I've been out of the custom remote market for many years (since the original Philips Pronto days) and I'm hoping you generous folks can help me out.
I'm in need of a universal remote for the following devices:
Room 1: Philips LED TV (2008-vintage, 47TA648BX) Xfinity X1 "tuner" (XG1-P; RF and IR capable, obscured IR receiver [it's in a cabinet]) Amazon Fire TV (the appliance version, not the Stick...though I don't think it makes a difference as they both use Bluetooth for remote control)
Room 2: Yamaha receiver (RX-V1; exposed IR receiver) Samsung LED TV (2010-vintage, UN55C6400RF; exposed IR receiver) QNAP NAS appliance (TVS-873; exposed IR receiver) Pioneer Blu-Ray Player (DMP-BD35; exposed IR receiver)
Of this lot of hardware, the only real conerns are the FireTV (bluetooth) and the X1 tuner (which will require an IR repeater/blaster, or a remote that can talk RF directly to it).
I'm pretty skilled with customizing remotes, having personally highly customized a Yamaha RAV-2000 (re-branded Pronto). I know about discrete IR codes, macros, activities, PC-based programming, etc., so that sort of stuff doens't scare me. I've just been out of the market so long I don't know what's available currently that can support all the different remote "methods" I find in my current system (RF and Bluetooth).
I'd like to generate a couple of simple macros for my family to use to watch Xfinity TV, Fire TV and DVDs. I'd like to have matching remotes in Rooms 1 and 2, and get them in the $150 range.
So far the closest thing I've found has been a Logitech Harmony Ultimate Home (with Hub) from CostCo for $140. It can do Bluetooth (good for FireTV) and can operate my X1 when the X1 is set to IR. However, it can't be programmed via PC (not a deal breaker, but the on-device programming is really limited) and I don't see any way to manually add discrete Hex codes to it. (I'm having to add them to the RAV-2000 [using a '90s-vintage laptop with Windows XP and an RS-232 port--ouch!], and then teach them to the Harmony.)
Is there anything on the market better than the Harmony+Hub that supports IR, IR blasters, RF and Bluetooth? (Maybe I'm searching for a unicorn...)
