The Best Universal Remotes of 2017 (All Happen To Be From Logitech)

[mprospero]

Logitech’s Harmony remotes are pretty much the only ones worth purchasing right now, and the better ones can control your smart home devices.

The Best Universal Remotes of 2017 (All Happen To Be From Logitech) : Read more

 

[Robert_481]

Well, I can't say I agree with your assessment. Spec-wise, the Harmony's are absolutely great, actual usage, not so much. The cloud based storage of the remotes is broken at the moment, you cannot change anything, but even when it's working, the software just isn't as good as the specs -- ever. Also why, oh why doesn't Logitech put real number keys on their upper end remotes?? I need an upper end remote because I have a lot of devices, but I totally hate the minimalist physical buttons.

Truth be told, I don't know of anything better because all the review sites are enamored with the Harmony's, but I sure would like to hear of something!!

 

[americanaudiophile]

The better remotes are for custom installers not consumers
The URC Pro and RTI remotes are excellent but require programming and are not cheap. They can work over IR, RF, and WIFI. They have hard button remotes which are usually better for AV than a touchscreen but they have apps if you want to go that way too.
The programming software isn't easy to master for most people and isn't usually out there for the end user. You can customize the layout and set up macros in any way you like since the programming isn't on the cloud. You can teach commands from other remotes into your database. In the RTI you can even enter hex codes and set up auto repeats for commands that are fussy.

 

[Robert_481]

Thanks, I'll have to take a look at those, though I really don't want to have to do raw programming on something for home!

I expect Logitech to get their software fixed eventually, but it sure seems like there's an opening for some competition in the home market.

 

[jason.cae]

yea, 100% agreed Robert. Wish there was a 500-1000 dollar range product that worked for your typical closet/remote setups. If anyone finds one; let me know.

There is custom pro setups costing in the thousands and then harmony at 100-200, URC crap pisses me of because they offer no easy way to get the software. Authorized dealer crap only is a real turn off, develop applications that run 500+ node clusters for mission critical software @ 99.999% uptime, can probably handle setting up a universal remote for AV. Not a huge fan of allowing a grad student from geek squad fumble with my AV setup.

Currently stuck with harmony hub; which seems to quirky and buggy with a UI that makes me want to throw it out window. Probably the worse is the odd bug where devices slow down to respones over time, deleting and re-adding fixes.

Played with the PI project here; but its under developed (great idea though); https://github.com/bbtinkerer/LircNodeJsWeb

Think the dream would be a IR hub that connected to a old ipad/driod with some type of stay resident software. Since most of us have a stack of old tablets. Before you say harmony; try programming that guy with a ipad... Then the UI... omg.... its like they purposely made it shit to sell their remotes.

 

[jsmithepa]

Am still running on a very old, discontinued Phillips Pronto Neo, but every time I want to upgrade it, I read all the bad reviews and the $^%# buttons locations, paying all that $ and keep hearing "they gonna fix it next firmware" (God, I haven't heard that before) convinces me to keep what I got.

Am very insistent a universal must have certain things: One-hand operation, so size and location of buttons matters. The Pronto Neo has the perfect number of hard buttons vs soft buttons, you don't want 100-buttons complicated but enough to get the job done with minimum keypress. My Neo, as all Pronto I suppose every button can be a macro, that makes it very flexible and highly customizable.

I feel like Logitech universals are like Teslas, they reel you in with whizzbang features but when you bring it home, the doors don't close properly, big gaps on panels, the screen crashes..... can't anybody do things right out of the door? Grrrgg.