Logitech Harmony 950 Remote Control

Let’s start off with my opinion and then we can address other reviewers statements and the technological side of things. Hopefully this review helps others make an informed decision. Harmony remotes have always been deeply rooted in offering the most rounded approach while supporting the most options. That said, they aren’t for anyone with less than a medium level of tech knowledge and savvy. Anyone elderly who has a limited understanding of how techie items work, anyone who can’t reformat a hard drive, will struggle with a harmony remote. This remote is the 950, I previously had a harmony one. The harmony one is years old, and it’s desktop only software required manual programming, you had to gonthru every command, use the original remote signals and select from a limited number of options to piece together a remote that could control multiple items like an entertainment center. This only worked if all items are on or off, if one unit was off when it needed to be on, you had to navigate a troubleshooter to rectify the issue so future commands sent by the remote would find everything as it should be and initiate the set of commands you request later without fault. For those who understood that, it was still a huge improvement over 5 remotes. Those required hours of programming, issue resolving and more programming...that’s for someone with medium techi knowledge. Every negative review I read almost always falls back on the individuals level of understanding of how it works vs how they think it should work. Technology has come leaps and bounds farther in the last two decades than a 1000 years before it combined....actually, probably off of our history combined. But it isn’t perfect, it’s still created by humans, and it will still have quirks. People have this unrealistic expectation of things these days, if it doesn’t do everything I want it to, when I want it, how I want it, then it’s broken or flawed, and ridicule will follow. Onward to the tech side of this 950! This guy is amazing, especially when compared to the tech we had several years ago. Don’t use the desktop software, it is designed for 6+ Year old remotes. Make an online account and link it to your desktop software if you had a prior harmony programming you want to get a leg up on. If you aren’t coming from an older harmony, start fresh with the app, and avoid the desktop programming if you can. Firmware upgrades do not require the desktop version either. Let it gonthru it’s motioms without you being so impatient you frantically hit buttons to see if it’s locked up, which will cause it to lock up. Once you start the process of updating the firmware, assume it will take all night, wind down and go to bed. That’s if you are impatient. If you can refrain from button mashing in the meantime, just watch tv for an hour while it does it’s thing. It is doing it wirelessly, to a remote, not gonna have a high speed connection chip in it. It will finish eventually, and only then should you begin your approach on sync programming, reprogramming or initial programming. For myself, I connected to my app and it uploaded my prior items and then allowed me to test each segment and if it had issues, it would resolve them before moving on. So far it has resolved them all. Once this is done, it will search your WiFi for other things it can control and will give you a checklist of what it finds. Check what you want to control and it goes thru the prior setup and test phase. After that, if anything is left, only then are you required to manually program things. I have a smart home and a harmony hub, so mine stopped at the WiFi search. It controls everything it can, and gives me another facet by which to control my smart home. So far it has glitched a few times and when I hit pause it turned off my tv, however the third time it happened the remote sensed it and asked if all items were in the state they should be in, and then proceeded to repair the issue and save this to the remote for me. So far, less than a week in and I have unplugged my other harmony remains, I have no need for it. Another neat feature is the vibrate upon button press, you can modify the level, and it tells you without doubt when you pressed a button. And yet another feature is the sbility to turn up or down the brightness of the buttons, and the column of the remote. All neat little features you never knew you wanted, that will bring your appreciation to a higher level. Next I wanted to add a little something about the harmony hub. You can buy the harmony elite package which has a hub and the 950 but it costs much more to buy that way. Buy a used hub (bought mine here) and a remanufacturer remote. End up with around a two hundred dollar investment worth double that new. All the benefits, half the cost. Buy the hub, it allows the remote to convert radio waves into infrared signals, and thus opens up the ability to control much more. The hub also has WiFi and Bluetooth connections, which increases control ability to a limitless position. The controls are snappy, and quicker to respond, they don’t have to be in line of sight to use the remote, I could turn on my tv from the bedroom if I wanted. This also gives you online controls, and turns your phone into a smart remote. Huge benefits for chump change. The combo is the cats meow for smart Home or smart entertainment control. I have no regrets, and am very happy to have just made the plunge. If you are on the fence, do it.