Logitech Harmony 650 Infrared All in One Remote Control, Universal Remote Logitech, Programmable Remote (Silver)

I originally bought and set this up in 2010 and just replaced it with the same model. It still was working fine but the Watch TV button finally started to get a little flaky. This makes sense, it’s the one that gets pressed the most. I was satisfied with 9 years of daily use and bought the same one again. The new one went right into service with no problems. I think I’ll get another one now just to keep on hand for when this new one gives up in 10 years.My setup:Yamaha receiverPanasonic plasma TVFrontier Fios cable/dvrXbox One (also used for DVD and Blu-Ray)Raspberry Pi with KodiRaspberry Pi with RetropieNintendo WiiNintendo GameCubeNintendo N64Note that the GameCube and N64 are not programmed as devices. You can’t control them with IR anyway, you have to use the game controllers and you will have to manually turn on the power switch. But you can still use the remote to set up the custom activities “Play GameCube” and “Play N64”. These activities will power up the TV, power up the receiver, and switch the receiver to whatever AV connection you are using for the game. Thus in this way you can sort of use more than 8 devices.This remote also can operate the Xbox One menus for non game stuff like watching Youatube and it also nicely runs all functions of Kodi media center on the Rasberry Pi with a Flirc controller installed. Nice!Amazingly this same remote is still in the Logitech product line all these years later, and thankfully so. This is about as good as you are going to get and the price is great compared to the far more expensive new models. It’s simple and it’s effective. It gets the job done. Just read all the reviews on those expensive new models and see if you think people are getting a better experience for hundreds of dollars more. Even after all these years and with all of the brains and technology in the world, it seems no one can solve the riddle of the universal remote. Spend all the money you want, none are perfect and there will always be frustration with the setup and operation. Some of this has to do with the zillion different things out there that need to be controlled, some has to do with the lack of comprehensive standards, and some has to do with the inherent limitations of the technology. At least with this one you won’t spend a lot of money, and in my experience it will work fine if you understand the limitations.Basically, as others have said, you simply must keep the remote pointed at your system until everything has had a chance to turn on and switch to the correct settings. This can take a few seconds, but this is an eternity for people who cannot manage the task and start waving it around as soon as they press a button. You can avoid 90% of all your problems if you simply keep that remote pointed towards the equipment until it is done! It really is as simple as that.If you mess this up, things will “get out of sync”. For example, the remote might think the tv is on when it is really off. So things won’t work right. You can press Help and the built-in wizard will extract you from your mess, MOST of the time. If not, just manually turn everything off and start over, and this time, you got it, KEEP IT POINTED RIGHT, and then it will work.Seriously, I can sit my bloated fat butt on the couch, day in and day out for months on end, using this remote hundreds and hundreds of times to watch TV, watch movies, watch YouTube, play video games, and on and on, and it will work flawlessly every single time. Then I hand it to someone else to watch TV, and after they inevitably ask me “how do I use it to watch TV?” I say “press the button that says ‘Watch TV’ (DUH) and keep it pointed at the TV until everything is on”. And they inevitably mess it up and holler “it’s not working! What do I do now?”. And why is this so? Because they did not keep it pointed at the TV, that’s why.Note that this is not a limitation of this particular remote, this is due to the inherent limitations of the technology. When you want to do something like watch TV on a full theater system, you are using a macro in the remote to accomplish this. A macro is nothing more than a series of IR commands sent out to the different parts of the system, such as: 1) turn on the tv, 2) set the tv to the correct input, 3) turn on the receiver, 4) set the receiver to the correct input. These have to be done one after the other, not all at once, in order to make everything work right. It doesn’t take long, but it still does take a few seconds, and those few seconds are just a bit too long for all those people who cannot manage the simple task of keeping the remote pointed in one direction until it is done.The other limitation of the technology is that there is no “state awareness” for the remote. All this means is this: the remote has no way to “know” if the power for your TV or other device is ON or OFF. This is true for any IR remote. In the case of the Harmony remotes, they “assume” that the power is off for everything in your system when you are telling it to turn things on, such as when you want to do something like watch TV. If the remote assumes your TV is off when you press Watch TV and it is actually turned on then it will send the power toggle command and turn your TV off. Now it’s off when it should be on, and you are scratching your head staring dumbly at it and wondering why you cannot see your American Idol. The wizard in the Logitech remotes at least tries to bail you out by using a logic tree and having you press some buttons and answer some questions so it can get everything where it should be.Even the All Off button is not guaranteed to turn everything off. Because if something is ALREADY OFF when it thinks it is ON then the All Off button will turn it ON! Got that?For anyone still reading this far, this situation is due to the common use of the single “toggle” power button, that is, the button you press on your TV, receiver, or whatever to turn the power on and to turn the power off. This translates to an IR remote code that simply toggles the power to the opposite of whatever state it is in. Now some components also use what is called “discrete” IR signals. This is a fancy way of saying there is one code to power off and a different code to power on. If the component is on and you send it a discrete on code, it simply ignores it and stays on. But if you send it a discrete off code then it turns off. This is a much more nifty way to turn things on and off with a remote, because now the All Off button could be 100% reliable to actually turn everything off, and this would give you a foolproof bailout if you mess it up (by now, you should know how you messed it up right?). If things aren’t right you could just hit the All Off button and everything would go off and then the remote would have a known starting point for you to try again. Sadly, many components don’t use the discrete power codes, only the toggle codes. Which means, if you messed up and didn’t get something turned on then when you press All Off you will actually turn that one on. Then when you press your command which will logically send the power toggle command to turn on, it will promptly turn OFF! Now, you have truly descended into madness and have thrown your remote through the TV screen.30 years of consumer electronics and we are all still stuck in this same boat. We’ll have flying cars before this gets solved.

I originally purchased both the Logitech Harmony 650 Remote and the NextGen RF Remote Extender together. For those unfamiliar with the latter, this is a very clever device that replaces one of the AA or AAA batteries in a conventional IR remote with a special battery/RF transmitter. This device senses minute fluctuations in power during IR transmittal, and converts them to an RF signal, which is received by the NextGen and converted back to IR by means of an IR blaster. I've used the NextGen in the past (with a TiVo box remote) and it worked great. Sheer genius.Unfortunately, the combination of the Harmony 650 and NextGen did NOT work, and after some troubleshooting, I determined that the 650 and the NextGen weren't communicating. The clincher came when I tried the NextGen's special battery/transmitter in an ordinary remote, and it worked fine!Next, to the internet for some research on compatibility of the 650 and NextGen. Alas, it turns out that the 650 is NOT compatible with NextGen and won't work (as well as a number of other Harmony models - I've read that the LCD screen somehow interferes with the NextGen's ability to sense the IR signal being transmitted, and hence either doesn't detect it at all, or transmits the wrong information).UPDATE:Because the NextGen and the Harmony 650 were incompatible, I packed up the NextGen and returned it.However, I decided to keep the Harmony 650 because I really liked it, and hoped to eventually be able to use it as a "single remote control" for my entire system. Fortunately, I have been able to successfully integrate the Harmony 650 into my system, and I really love it.It works great, is fast and responsive, and the buttons have a good tactile "feel" to them. Setup was a snap, using Logitech's website, and I was able to configure the 650 to do all the things I need it to do (I use it to control a Samsung TV, Sony SoundBar, Sony BluRay disc player, and AT&T UVerse Motorola VIP2250 STB/DVR. It works flawlessly with all of my devices, including the UVerse box, which often exhibit compatibility issues with so-called "universal" controls).I like the fact that the remote uses ordinary AA batteries - the battery is not "proprietary" and I don't have to worry about recharging the remote's batteries; just replace 'em when necessary.My only concern is that this remote has been discontinued by Logitech; they've come out with a LOT of models and variants over the years, and have now narrowed it down to a handful of products that are currently produced and supported, giving more attention to the "home control" and automation market, in addition to A/V equipment only.Long story short, I'm very happy with this remote. For the price, it's a good value, and I hope it lasts me a long time.UPDATE 6/2/2016:I've been using the Harmony 650 control with my Living Room setup for some time, now, and it has performed flawlessly.In fact, it works so well, that I bought a second one for my wife's office, where she has a Samsung TV, AT&T cable box, and a Sony DVD player. Of course, wives don't usually like dealing with multiple remotes, or having to push several buttons to switch from TV to DVD and back again.So the Harmony 650 is the perfect solution. Logitech, in my opinion, has "solved" the problem of multiple remotes and complicated key sequences once-and-for-all with their online remote control database. You create an account (free), log in, and tell it what device(s) you have, and define one or more "activities", such as Watch TV, Watch a Movie, etc. Then you download the defined profile into the remote, using the supplied USB cable. Their software (also free) works with both Windows AND the Mac (the latter is very important to me, because I have only Macs in the house).Now, my wife just presses a *single button* on the remote to either watch TV (cable) or play a DVD. No multiple remotes (TV, cable box, DVD) to deal with, and no complicated key sequences to enter! The remote takes care of configuring the setup for the desired activity (turning on the required devices, switching to the appropriate inputs, etc.) Needless to say, my wife is a happy camper with this setup. ;-)To sum up, Logitech does remotes the way it *should* be done. One remote to rule them all, and a single button press to configure all devices for a particular activity, such as watching TV or playing a DVD. Highly recommended.