Question Universal Remote Recomendations

quattro_man

Standard Member
Joined
Aug 9, 2006
Messages
36
Reaction score
2
Points
40
Good morning folks,

Building a new Home Cinema installation and would appreciate some advise / recomendations re a universal remote control. The devices to be controlled are the usual suspects, TV, Blu Ray, HD DVD, Set Top Box (TV), SONOS etc. In the past I have used Harmony devices and have looked at the Pro Control Pro24.r. Does anyone have experience of the Pro Control device or any other alternative recomendadions.
Many thanks
Peter
 
Hi.
Neeo is modern and good, if you can find one!
 
As Neeo is now owned by Control4 it looks like they can only be bought via a Pro Installer and not clear if you also need Control4 controller as well now.
 
It's kind of ridiculous how decent universal remotes seem to have been wiped-out, for no apparent reason(?) I still use my Marantz in one room. It's a beautiful and ugly monster that can still do it all - but I can no longer edit it because there is no edit software (that I found) that works with it in Windows 10. I also have a Logitech Harmony 1 (I think is the version), which caters for all the family needs in the main TV room. This too is a lovely remote, much closer to a traditional remote, but Logitech no longer make them - or anything as good. They now have one model (?) for less than one £100 and the Harmony Elite for ~£299. I had an Elite a few years back - and sold it some months later because there were too many things I disliked about it ...not the least was the "feel" of it ...centre of gravity was all wrong. Added to that, was its insistence to use the hub to connect to wifi whenever I pressed a button. I tried disabling that (which was, apparently, possible), but it never worked for me. In the end, it drove me mad. ...I'm still mad now, which is why I'm thinking of getting another one to try once more, because my Marantz needs editing and I'm getting nowhere with that too. !
 
I’ve a couple of elites and I can’t say that I know what your referring to with regards to the hub connecting to WiFi.
I can't say I remember properly either, but where the hub was at the time, was slightly on the limit of the wifi zone, so I'd press a button and I'd look at the controller, but it was connecting to the hub. Or something like that. (It was over 2 years ago). Besides that though, I wasn't a fan of the controller layout or balance. I've now found and ordered a 2nd hand 885, which has a lot more buttons and feels better in the hand (I used to have another one - 880 maybe, or something like that). I'll "make do" with that until a decent universal remote comes out (again). Madness that there doesn't seem to be any choice nowadays!
 
I suspect you’ll be waiting a long time , phone and voice control will further stop any new (except mega priced) remote being launched
 
Possibly. I'd still rather wait with the 885 than the Ultra.
 
I am wondering the answer to this too. I was going to get a Harmony but the reviews on amazon were so awful it put me off. I had one years ago that whilst fiddly to set up worked well once running. Now I am unsure whether these people are just not technically minded or it really is a pig to live with!?
 
Amazon reviews look fine.
There’s no resemblance to bacon.
 
To use the Elite is excellent once you have it programmed with all the activities and buttons you need.
It's not difficult to use at all but it does have a lot of buttons, most of which I rarely and many, never, use.

To program it. It's not difficult but it is frustrating with it need to connect to harmony servers and taking ages to connect or even not connecting quite often. Nearly thrown it out a window for that a few times. You'll want to tweak things as you get used to it and want to add new buttons to it and you'll have the same issues again. Watching clocks spin as they don't connect and you get errors and ...... you throw it out a window.

Once it's all working though, as I said, it's excellent.
 
Amazon reviews look fine.
There’s no resemblance to bacon.

Not sure what reviews you're reading but if you read the most recent reviews they're almost all consecutively 1-3 stars?

Thanks @Sloppy Bob that's helpful to know. I remember that with my other one but once set up it was really useful indeed
 
Harmony 665 has ratings of 59% and 21% for 5 and 4 stars.
I was going by reviews though, not stars.
 
I’ve a couple of elites and I can’t say that I know what your referring to with regards to the hub connecting to WiFi.
Hi

I am.lookimg for a remote. Will the remote penetrate cupboard wood doors to actively virgin media boxes and a denon avr?.

Thankyou in advance.
 
It's an item regularly on sale on Amazon UK for half price. So if it's not heavily discounted I'd wait.
 
It's kind of ridiculous how decent universal remotes seem to have been wiped-out, for no apparent reason(?) I still use my Marantz in one room. It's a beautiful and ugly monster that can still do it all - but I can no longer edit it because there is no edit software (that I found) that works with it in Windows 10. I also have a Logitech Harmony 1 (I think is the version), which caters for all the family needs in the main TV room. This too is a lovely remote, much closer to a traditional remote, but Logitech no longer make them - or anything as good. They now have one model (?) for less than one £100 and the Harmony Elite for ~£299. I had an Elite a few years back - and sold it some months later because there were too many things I disliked about it ...not the least was the "feel" of it ...centre of gravity was all wrong. Added to that, was its insistence to use the hub to connect to wifi whenever I pressed a button. I tried disabling that (which was, apparently, possible), but it never worked for me. In the end, it drove me mad. ...I'm still mad now, which is why I'm thinking of getting another one to try once more, because my Marantz needs editing and I'm getting nowhere with that too. !
Did you try Tonto to program your Marantz?
 
It hasnt been 50% off for some time now, Logitech added £100 to the price too.
Yes I've noticed the high price it never went down on amazon prime day or black Friday first year ever
 

The latest video from AVForums

TV Buying Guide - Which TV Is Best For You?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom