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My old Home Theatre Master universal remote I got yonks ago died and I've been using my Onkyo remote which sort of works controlling multiple devices, but it's a bit limited and doesn't work with everything.
In the market for something new and fancy and been out of touch for a while with these things. Looks like you can get hub devices which send out IR and maybe RF/bluetooth and use dedicated touch remotes and/or apps on a phone, and integration with Alexa etc as options. Also interested in the home automation side as appears some of these can control lights etc.
What's good then? Been looking at Logitech Harmony stuff and Broadlink, but the reviews throw up a load of either amazing or utter shite. Broadlink also have loads of options and not sure what's good or bad.
What do I need to be looking for, for max compatibility with AV gadgets and home automation stuff (are these limited to certain brands of lights etc)?
Gadget list is Onkyo AV amp, Samsung telly, Sky+ HD (old box), Pioneer Blu Ray and Tosh HD-DVD (yes, I've still got HD-DVDs!), Amazon Fire TV box.
Got some lights on wireless controlled sockets but the sockets are a bit crap, one has died, and looking for better stuff and throughout the house, maybe with sensors. Though not too keen on bulbs that are WiFi. I feel I've got too much 2.4Ghz stuff buzzing around my house from my stuff and neighbours, but maybe there's little choice there. Interested in other gadgets inc cameras, though wonder about using the surveillance stuff in my Synology NAS for that.
Not interested in talking to the thing. Press a button is quicker than speaking a sentence and feel an idiot talking to gadgets.
I've used a harmony remote for years and it's been great so definitely start there.
I agree on the button front and most of the decent remotes will have customisable buttons so you can do multiple actions at once without having to talk to it.
the worst things about harmony are :
no support for UK sockets at all - I guess if you found some shakey IR socket, it could control that, but otherwise, no. There's a hack using a server that looks like a HUE to then switch your sockets, but its a hack. it does have ifttt integration but only for triggering the harmony things, not for harmony triggering out. This appears to be deliberate
the support is woeful - I had an issue on my new (LG OLED) tv where it was setting the input too fast on startup, so the tv wasn't seeing it. The startup delay thing wasn't working, adding a manual delay wasn't working (it just gets deleted every time) and in their wise way, logitech decided that 'input HDMI3' was something that you can only code as a startup step, not later on, so I couldn't hack it on manually. In the end I had to hack it by recording what harmony thought was HDMI 3, then storing it to another command that I claimed was just missing from my remote, all of which was a suggestion of a forum user, not their support, as their support is utterly useless.
otherwise, once working, its ok
Even from my old remote there always seemed to be some niggle where couldn't quite do certain things without it being a number of presses to jump back or forth to each source menu, and was a bit flaky with programmed sequences.
Also since getting everything hooked into the amp and then amp to TV, I get an annoyance of the audio input switching to the TV after a minute, instead of Sky or whatever. Though it might be to do with the ARC channel from TV or the CEC stuff that controls stuff over HDMI.
In fact, I do have it that I can switch on stuff with the amp remote and it wakes up other devices, but it's not perfect. The audio switching to TV being one of the reasons, but also that a number of controls for the TV and Sky box just don't map to a button on the amp remote. Sky record button for example. Also the amp remote is sluggish and insists on a direct line of sight.
I don't need to integrate with my existing light sockets as they're getting binned anyway (they're not the smart type, just old ones with a remote and different buttons for each socket, and they often don't work. Works on an RF channel).