- #Logitech harmony home control review android
- #Logitech harmony home control review Pc
- #Logitech harmony home control review ps3
- #Logitech harmony home control review plus
#Logitech harmony home control review Pc
Older Harmony remotes required you to connect the remote to a PC via USB every time you wanted to make a change to the settings, and the data transfer was slower than you'd expect. It sounds like a small advantage, but in day-to-day use it ends up feeling much more convenient.Īnother major perk of the Smart Control system is that updates are considerably easier with the always-connected Hub.
#Logitech harmony home control review plus
Not relying on IR means you no longer have to worry about pointing the remote at your components, plus you'll end up with fewer instances where the remote becomes "out of sync" with your system because all the commands didn't fire correctly. If you (like me) are used to a typical IR-based universal remote, the main difference you'll notice is the convenience of RF control. On the plus side, the Smart Control allows you add up to eight devices, which is three more than you can control with the step-down Harmony 650. I'm a huge advocate of universal remotes overall, specifically Harmony remotes, but you'll likely need to invest a considerable amount of time up front to get it working perfectly. I needed to adjust the delay settings on a few devices to make the remote feel more responsive, and CNET editor David Carnoy had to make similar tweaks when setting up the Harmony Ultimate. I ended up having to go back to the PC setup to assign all of the functions manually.Įven once you get the activities straightened out, you'll probably need to experiment with settings to get things working exactly right.
There were little annoyances, like that my Roku 3 was classified as a "DVD player" since there's no "streaming box" device type, but more frustrating was that my Watch TV activity with the Roku had the wrong buttons assigned by default. The setup using the app did feel simpler than the Web setup, but ultimately it did not get my system set up properly when I was finished. I ended up completing the initial setup using my iPad running the iPhone app, which ends up feeling a bit like a hack that won't be obvious to many people. Next, I resigned myself to the desktop-computer-based setup, but Harmony's Web-based setup doesn't work on Macs with Chrome. I tried to switch over to my newer iPad (fourth-gen), but was initially stymied by the lack of a dedicated tablet app. It's the right idea, but I immediately hit a wall, as smartphone setup requires an iPhone 4S or higher - my iPhone 4 wouldn't cut it. The Harmony Smart Control (along with the Harmony Ultimate) is Logitech's first step toward evolving past the old setup routine, by letting you set up the remote using your smartphone, rather than a PC. In the intervening years, however, Harmony's setup hasn't changed much and has slowly started to seem out-of-date and occasionally maddening. When Harmony's PC-based setup was released, it was a huge leap forward from the tedious trial-and-error method of looking up remote codes in a booklet. The real magic remains Harmony's excellent activity-based buttons: you hit a single button for, say, "Watch TV" and the remote takes care of everything else. In most cases you'll likely prefer to use the supplied "simple" remote, which is great, albeit a few buttons short of being truly excellent.
#Logitech harmony home control review android
But that's not all: the hub also makes it possible to use your iPhone or Android phone as a remote (using Logitech's free app), communicating with those smartphones via your home Wi-Fi network.
#Logitech harmony home control review ps3
It works like other RF (radio frequency)-based remotes, using a separate "hub" to translate wireless commands so IR-only devices can receive them - but it one-ups other systems by being capable of directly controlling both the Bluetooth-only Sony PS3 and Nintendo Wii without a separate adapter. The Logitech Harmony Smart Control ($130) is a fascinating new universal remote control system that attempts to bridge the gap between our clunky infrared past and a more modern wireless future. The Logitech Harmony Smart Control combines RF functionality and smartphone control in an affordable universal-remote package, but the complexity of the initial setup will burden some buyers.
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