Home Theater Geeks 469 Transcript
Please be advised this transcript is AI-generated and may not be word for word. Time codes refer to the approximate times in the ad-supported version of the show.
00:00 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
In this episode of Home Theater Geeks I answer a question from Anne, who's bummed about having so many remotes. Can she reduce the number? Yes, she can Stick around.
00:16 - Leo (Announcement)
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00:32 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
Hey there, scott Wilkinson, here, the home theater geek. In this episode I'm going to answer a question from Anne, who writes your podcasts are great. Thanks, anne. I know just enough now to be dangerous with a checkbook. Uh-oh, after five or six highly educational podcasts, I bought a Yamaha AVR and a Panasonic Blu-ray player. The two 20-year-old speakers sound good when I watch a movie and the old TV speaker is not bad for news programs.
01:06
My issue is five remotes. My brain can't handle it. I have remotes for Roku TV, blu-ray AVR, then there are headphones, which is another complication. Help, I'm happy to make progress with a new TV, a Samsung s90 OLED, but if I can't get the remotes under control one or two Macs I'm gonna take this new stuff back to the store. Well, and it's a very common problem. First of all, congratulations on the new gear. Yamaha makes great a VR, panasonic makes great Blu-ray players and Samsung makes great OLED TVs. So you got some great stuff there, and now we have to get the control under control.
02:01
Now, the most common solution to this problem is a universal remote. Now, my favorite universal remote is called the Harmony, from a company called Logitech. You know Logitech. They make keyboards and mice and you know, headphones and stuff like that. They also used to make the Harmony Universal Remote. Unfortunately they don't anymore, which is a true bummer, but they still do offer some support, and we're going to put a link to the URL where you can get support if you already own one from Logitech, and you can still buy some of the models on Amazon and eBay. So you know they're not completely unavailable and they really work great.
03:00
Now there are two basic types. There's the standalone and the remotes that have hubs. What are called hub based standalone models use ir, typically infrared, just like most component remotes, and the hub based ones use ir as well, but also they use bluetooth and wi-fi to control things hidden behind doors or even in another room. So there are a number of standalone models that are still somewhat available. The 350 is probably the entry-level one, shall we say. You can see it here. It's got number buttons, it's got number buttons, it's got transport controls, it's got what's called a cursor cluster in the middle up down right, left and OK in the middle and a mute button, volume and channel control stuff like that I think it can control up to. Like that, I think it can control eight, up to eight devices.
04:09
Then there's the 650, which is kind of a step up from there, and that's the next graphic. There it is with a little LED display with some buttons on the side, and the function of those buttons changes depending on what you're doing. There's also a 665, a 700, a 950, which is the one seen there in its charger, and the one called the Harmony One, which is the one I actually use. I really like that one quite a bit and it has also a display screen on it and that's a touch panel display so you can actually touch the display. And then there's the ultimate and the ultimate one. There's the ultimate one, and that those higher ones control like 15 devices Looks to me like the ultimate one may very well be a hub-based, and I probably should have mentioned that in the hub-based models. Anyway, the hub-based models include the Elite, the Ultimate Home, the Companion and presumably the Ultimate One, because this picture has a hub in it. Now the prices on Amazon range from $145 for a renewed 650, that is one that probably got sold and got returned to $300 for a new 650, to nearly $500 for an elite with a hub. So you know they ain't cheap, but they really work well.
05:51
Now they are what are called activity-based. So basically, you specify different activities like watch TV, watch cable watch a Blu-ray, play a game. All these different activities require your system to be set up in a different way, set up in a different way. So you hit a button labeled watch TV, for example, and it sends all the codes necessary to turn on the TV and the AVR, switch to the right inputs and everything else that needs to happen in order to watch that. And then the controls the volume control will control the AVR. The channel control will turn the TV. If you're using a cable box, it'll change the channel on the volume on the cable box. Watch Blu-ray will turn on the Blu-ray player. Switch the inputs as necessary. The transport controls will work, the Blu-ray player will work, the Blu-ray player.
06:55
Now, to get this working, you need to tell the remote what equipment you have and which pieces of equipment are used for which activities and what inputs they need to be set to, and so on. Now this is done by connecting your remote to your computer by USB and logging on to the myHarmonycom site, and you also have to run some Harmony software in your computer so that they can communicate together, and then you just tell the system. Here's my AVR, here's my TV, here's my Blu-ray player system. Here's my AVR, here's my TV, here's my Blu-ray player and here's what needs. Here's the. Here's what controls the volume, here's what controls the channels and so on, and it sets it all up for you.
07:47
However, I have to warn you. I was doing some research for this and the MyHarmony website says that the MyHarmony software does not run on macOS 10.15 or higher. 10.15 or higher. You can use it on macOS 10.14 and lower or Windows. They didn't specify any versions. They didn't specify any versions and if you're using a hub-based Harmony, you need to control it from your iOS or Android phone. So older Harmony remotes can use Harmony remote software which is compatible with Mac OS 11 and 12, so a little bit newer.
08:32
Now, this all sounds very complicated and it isn't trivial. I will tell you that They've tried to design it to be easy to use and they succeeded to an extent, but not completely, in my opinion. But it's not as bad as it sounds. The biggest problem is that these devices are no longer available, except on the secondary market. Like Amazon has a stock, but once they run out, I think they'll be gone. They won't have any more, and the software is in some cases, as I just said, limited to older OS versions, so you're taking a bit of a gamble there.
09:12
So I wanted to mention a more current device company that sells universal remotes that a lot of people really like. The company is called SofaBaton, which I think is a great name. Now, I haven't tried one myself yet, but, as I say, I've heard a lot of good things about it and I do intend to try one. Their URL will also be in the show notes. It's easy, it's sofa batoncom.
09:42
They offer two models. The U series, which is a standalone and you can see it here, has a little bit of a display near the top of the remote, and the X series, which is a hub-based unit, has also some display at the top. Both can replace up to 15 device remotes or even more. Both offer IR and Bluetooth LE communication. The U-Series is limited to four Bluetooth devices. The X-Series can also control classic Bluetooth devices like the PlayStation 4 and 5, roku Wi-Fi I mean Philips Hue light bulbs, which are remote controllable light bulbs that are pretty cool and the Sonos whole house audio system. Now both can control various devices by switching between them on the remote.
10:49
But the X series also has an activity mode like the harmonies. On the U series you can set up what are called macros, which do the same thing as an activity series, but it's probably not nearly as convenient as a true activity mode. Now the X-Series also lets you do voice controls. So Google Assistant, amazon Alexa and SofaBaton's own API smart home system. U-series apparently does not do that. On the other hand, the U-Series is 65 bucks, way less than any of the Harmonies, and the X1, which is still available but it's an older model, is 140 bucks and the X1S current model is $200. That's still less than almost any Harmony remote, except for a renewed one Harmony remote, except for a renewed one. So, with the caveat that I haven't tried the SofaBaton remotes yet, I'd probably recommend with going with one of those because they're current and they work with current software and computer systems and in fact I look forward to trying the X1S myself.
12:11
Will it replace my beloved Harmony One? I'm not sure, but I do want to get up on the latest that's available for you so that I can share it with you. So I hope that answers and helps your question. Like this episode and many episodes, I answer questions from listeners, and all you have to do is send it along to HTG at TWiTTV. Now, in a new development, all of our videos are now available on YouTube with ads, but they're free. You can watch them any time. Now, if you want ad free shows, all you have to do is join the club, which you can do by going to twittv. Slash club twit, and I do hope you will consider that. Until next time, geek out.
