At the risk of opening old wounds...

Is there a thorough review and comparison of the leading physical remote control systems?

I'm looking for a control system focused on AVR (not "soup to nuts" home automation) that features a physical remote.

It's ok to also support smartphones/tablets, but the "hole" in my product offering I'm trying to fill is for those clients that absolutely don't want to use software options on phones/tablets, but want an integrated solution so they don't juggle a pile of the original manufacturer remotes.

Key feature I'm looking for is full management/configuration by the installer both local and remote access, while allowing the client to make changes/adjustments on their own.

And a price point that makes it suitable for single-room installation, not just a whole-house "system" that isn't affordable for incremental deployment.

RTi, URC, Pro Control

If you're not using one of these now, what the hell are you selling????

Last I looked, I was underwhelmed by the “usual suspects”.

Willing to take another look, but would like to see an objective detailed technical review / deep dive.

To answer your question, currently using in-house custom solution with Global Cache for IP to IR, but looking for a solution with physical remote.

Dream solution would be beauty/elegance of Savant remote but open API / SDK with price point well below Savant’s $500 msrp

Harmony Pro is under $500 at $300 but no open API or SDK as far as i know. I could be wrong because i have zero reason to care about API and SDK so it might be available.

I don't think you will find anything boxed for you that has lots of flexibility for "well below" $500. I never got into them but i know guys on here used to post about these $30 IR remotes they got from radio shack that they could upload custom programming to. I doubt anyone has an objective detailed review.

I'm going to evaluate Harmony, but I was hoping the "big guys" had woken up and started to offer more something more competitive than their traditional high-end, high-complexity stuff.

I see a lot of "love it" or "hate it" opinions about Harmony. Lot of snobbery about whether it is only DIY or reasonable for pro/installer applications.

No opinion here, just trying to survey the land.

I am NOT looking for el cheapo, DIY "shlock shack" solutions, either (there's a reason they are out of business).

In my opinion the Harmony Ultimate/Harmony Pro remotes are good for 1 room systems that don't require a lot of customization. Setup and configuration are easy. With the Harmony app all your programming auto-generates...no extra effort... so that you have a phone/tablet interface for those who prefer it. This feature is also cool for clients who break their remotes. Now instead of it being a mini nightmare for them they can use their phone to watch tv until they replace the remote. Another cool thing about it is that it integrates nicely with things like nintendo wii or roku. Direct RF control of the Wii for example.

What i don't like about it...

The on-board buttons suck. This doesn't matter as much anymore because every video source is a streaming box that only has a few buttons anyway and a lot of people watch TV with favorite channels or the guide or their recorded shows. I personally like to enter channel numbers and i hate looking at the screen all the time so i need a better mix of hard buttons. For people who dont need all the hard buttons...the harmony is great.

I wanted to program on the ride to the jobsite but when i tried to add the Roku i found out that the ROku had to be connected to the system/wifi before i could add it. This is crazy. I should be able to program the system without an internet connection or without having things physically connected.

Adding a delay was painful. I cant just insert a delay where i want in the macro. Instead i had to stumble upon making the entire macro delayed to give my TV enough time to turn on and accept an input command. I imagine other custom programming can be equally as painful but i haven't had to do any yet so i don't know. Again...1 room system okay...not sure i would try and do more than that.

I don't really like how it looks. I think shiny black plastic looks cheap. I like matte finishes that don't look greasy or scratched or fingerprinted. The gray MX-850 was probably the nicest finish on a remote i have ever seen.



Customers love the Harmony remotes. Customer who had an ancient MX-800 and a customer with a full blown 7 figure Crestron system at their other house...both like it. I would never buy it for myself because i know that with URC or RTI etc i can customize it a little more and make it rock solid/idiot proof.

Control4

599 gets you a remote, processor and mobile control. Cant beat it.

Although it sounds like 599 is too expensive for your clientele. In which case your type of clientele might be ok with harmony ultimate.

In that type of market space, why would you dick around with Global Cache? Give your cheap tinkering clients a Harmony and then bill them again if they screw it up.

spivR,

I have a doctor customer who uses Harmony. He loves it. He bought and installed the remote. If I go over for some other reason, I’ll break out the native remotes because the Harmony is an inigma to me. His Harmony program is a child that only its mother could love. (And I’m careful to make note of and return the system to the state it was in when I arrived because he does not mange state very well and I don’t want to get a call about “not working”)

I think that Harmony could do what you want.

C4 FTW

But, does C4 allow customer tinkering?

The channels can be saved as Favorites- easy enough to modify in the event that the provider changes them and modifying the remote's setup can be done off-site now, so you don't need to roll a truck for one command.

How long since you tried to add a delay? It's easier now and they can be stacked. The software doesn't allow entering a specific time value like URC, but each can last for up to 20 seconds and when I looked at that the first time, I stacked about 25 delays, mostly the full 20 seconds- when I clicked on Save, it didn't tell me that I needed to change anything. I used an Elite to delay for a few minutes to allow the projector to cool and it works very well.

Yes, some basic things. Not a single one of my clients make use of those features though.

I tell a client if they want to tinker then I’m not your guy. I provide robust working systems cannot he tinkered with. I always bring the wife into the equation and they shut up. Generally if a client tinkers then he’s just using you for your shopping list and doesn’t really need you.

This industry has no business letting end users play with their systems.

Channels being saved as favorites doesn't solve my problem of preferring to enter channel numbers in because i hate using favorites. Truck rolls aren't going to solve this either. Its a drawback of using the Harmony remote for me.


Yesterday...today. I have been working with the Harmony software for a week at a project. The last time i used Harmony software was a couple of years ago when i installed 14 of them in a home. Nothing has changed since then. This is my experience with it...

In the screenshot below you can see a typical auto generated"Source ON" macro. You can also see where i added a delay at the bottom. The problem is that i can't put that delay where i want it. Every other PC programmable remote dating back to the first pronto allows you to customize the macro.



I can change the order of the macro to put the TV and AVR ON commands at the top and their input commands at the bottom but that still doesn't give me enough delay for the TV to accept an input command (7 seconds).



I can add an additional command from any of the devices and move it wherever i want to the macro but the On/Off commands is missing from the drop down box command choices so its worthless.



The only way to get it to work at this project was to go to Devices/Change Zone Settings/Select Device Delay Settings/Change Power On Delay to 19 seconds. 18 seconds wasn't long enough so had to stay with 19.

This setting affects every source in the zone. I need the input commands because the system has all component and 1 HDMI source. With Pronto i would just put a "TV.. Component 2" command in the Off Macro and only have the delay in the HDMI sources ON command. So every other source would have a quick startup macro and only the HDMI source had to wait 19 seconds. The TV would always be put back to the mostly used input whenever the zone is turned off so its always on the Component 2 input when the TV turns on.

The software has the ability to see and edit macros. Why on earth can't i choose how the power and input commands work?

I think i may have discovered a bug or "feature" of the software. After adding a random additional command to the activity macro...i am now able to move the delay anywhere i want in the macro...or any other activity macro.

I don't have a remote here to test with but the software is keeping the changes i make to each macro. If this works it means 2 things...

#1.You can customize the macros.

#2.99% of the people who want to customize the macros will never know they can because they all went there to add a delay and couldn't so they gave up never realizing that if they just added a random unnecessary command to any activity that they would have fixed/fooled the bug and could then put the delay command anywhere they want.