just like my first attempt.
Then I decided to click on "Watch TV" to see if that would work... I got the confirmation vibration but everything remained dark... "hmmmm...."
I don't know what made me think of it but I decided to press "Off" again... I pushed the "Off" button... then clicked on "Watch TV"... everything powered up and came to life!
So, I'm wondering if maybe one or more of my devices powered up during the night to do a firmware update (which happens fairly regularly) and something became out of sync. I quickly found an easy remedy... just clicking on "Off" seemed to reset everything.
Although, before long, I probably won't remember that I had this problem, this was odd enough that I felt I should mention it here.
And, for what it's worth, I am still exceptionally happy with this universal remote. Not only is it abundantly easy to use but it is a joy to use!
 |
| We went from this mess... |
I finally found a good bargain just after the Thanksgiving weekend so I immediately put the remote in my cart and pressed the "Place Order" button.
I bought a Logitech Harmony Ultimate One remote. It arrived today and I spent an hour or so setting it up...
You need to download some software... connect the remote to a computer through a provided USB cable... then start inputting all the devices you want the remote to control. In my situation, I input info for my television, cable, BluRay player, surround sound, computer (for when I connect my laptop to the surround sound for other media), and my Fire TV. The only remote I could not replace was my Fire TV remote because of various features, one of which is voice search.
 |
| ...to this! Logitech Harmony Ultimate One remote and the Amazon Fire TV remote with voice control. |
You also set up which device to use for volume control. In my case, I set it up to use my Yamaha surround sound system.
Set up was pretty easy because I already had all the model numbers of all my devices written down so I didn't need to go on a search for model numbers on the back of devices. That made the setup fairly painless.
So far, I'm really loving this remote! If I have any problems with it, I'll report it here...
It will be nice to only need to grab this one remote and not try to figure out which remotes to pick up and which devices need to be turned on or off.
And, there is now less clutter on the coffee table!
UPDATE: Now that I've used this remote and played with it for a few hours I wanted to write a few thoughts...
I can honestly say that I'm really loving this remote!
I've been thinking about all the so-called "universal" remotes which never worked correctly... and all those so-called "universal" remotes which seemed to be some sort of puzzle to configure correctly... if it was possible at all!
This Logitech Harmony Ultimate One remote was easy to set up... Just download the software and follow the directions. It was a piece of cake. Also, this Harmony remote is easy to use... simple, in fact. Everything seems to be quite straight-forward. These points are a tremendous departure from all those so-called "universal" remotes!
Needless to say, after a few hours of use, I'm happy with this purchase!
UPDATE 2: Wow! I only needed to click one button to shut everything down for the night... an "Off" button!
And, it works as advertised!!!
UPDATE 3 - Dec 10th: I experienced a small glitch with the new remote this morning. I wanted to turn on music (Pandora) so I picked up the remote and clicked on "Fire TV". This should have turned on the television and my surround sound... the surround sound never came on and the television remained dark.
I again clicked on "Fire TV"... nothing. I knew the command was registering (meaning I clicked on it hard enough) because I felt the remote do it's little vibrating thing when it receives a command. Nothing happened this second time I attempted to turn on "Fire TV" just like my first attempt.
Then I decided to click on "Watch TV" to see if that would work... I got the confirmation vibration but everything remained dark... "hmmmm...."
I don't know what made me think of it but I decided to press "Off" again... I pushed the "Off" button... then clicked on "Watch TV"... everything powered up and came to life!
So, I'm wondering if maybe one or more of my devices powered up during the night to do a firmware update (which happens fairly regularly) and something became out of sync. I quickly found an easy remedy... just clicking on "Off" seemed to reset everything.
Although, before long, I probably won't remember that I had this problem, this was odd enough that I felt I should mention it here.
And, for what it's worth, I am still exceptionally happy with this universal remote. Not only is it abundantly easy to use but it is a joy to use!
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