Logitech Harmony Elite Remote w/ Hub (Open Box)

Short Version: By my 5 star rating, you should be able to tell I’m pleased with this remote. I’m happy I took the plunge and finally purchased the remote I’ve needed for a few years. My use of the remote is pretty basic, I just control my entertainment devices. I don’t yet have smart lights, thermostats, or other home controls, so I can’t speak to using the Elite with those applications at this time. Long Version: I’ve needed a universal remote for quite some time now. I just didn’t want to spend the money since I felt I could just suck it up and play around with the 5 remotes I had to get everything to work as needed. Two things pushed me over the edge. Firstly, every time I’d use a device, I’d place the remote down, but a lot of times in a different spot, sometimes the table in front of me, sometimes on the mini fridge, sometimes on the pinball machine behind my chair. I’m always using at least two remotes, one for the receiver, one for the TV, and if I’m watching a Blu-ray, a third remote. Placing these all down in different spots has me looking for them when I need to hit “MUTE”, “PAUSE”, etc. sometimes, enough to be an annoyance. I rarely use the cable box so that remote sometimes just gets lost among all the crap I sometimes have on the table. The second thing is my wife. She gets intimidated by all of my electronics because she’s used to just having her cable remote and has never had to deal with multiple devices, HDMI cords, receivers, etc. This past year when the Cleveland Indians were in the playoffs, I had to work some OT, and she had a friend over to watch the game in the garage where my TV is. She had no clue how to turn on the TV, which input to set it on, and the same with the receiver. Since I was still at work, I had to talk her through it over the phone. Trying to describe the different remotes was an adventure. I wanted a Harmony remote because the people I know who have one have had nothing but good things to say about them. My setup is in my garage with the TV on a table and the rest of my stuff on shelving that has stuff in front of it so I knew I wanted something other than an IR-only remote. I liked the idea and simplicity of having a screen so that narrowed things down to the Ultimate and the Elite since they have screens and also come with the hub. I chose the Elite because it has a better button layout than the Ultimate, specifically the placement of the Playback controls. The Elite has them in a more natural location as opposed to the top of the remote as found on the Ultimate. Devices I am controlling: TV, cable box, Ultra HD bluray player, HD DVD player, receiver, and a Chromecast. (The Elite does not control the Chromecast since you are casting from your phone, tablet, etc. I’m listing here because it’s still included in the Activities I set up on the remote.) Setting up the remote was a piece of cake using the phone app. I just had to list all of the devices I have to start. Then I set up the different activities that I wanted. The software walks you through everything by asking question like, “what controls the volume”, “what input on the Denon”, “which input on the LG TV” and sets up all the macros needed to turn everything where you need it to. If needed there are plenty of adjustments you can make in your activities such as the order things turn on, the timing needed, etc. You can rename both Activities and Devices. For my Activities, I have: Watch TV, Chromecast, Smart TV Apps, Watch an HD DVD, and Ultra HD Bluray. In Devices, I renamed my Samsung player from Samsung bluray, to Samsung Ultra HD Bluray and my Toshiba from DVD player to Toshiba HD DVD player so they matched what the devices actually are. If you don’t like the order of the Activities, you’re free to rearrange them. If you don’t like how some of the hard buttons are setup on a device, you can change what they control. For instance, when I’m watching on the Samsung player, when I hit the hard “Menu” button, it takes me out of the movie to the main menu of the disc. If I want the Popup menu instead (who wouldn’t, that’s one of the many benefits over DVD that bluray and HD DVD has besides the obvious picture and sound benefits), I had to push that on the touchscreen. So, I remapped it to the hard “Menu” button. Problem solved. One thing I was worried about before using the remote was how would it treat my devices when changing between Activities? Would all of my devices be on? Well, it’ll turn off the device I’m leaving and leave everything else I’m using on. I don’t have a DVR or other device that needs to be left on, but there’s a setting for that adjustment if needed. I’m not sure there’s a situation that Logitech hasn’t thought up a solution for with their years of experience in the universal remote field. There are also some added benefits that I was happy to find out I was able to do to make the remote more “me”. I was able to download custom icons from the internet and use them for my Activities. I used the “Time Warner” logo my Watch TV activity since that’s the cable we have. Google logo for Chromecast, LG logo for Smart TV, the HD DVD logo for the activity, and an Ultra HD bluray logo for that one. The guy who made the logos has done great work and has multiple options so you have a nice variety to choose from. Not sure I can list his site, but search for “Custom Harmony Icons” and it should be the first result. The last customization I did so far is using a photo of one of my pinball machines as my background on the remote. I did have to darken it on Photoshop so the Activities were still readable, but that was simple enough. One thing I should mention, using your own icons is only possible using the software on your computer, the mobile apps don’t have the option of using anything but the ones Logitech gives you. Same for the background photo. I’ve attached a photo of my remote’s screen. Another AWESOME benefit: I don’t have to use the hideously designed remote that came with the Samsung UBD-k8500. What Samsung was thinking with this remote, I have no clue, but it’s awful. Too tiny, the home button it way too close to the arrow pad so it’s easy to hit it while trying to scroll through letters typing in your email and passwords for instance, making you start all over trying to set up a Netflix app. The Fast Forward and Chapter skip uses the same button so its use is a pain in the butt. The Elite fixed this with its great layout. The hub is great and another reason this remote is great too. Since my TV is really the only thing in my line of site, I needed the hub. I placed it on my storage shelf and it’s able to hit all of my devices with no problem, except the TV. But, the Elite comes with two IR extenders, and hanging one on the wire shelf above the TV lets the hub control the TV. I like the idea that if I ever want to move the receiver and other stuff in another room so I can use the shelf for storing stuff, I can do that since the remote communicates with the hub using RF frequencies. Another cool thing about the hub, since it’s connected to the home network, I can control from the phone app from anywhere I am. The other day, I was in the Taco Bell Drive-thru and turned my TV on so it was ready when I got home. I really only did it to see if I could, but it was nice to see that it worked. If I was in the situation again where my wife needed help turning the stuff on, I could do it for her from my phone app. (I won’t have to though; she’s already tried the remote and was able to do everything she wanted without me needing to help.) Using the remote is everything I expected. If I press Watch TV, the TV turns on and goes to HDMI 2, the receiver turn on and goes to Cab/Sat, and the cable box turns on and goes to CBS (the channel I chose to be the startup channel.) Then the remote is set to control the cable box, with the volume buttons set to the receiver’s volume. On the touchscreen, icons for your “Favorites”, whatever TV stations you choose to pick as your favorites. I think the limit is 26? Something like that. All of this action set up by answering a few questions in the app, save for you picking out your specific Favorites (I ended up changing the default favs). If something doesn’t work, there’s a help function that’ll try to correct the issue, such as your TV not turning on, or your receiver not being on the correct input, or it may change the timing of when it sends the commands and ask you if whatever it did fixed the issue. I’m very pleased with how Logitech has seemingly thought of everything. One last thing I’ll mention: Amazon Echo Dot integration. I purchased the Elite package that came with an Amazon Echo Dot because the price was only $3 more than just the Elite so I figured why not. I’ll just get into what’s relevant with this remote. By enabling the two Harmony Skills in the Echo Dot I am able to turn on my entertainment center, change to each Activity, and turn everything off by asking Alexa to do it for me. I can even ask her to raise or lower the volume. You are supposed to be able to change to a favorite channel too, but I haven’t tried that function yet. It’s kind of neat to be able to walk in my garage and say, “Alexa, tell Harmony to turn on Ultra HD bluray” and it does while I’m setting my food down, or turning on the pinball machines (which I use as ambient light in the room when I’m watching TV). It almost always works, but sometimes she doesn’t hear me correctly and it doesn’t work. But, overall, I like the Echo integration. Hopefully, they’ll add even more functions as time goes on, but even if they don’t it’s pretty cool to be able to use my voice for turning things on and off. So, for the reasons I bought the remote, I have everything I want. I am able to set my 5 device remotes aside and have just one. My wife is able to turn my stuff on without me needing to talk her through it. Plus I received a lot more. I’m very happy with this remote and have yet to run into a negative. FIVE STARS!!!