![]() ![]() So you’ve got six, which works fine for me. There are only three buttons, but each one can control two activities using a long or short push. There are three activity buttons that act as go to shortcuts. It found all three Apple TV’s and all of my Sonos bridges and speakers in under ten seconds. I was truly amazed at how they got all the labels from my Denon exactly right. You are guided through an interface on the app where you type in model numbers and and select inputs for the connected components. One of the ways Harmony extends the utility of this remote is through an iOS or Android app for smart phone. The set-up was also a bit time consuming but worked seamlessly. I’m pretty savvy and it took me a while to get it all down, including pulling the cabinet out and using a flashlight to record the precise model numbers of my 10 year old Denon A/V receiver. ![]() The key is you need to invest quite a bit of time to carefully document all your component model numbers and which inputs and mode settings have been used in your current working configuration. The Harmony Smart Control software is programmed to understand thousands of brands of electronics inputs and source settings. The Harmony’s IR blaster emits the signals across your room and bounces off walls, finding their way to the sensors on your components. My other URs required wires that would connect to the hub and then stick on the front of the components over the IR sensors. It comes with a very small hub that sits inside a cabinet, connects to your home WiFi network and an IR blaster that sits outside an enclosure to control your components. It has dual activation, meaning both IR and RF, providing high flexibility for control. It’s thin and has a tactile back that prevents it from sliding in your hand or on a table. The Harmony fits snugly in your palm and you can reach all the buttons using your fingers. My high end model is very long and requires you to reposition your hand while using it. This modest looking remote is amazing! It is surprisingly small which turns out to be a big advantage. The list price is $129.00, but you can find them for $98.00 at many online stores. After much thought I selected the Logitech Harmony Smart Control. They make the Harmony brand of UR’s and have been at it for quite a while. I didn’t want to shell out that much money again, so I went on the research hunt, which led me to the Logitech site. It’s working well and solved the issue in my bedroom, but the media room remote recently bit the dust. Then I broke down and purchased a high end model that required a technician to program it total cost over $800. I first went with entry level models that worked fairly well for a while but never lasted more than a year. In my bedroom they are 40 feet away from the TV buried deep in a closet. I hate seeing wires and components so I hide them in cabinets. The differences is with IR you have to have clear line of sight to all your devices and point the remote directly at the equipment for it to work. My set-ups require RF (radio frequency) not IR (Infrared). I have owned my share of UR’s in my time. The Universal Remote has always been the purported savior to that problem, but they present their own challenges. Once you get everything connected you’re still left with a stack of remotes that cannot be wired together. Here’s a handy chart Radio Shack has published that is very helpful as you piece together the maze of cables and inputs. Besides, what I have now sounds amazing and also controls my outdoor patio speakers which I would likely lose by installing a new system indoors. It seems wasteful to sunset that amount of investment. As an electronics-phile, I already have thousands of dollars of perfectly good equipment and a custom wired high end speaker system. One way around all of this is to purchase all new equipment that connects wirelessly and use a Sound Bar that incorporates both speakers and an amplifier. There are numerous other things that can pop up. So you need to get an Optical to RCA converter, which also needs a power source. Instead you want the sound to be boosted by your Audio/Video receiver which doesn’t have any HDMI inputs nor an Optical audio in jack. For example, you may want to add an Apple TV but you don’t want to use your TV speakers. Next comes the number of input and output jacks which are always limited on equipment. This is not an easy chore as there are no less than 15 different possible cable types that could be part of your array of devices. To connect the components you first need to navigate the maze of cables, inputs, outputs and converters. Numerous electronics devices purchased across different eras mashed together to create your home entertainment system with no simple way to integrate or control them.
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