High end universal remote?

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Frankie

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I'm finishing up my home theater and want something that is pretty fancy (i.e. big touch screen) and something that can do RF (all my equipment will be put in a closet, eventually, I think). I've got a Harmony 880 and have had it since shortly after it came out, but the thing pisses me off pretty much, the buttons are cheap and some are hard to press and the backlighting is horrible. This is going in a room with a front projector that's about 99% light controlled, so terrible backlighting is a pretty serious problem.

Something like the Harmony 1100, but the 1100 has some flaws, and has been out for quite a while, I would think either it's due for replacement or some other company has trumped it by now. I've seen the MX6000 and I think it's also pretty old, and horribly expensive, and has functionality that I don't need (iPod interface, web browsing, etc).

Anyone know of any other options or hear any rumors about Logitech replacing the 1100 soon?
 
Frankie said:
I'm finishing up my home theater and want something that is pretty fancy (i.e. big touch screen) and something that can do RF (all my equipment will be put in a closet, eventually, I think). I've got a Harmony 880 and have had it since shortly after it came out, but the thing pisses me off pretty much, the buttons are cheap and some are hard to press and the backlighting is horrible. This is going in a room with a front projector that's about 99% light controlled, so terrible backlighting is a pretty serious problem.

Something like the Harmony 1100, but the 1100 has some flaws, and has been out for quite a while, I would think either it's due for replacement or some other company has trumped it by now. I've seen the MX6000 and I think it's also pretty old, and horribly expensive, and has functionality that I don't need (iPod interface, web browsing, etc).

Anyone know of any other options or hear any rumors about Logitech replacing the 1100 soon?
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iPad + Your choice....lots of opportunity. iRule is making good progress. Couple of others too.
 
No Harmony remotes, eh? High end, eh? That's easy..... this Pronto remote by Philips. It is **NOT** for newbies, and can even play TV on itself :D

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000VV9ZJU

I think this guy says it best of all the reviews
"I am a professional installer and I have installed many pronto units for my clients. I have been installing prontos for over 10 years. Its expensive, but you get ultimate control."
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edit: OH, And if you want to spend a little more and get a HOLY-WOW-OMG-NICE! remote, check out the Philips Pronto TSU9800 (it even has WiFi)
 
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Well that's only because it's based for high-end clientele, but they are amazing remotes..
 
Have you looked at the Harmony One and 900? Their buttons, back-light and LCD are WAY better than the 800. I've got the One and use it in my HT room all the way dark with no problems. The larger buttons make them easier to use, especially if you have big fingers like me. I passed on getting the 1100 since I've had a remote that was mostly an LCD touchscreen with a few hard buttons and found I really like hard buttons more as long as they are easy to use. Don't let their worst remote ruin the Harmony line for you. You might want to look at the RF vs. IR repeater, both will work for throwing stuff in a cabinet, I think you get more transmitters with their repeater. Might depend on where your cabinet is though.
 
walwalka said:
Well that's only because it's based for high-end clientele, but they are amazing remotes..
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Not to mention your ultra-high clientele don’t use remotes, they just turn those expensive knobs while listening to records on their 35k turntables and tube AMPS...And that market is doing well.:)
 
BillR said:
Not to mention your ultra-high clientele don’t use remotes, they just turn those expensive knobs while listening to records on their 35k turntables and tube AMPS...And that market is doing well.:)
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If you have a true high-end system, you probably have a custom crestron system to go with it, not some universal remote. In-laws have crestron wi-fi tablets all over the house, touchpad lighting controls, etc. That's high-end.
 
I switched to the Harmony One and like it better. It was a warranty swap so I had to do another Harmony of some sort..

The bad part being this will be my 3rd Harmony in 3 years due to power or button failure :)mad:) but it even works pretty well with my PS3 via the adapter.
 
nitrobass24 said:
I have an MX-6000 and it works great.
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MX 6000 is a good remote.
It does have one significant weakness from my perspective.

It does not roam between wifi access points. It will stay on one until signal has completely failed.

I have been back and forth on this issue directly with URC engineers. Their recommendation is to set AP's to "repeater" mode and see if it helps. Even then it may not work appropriately.
Some people have "corrected" this using large centralized AP's such as the luxul, but that's a bad solution as far as I'm concerned.

Anyhow.... MX6000 is a good remote except for this.
However... since it communicates with PC's and iPod docks using your wifi this makes it a poor "whole house" remote.
 
Yea i agree with that.

I dont really get the "whole house" remote concept. I mean it would be so fucking annoying if someone picked up my remote and put it somewhere else in the house because it controlled everything.

If a remote only works for one area, I know it will be left there.....or at least remotely close (no pun intended).
 
nitrobass24 said:
Yea i agree with that.

I dont really get the "whole house" remote concept. I mean it would be so fucking annoying if someone picked up my remote and put it somewhere else in the house because it controlled everything.

If a remote only works for one area, I know it will be left there.....or at least remotely close (no pun intended).
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The goal is that you can take one device anywhere and have it work for everything. Ideally you have a few such devices.

I haven't had a chance to look at Crestron's iPad based system for this... but wifi/ethernet based systems seem far superior to me than the narrow-band RF that URC has been leaning so heavily on for years.
Most high-end homes now-a-days have AP's distributed as needed to get proper signal everywhere.... why force people to have multiple antennas for wireless devices on different bands?
 
i agree completely on the ethernet/wifi deal.

I was actually looking at trying to get my hands on a MRX-1 and use that as an IP gateway with iRule/ipad or some other app.

Would be a cool project and would much rather use my ipad as a remote then my MX-6000. Its already on the coffee table anyways. The only show stopper for me is that i dont really want to replace controllers for my shades and lighting which is all URC based.
 
nitrobass24 said:
i agree completely on the ethernet/wifi deal.

I was actually looking at trying to get my hands on a MRX-1 and use that as an IP gateway with iRule/ipad or some other app.

Would be a cool project and would much rather use my ipad as a remote then my MX-6000. Its already on the coffee table anyways. The only show stopper for me is that i dont really want to replace controllers for my shades and lighting which is all URC based.
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I would imagine that your shades and lighting are RF wireless (such as Z-wave) or power-line (such as X10) system.
It should be relatively simple to integrate if it's power-line... I've never used Z-wave but somebody should develop a solution.

That's one reason I was so excited when first hear about Red-Eye. It's just a groundbreaking idea that, for whatever reason, hadn't been tried yet.

I want a programmable iPad based software solution that I can connect to IR blasters, RF transmitters and power-line controllers.
I would easily shell out $1000 for software which could do this.
It used to be that HomeSeer was a good option here but I'm not certain there's a clean, programmable iPad port for it.
 
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PurduEE said:
If you have a true high-end system, you probably have a custom crestron system to go with it, not some universal remote. In-laws have crestron wi-fi tablets all over the house, touchpad lighting controls, etc. That's high-end.
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No, I think you misunderstand; the high end I’m talking about doesn’t even make allowances for remote anything.

The 35K I mentioned is just for the turntable, no tone arm no cartridge. Amps 75k and up, speakers 50k and up, that sort of thing. A whole different world and it lives on.:)
 
BillR said:
No, I think you misunderstand; the high end I’m talking about doesn’t even make allowances for remote anything.

The 35K I mentioned is just for the turntable, no tone arm no cartridge. Amps 75k and up, speakers 50k and up, that sort of thing. A whole different world and it lives on.:)
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I understand, we just disagree. I don't consider reproducing music from scratched plastic source material "high-end". You can spend lots on great equipment without buying into the wooden amp knobs and $7k "danceable" speaker cables (that have been professionally burned in).

As an example, you can spend 6 figures wiring a house with crestron, mcintosh, etc gear easily.
 
Great you disagree.

Now back to the discussion of high-end remote controls for the OP!
 
remotecentral.com is going to be your best guide for universal high end remotes. As far as the harmony stile remotes go you have to remember that to the best of my knowledge known of them actually send rf signals to devices. I have the 880 and the 890 and the 890 will send rf only to the rf receiver that in turn converts the signal to ir or z-wave devices but say my htpc setup for example that is rf it cannot send signals directly to it. So if your looking for whole house rf control then harmony is out of the lineup. The ipad idea sounds great in theory but what about battery life? If you go that direction maybe a wifi ipod or older iphone would have better for battery life. I'm going to throw my vote in for the Philips Pronto. They are awesome remotes with plenty of support all over the net. Good Luck!
 
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