While it doesn’t pass the “wife” test - when that happens, Lisa pouts until I fix it - I consider it a small price to pay for being able to control up to 15 individual AV components with a single device.
#Harmony app for mac for mac#
This has happened at least three times in the past year, and when it does, I have to connect the Harmony remote or Harmony Home Hub to a computer via USB to restore my activities with the free My Harmony app for Mac and PC. The only issue I’ve had with Harmony systems is that the hub occasionally gets confused and stops working. At least I think they are - it’s been so long I’m not even sure which drawer to look in. I’ve had Harmony systems running in my den and bedroom for over a year now and all of my OEM remotes are still in a drawer. The Harmony Ultimate Home is expensive, but IMHO it's worth every penny While the less-expensive Harmony remotes have buttons and do the job adequately, I love the Harmony Ultimate Home ( $299.99 at Amazon), a complete system that includes a hub, two IR mini blasters (the $99.99 standalone hub only includes 1), and a superb Harmony Ultimate Home remote with most of the buttons you’ll ever need and a 2.4-inch color touchscreen to replicate any other buttons and controls whether you need them or not: Next: The Harmony Ultimate Home Remote - The Harmony Ultimate Home RemoteĪlthough the Harmony app for iOS is terrific and full-featured, I prefer the feel of actual buttons for play/pause, fast-forward/rewind, volume, and such. The hub sets up in minutes and works way better than any other universal remote I’ve ever tried.
#Harmony app for mac Bluetooth#
That’s the beauty of the Harmony system: all you need is a Harmony Home Hub ( $99.99 at Amazon) - which sends commands from the Harmony app on your iDevice to your home theatre components, using IR, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth - and an iDevice. Harmony app screens used by my “Watch Apple TV” activity
![harmony app for mac harmony app for mac](https://images.anandtech.com/doci/11125/Setup1.png)
And while Logitech offers a handful of Harmony remotes with buttons, touchscreens, and more, with prices starting around $30, you don’t even need a physical remote if you have the free Harmony app on an iDevice. The second awesome thing is that you don’t need to stick a dongle into your iDevice to use a Harmony system you’re your iDevice. Harmony can control over 270,000 devices in over a year of testing I’ve only found one device (an obscure four-source audio switch that had its own remote) that I couldn’t control via Harmony. Just fire up the Harmony app on your iDevice (or Mac or PC) and specify the make and model of the devices in the activity. Unlike other universal remotes I’ve tested, setting up Activities for your Harmony Remote couldn’t be easier.
#Harmony app for mac tv#
For example, my “Watch Cable TV” activity turns on the TV, set-top cable box, and AV receiver, and then sets the TV and AV receiver to the proper inputs for cable TV. The first are Activities, which turn on all of the appropriate devices with a single tap, switching each device to the proper input for that activity.
![harmony app for mac harmony app for mac](https://9to5mac.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2020/12/outlook-for-mac.jpeg)
In my humble opinion, two things make the Harmony products stand out. The bottom line is that Harmony is the first and only system I’ve tested that allowed me to toss my OEM remotes in a drawer and forget them, which means a lot to me. I’ve been testing physical remotes and the Harmony iOS app on two home theatre systems for over a year now and I can tell you with complete confidence that the Harmony system hits the trifecta - it’s easy to set up, capable of controlling all of my audio and video components (and 270,000 others), and is far more reliable than any app-and-dongle combo I tried. So I continued to deal with a large pile of OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) remotes until I discovered Logitech’s Harmony family of universal remote control devices. While some of ‘em were easy enough to set up, none worked with all of the devices connected to my big screen TVs, and none lasted more than a couple of weeks on my coffee table.
![harmony app for mac harmony app for mac](https://community-assets.home-assistant.io/original/3X/e/f/ef71dc3896caeec243adc6197e9539f8e5736500.png)
Over the past few years I’ve tried half a dozen iOS universal remotes that combine an app with a hardware dongle for your iDevice, but not one of them came close to meeting my criteria.
![harmony app for mac harmony app for mac](https://www.smartenlight.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Logitech-Harmony-App-on-iPad.jpg)
For years I’ve been searching for the perfect universal remote control, one that was: