Logitech Harmony 950 IR Tv Remote Control

The 950 replaces my Ultimate - the Ultimate could no longer hold a charge throughout the day. I changed the battery, it was great for a few months, and again it cannot hold a charge. So I upgraded to the 950.The 950 is a slightly upgraded Ultimate. It uses the same Hub, and has the same functionality. What it adds is better ergonomics, along with 4 extra buttons and an extra up/down toggle.$200 is not worth the upgrade price from the Ultimate - if you have an Ultimate that works fine, keep it.Ergonomically, it is nice that all of the buttons are now below the LCD. This was always odd with the Ultimate. The control layout is 98% the same the Ultimate, so there is really no learning curve.Interestingly, the copy remote process did not map all the controls. The copy worked fine, but a few of my customized mappings (especially long/short press settings) were lost, and I had to remake those.Overall, this is a great learning remote. Harmony tech support is excellent - truly the best support I have ever engaged. I have used Harmony remotes for 6+ years now, and the support has always been top notch.Functionally, the remote does everything it advertises. It controls up to 15 devices all from one remote. For those migrating from other learning remotes, Harmony uses the concept of Activities, which makes configuring the remote relatively easy. There is a learning curve to configuring the remote, but the support folks will walk you through things. 90 days of free configuration consultation comes with the remote.Look and feel are excellent - it is a bit heavier than the Ultimate, but it is not heavy. The buttons all have a slightly better feel than the Ultimate when depressed.I did not try having the remote learn an IR code - with the Ultimate, this was a real pain. All the lights had to be off, the remotes had to be close but not too close, and it took multiple attempts. I hope the 950 is better, but it is probably the same. Just be patient and it will work, eventually.The Harmony PC software is decent. Not great, but decent. Logitech is switching everything over to their Logi namespace, so registering the remote with support also changed my Harmony password, which was annoying. Looks like one account now for Harmony and Logi support.I do like Harmony remote a lot. I have used many learning remotes, and this is by far my favorite. Combined with a Hub and the included blasters and it is awesome. It is very expensive, however.I called the Ultimate remote "The Marriage Saver" because it finally allowed me to have a good programmable remote that my wife, and any company, could easily use. The 950 is "The Marriage Saver v1.1".If you don't have a learning remote and need one, the 950 with a Hub (aka Elite) is a great choice. You will pay a lot for it, but you will really enjoy it.

I only took off one star because of the convoluted process of getting and copying the old remote setup to the new remote. You need to create a completely new account, with a different email from your existing account. Then while in the new account you choose to copy the old remote setup from your old account, meaning sign in to that old account within a pop up window. It sounds easy now, but when trying to figure out what Logitech wants on their site that you’ve never been to and you just want to get it done ‘cause you haven’t even had breakfast yet - well it’s frustrating. As the title suggests the frustration is worth it as it works perfectly and even somehow quicker than the old remote. Love the up to 50 favorite channels, not too fond of how the channels are chosen or their so called “drag and drop” process to rearrange them. However once set up you won’t have to do it again.

This is a pricey little beast, but worth it if your A/V system is complex. My own system includes 8 devices, and a couple are "legacy" equipment (Carver and Marantz). Surprisingly, all these units were in the Harmony library. Programming the remote at the simplest level is trivially simple, and the wizard leads you through it easily. But actually, you don't need to spend nearly this much if basic operation is all that's needed. Where this remote excels is in custom programmed operations that would be clumsy if done with the individual device controllers. It allows creation of "ACTIVITIES" which are setup scripts that perform chosen actions by a single button push from the touch screen. For example one of my ACTIVITIES is "Watch Roku". Tapping this icon executes all of the following:LG TV on, select HDMI 2 (ARC channel) ; Yamaha A/V receiver on, set to HDMI 3, select theater mode SPECTACLE, volume to -30, ; ROKU on, HOME screen up.Watching ROKU actually requires all that, but without the 950 I have to juggle 3 remotes.Currently I have programmed 7 ACTIVITIES, and will add another when I put the remote control gas valve on our fireplace. Maybe I'll name it GET COZY.It isn't perfect; battery life is a bit short (3 days for us) and if there is no power near your TV watching chair, the dock must live elsewhere. My #1 complaint is the hard-wired gesture screen which comes up automatically. This cannot be shut off or bypassed. The problem is (this actually happened) if someone unfamiliar with the remote, say a guest, picks it up with the gesture screen active, they can inadvertently run the volume up to max, which for my system is WAY too loud. (I since activated the Yamaha volume limit function). Also the remote-to-remote IR learn function doesn't work reliably, so trying to insert a command that is not in the library is iffy.Overall, this remote is very well thought out and really versatile.