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Too Many Birds
Jan 8, 2020


i genuinely don't know what the best thread to ask this question is, so here it goes:

my parents have been juggling 3 remotes to control their TV, Soundbar, and Roku+ streaming stick. The TV is samsung and the soundbar is vizio.

they bought the harmony hub, on my recommendation, since its one of the few harmony devices that is compatible with the roku stick. i got it all set up for them, and it works great, minus that they are boomers who get confused easily about.... everything.

so my question is, did they need to spend $150 to get this setup? are there cheaper remotes that can do this that i was just outright failing to find in my research? it seems the market for programmable remotes is dying, with logitech discontinuing their harmony products and the only other options i can find are insanely expensive or this sofabaton remote from amazon. which just seems really weird, which makes me think that i'm out of the loop on how people work their home theater setups these days.

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Too Many Birds
Jan 8, 2020


i've been looking into it since my post, since CEC was something i didn't know existed, and it turns out that their entertainment setup is just a big giant incompatible mess that i lucked out by getting them the harmony hub set up for it.

their particular vizio soundbar doesn't have any HDMI ports AND it doesn't have input learning, and the roku stick seemingly is the only device roku makes that barely works with any universal remotes.

so i think the solution in this case, if i wanted to save them some money, would be to sell/return the roku stick & harmony hub, buy a roku device that accepts IR remote input + a cheap learning/universal remote?

Too Many Birds
Jan 8, 2020


they still watch broadcast tv, no cable or dish subscription. occasionally they will watch a blu-ray on it.

Too Many Birds
Jan 8, 2020


eh, they have a pretty decent TV already. this all started because my step-dad needed a new streaming device that had some christian fundie streaming network on it, because the mobile app version wasn't able to cast to their 1st or 2nd gen chromecast for some reason. he then duct taped the TV, Roku, and sound bar remotes together on a stick so he wouldn't lose track of them. i found that appalling and so thats where we ended up with the harmony hub.

and yeah i imagine the harmony remotes are only going to go up in price since they are discontinued at this point.

really i was just wondering how people got this stuff all working together these days, and i guess the answer is CEC and/or getting devices all in the same brand/family.

Too Many Birds
Jan 8, 2020



lmao gently caress me. the only downside is i don't think they'd be able to power on/off the TV and soundbar at the same time, so the soundbar would just have to stay on i guess, which isn't the end of the world. [Edit: well the roku remote could power on the TV, and the sideclick could power on the soundbar, still not ideal but]

i'll pitch either that or the sofabaton + upgraded roku device to them. chances are they are just gonna stick with the harmony hub, i just feel dumb that i couldn't figure out something smarter for the amount of time i initially put into researching this.

Too Many Birds fucked around with this message at 23:46 on Jun 9, 2021

Too Many Birds
Jan 8, 2020


yeah logitech says they are still supporting the software for now but no specific timeframe was given.

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Too Many Birds
Jan 8, 2020


read this article about the death of harmony and it offered 3 alternatives.

caavo, which you cant buy due to covid supply chain issues.

sevenhugs, which was acquired by another company for their wideband tech. their remotes are nearly impossible to find

crestron, which is $$$$$$$$$

basically CEC and ARC helped alleviate a lot of remote juggling issues, and streaming killed the need for physical media players, which removed more remotes from the equation.

article also points out that most people probably just dont really give a gently caress about having a remote that can start up multiple devices with a single press.

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