URC on the lowest price level, RTI at the next price point but better performance, Elan or C4 if you want no issues.

I certainly don't have 181 pro control remotes out in the wild but I have a. Couple dozen.

I also am not experiencing this hour glass lock up. Although I don't use the hour glass, all it is is a page jump with a timer that is matched to the length of a macro prior to jumping to the activity page.

These remotes are not just a step above a Harmony. They are much more powerful but that power is wasted if the programming isn't sound. Maybe your isntaller has had the issue with other clients. Especially if his programming isn't good and he's repeating the same mistakes.

I'm not saying he's crap. Maybe you are unlucky. I'm saying maybe have someone else go over the programming. You've invested in it. You deserve for it to work.

The emitter thing you are looking to do is a work around and beyond what the Harmonies are meant to do. The Procontrols can track the state of components using variable or inputs. Harmonies can only track them selves. I think you may be inviting even more frustration.

Craig

I don't understand why there are eight separate Harmony's in such a small space -- all controlling only two devices. If the devices are all very close to each other, can you use the "blaster" function to control the two boxes and skip your proposed emitter junction?

mml, do you already own the Harmony's? What sort of user interface are you proposing? Phone/pad App? One of the Harmony controllers? A combination of controllers?

Full disclosure: I'm not a Harmony person. This is not a case of my being a pro and therefore automatically rejecting anything used by DIY's. Harmony limits my ability to creatively design user interfaces. I will say that the few customers who have installed their own Harmony systems love their system, but from my viewpoint only a mother could love that child.

It would be a lot easier to advise if you list all of the equipment (brands AND models), then show what you want to do.

WRT combining the signal from all of the hubs, no- you can't just combine them and send them to one input without isolation but if you know how to use diodes, it can be done.

Not that it matters which brand of remote hub you use, but you don't need to cut anything- you can use cables with 3.5mm ends, y-cords and any IR repeater system to do what you want. You can even assign the ports to control certain devices. If any of the devices have an IR port on the back (which I think EVERYTHING should), you can use those as well as the emitters.

If you haven't looked at the new remotes, don't go by past history to describe them. The Harmony Elite can control via IP and they have more of this coming, including Denon and AppleTV, next month.

They do track states, just not in the same way as others and it's not shown in the same way. The Help function is part of this and it does work. I have a customer who can't use a Harmony 650 but he loves the Elite. In one case, the wife, who freely admits that she's a technical bozo, called to say that she had to talk her husband off the ledge when he couldn't operate the Master BR system. Took me a few minutes to turn on the power amp (it has audio sense), set the receiver's speaker output to A and try every function. He says he likes to build computers. Good for him!

How can I post a PDF, I did a drawing of what I'm thinking about.

URC MRF-350, run the included wire, or a CAT5 so that the antenna, which is separate from the base unit, is in a central location. That will control everything with the use of URC handheld remotes. No muss, no fuss.

Convert it to a picture file, say .png or .jpg, and post it to an image hosting site. Since reddit is pretty popular, they have their own imaging site, imgur. Then (in most cases) right click on the stored image, copy the image address, and insert that into your post. Some images require some added things -- look for recent RC threads about image posting for those details.

Store it on Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.
Go to that website and create a 'share link' or 'share URL'.
Post it here.

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I was skeptical when I read this, but I let it be. This morning I find that I can't see the image he posted on Google Drive.

The image has to be in a place where you have permission to view the image. Here's what I get:

Did mml miss a detail, or does every individual person who wants to look at the image have to obtain individual permission from the poster?

I have not used the newer ones so I stand corrected.

Craig