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Universal remotes?

Ant said:
I don't have to have my tv/receiver/cable box hooked up to my pc do I??

What I'm looking for it to not have to use the receiver remote to adjust volume.

Right now I can turn the tv and cable box on with the cable box remote, change channels and adjust volume. When I turn the tv speakers off and use the stereo receiver I have to use the receiver's remote to adjust volume so now I have 2 remotes to use when watching tv. I'd like to have just one remote to do this.
Click to expand...

The Harmony is awesome like that. It takes a little setting up -- you put in the model number of your TV, your TIVO, your DVD player, blah blah blah... all the shit you wanna control, you put in.

Then you set up the buttons. "Watch TV" and that means the TV turns on, cable turns on, entertainment system turns on, and changing channels works on the tivo box and turning the volume up is the stereo system. It knows all this shit and does it for you after you answer the set up questions.

Just get one and STFU.
 
I bought some off-brand remote from Best Buy about 7 years ago. Near the bottom it says Universal Remote Control URC-A6. It's nothing fancy but has just worked. Been through TV, Cable box, DVD and Amp changes and always been able to reprogram it easily. (after looking up the directions online.)

Again, it's nothing fancy but the 2 benefits I've found are...

1) Easy to program
2) Can program individual buttons even after using a code
3) Has "punch through" for volume and input buttons (Volume works the same across all modes)
4) My, and probably most important, wife can use it
 
mikev said:
The Harmony is awesome like that. It takes a little setting up -- you put in the model number of your TV, your TIVO, your DVD player, blah blah blah... all the shit you wanna control, you put in.

Then you set up the buttons. "Watch TV" and that means the TV turns on, cable turns on, entertainment system turns on, and changing channels works on the tivo box and turning the volume up is the stereo system. It knows all this shit and does it for you after you answer the set up questions.

Just get one and STFU.
Click to expand...

To go a little further, if multiple devices are capable of controlling the volume (tuner or TV) it will ask which it should activate when you hit the volume buttons. If you're "Watch TV" activity uses one device to control the volume and your "Fap to Streaming Porn" uses another, no worries, it'll handle that. If you're "Watch TV" activity needs to turn on 3 things but only two received the proper signal for some reason it's as easy as hitting the "help" button and it will scroll through the settings until it finds the one that was missed.

Even better, it's future proof. You buy the latest and greatest TV 3 years from now? This remote is going to work with it, and work right.

Good for you, BEST FOR PARENTS. If your parents are anything like mine and technology challenged get them this. Cuts way down on the house calls you'll need to make due to them "fixing" the AV setup in their home.
 
Exactly -- it asks a series of questions while you're setting it up. Do it once and forget about it until you get a new TV or DVD player or whatever.
 
+1 on the harmony one! i've always wanted one but found a harmony 700 for supercheap online a few years ago. doesn't have a docking cradle but the batteries are rechargeable or in a pinch you could put regular ones in. I only have 4 devices so i technically don't need a higher-end remote but it would be nice :teeth
 
The Macros on the Harmony is what makes it great. I run everything through my HDMI receiver, but the Wii has to go straight through the TV using component. I only have 6 devices total, and everything works as it should. My wife has no issues programming the remote either. It's really easy to use.
 
Another vote for a Harmony. Had one for seven years now. You can program it to do complex tasks, it will learn from non-supported remotes - the thing is the tits.
 
Oh, additional - when you set it up to do 'an activity', i.e. 'Watch Cable', it will turn on the TV, change the TV input (if needed), change the receiver input (if needed) and even set the channel on the cable box (useful if like us, you leave it on the porn channel, er, action movie channel).

Then it leaves the remote set to 'Cable box'.

The small downside was that because we use the receiver for the sound, I had to tell the remote to 'learn' the up/down volume from the receiver remote while in Cable Box mode (and DVD/XBox/Playstation/PC modes too) so that you can change the volume in ALL modes.

But it was easy.

Batteries last >6 months, and the screen and buttons light up when you touch it (motion sensors) making it easy to find buttons when you're watching porn, er, action movies in the dark.
 
Another vote for Harmony, but we have the 900. It does what the Harmony 1 does, but is RF based. It comes with a receiving unit that goes in the entertainment center and the receiver converts RF to the IR that your components need. The receiving unit is itself an IR blaster, but it also comes with a couple of IR "mice," which allow you to cover devices on other shelves.

We don't really have an incredibly complex setup, but in our room there was always something in the way of an IR source that was across the room. As long as you keep the remote aimed at devices until the macro finishes running, you'd be fine with the Harmony 1. With this remote, you press the activity and the signals get to the devices, whether or not you have line of sight to them with the remote.

Because none of these remotes can detect state, you can get into synchronization problems, where it expects all devices to be powered off, but one of them is powered on. It sends a power toggle message to the devices and the next thing you know, one device gets turned on and the other gets turned off, when it should be left on. Some devices have separate codes for power on and power off, but they are still in the minority. RF based remotes with IR blasters help to alleviate this, but it can still happen if your DVR records a show unattended and then doesn't turn itself off afterward.
 
I've got a Harmony 760 because I'm too poor to afford the One. If you're not tech-savy, I'd say forget the Harmonies.
 
I bought a Harmony 700 for a family member that is not-tech savvy AT ALL. Set it up for her. Beautiful thing about the less expensive/easier remote is that there's a help button that fixes the problem if the remote is moved or blocked and doesn't turn something on/off/to correct input. A small child can use it. The 650 ($80) is the battery-operated version.

The more expensive models assume that if you have 8+ components and a full surround sound, you know how to program the hot buttons and fix stuff yourself. Where are you? I'd be happy to come program it for ya.
 
my sony tablet s works as a remote for my visio tv, lg bluray player, and my panasonic sound bar.
 
First I thought I hated the harmony series. But the common link was all my friends that had one had home receivers. Turns out I hate home receivers. Harmony remotes are pretty decent.
 
Ant said:
I don't have to have my tv/receiver/cable box hooked up to my pc do I??

What I'm looking for it to not have to use the receiver remote to adjust volume.

Right now I can turn the tv and cable box on with the cable box remote, change channels and adjust volume. When I turn the tv speakers off and use the stereo receiver I have to use the receiver's remote to adjust volume so now I have 2 remotes to use when watching tv. I'd like to have just one remote to do this.
Click to expand...

Most cable remotes are progamable to control the volume on your reciever as a default. I know my dish ones are.
 
We just tried the Harmony One, to control our LG television and LG receiver/bluray/et cetera. No dice. Two of us, both tech-savvy gave it our best, but nothing we did made it perform consistently.

Did some research (yeah, too late) and it turns out that the Harmony One doesn't play well with LG products (as is amply documented all over the web).
 
I didn't like my harmony.

I would reccomend getting a Sony tablet or vizio tablet instead.
 
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