Logitech has announced that they are officially discontinuing their line of Harmony remotes. The current supply of remotes will continue to be sold but no new remotes will be manufactured. Logitech says they will continue to support existing and new Harmony remote users “as long as customers are using it,” which is as vague of a timeframe as they could have possibly given. They also say they will “continue to update the platform and add devices to our Harmony database.”
Harmony remotes have long been favorites among Fire TV owners because they are among the few remotes that can control Fire TVs. The Harmony Hub, which is included with most Harmony remotes, connects directly to the Fire TV over Bluetooth in order to relay commands from the Harmony remote. Until the arrival of the Fire TV remote with power/volume buttons in 2018, Harmony remotes were among the very few remotes that could control both a Fire TV and a TV with a single device.
In an interview in 2019, Logitech’s CEO said that their remote business was only about 6 percent of the size of their keyboard business. That, combined with the fact that a lot of people these days use a single streaming device for all their entertainment needs, makes it understandable that they would shift their focus to other product lines.
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I used to have a Harmony in every room a few years ago. But with the proliferation of streaming and a single remote can control all of the devices out of the box thanks to HDMI-CEC, I’ve put most of mine away.
Hmmmm? I just bought an Refurb Harmony Elite Remote with The Hub on eBay at REALLY reasonable cost. This thing is GREAT! Runs all my AVR/TV/Surround-Sound Set-Up…Bluetooth, infared, whatever… I have everything on it… I am setting up my 12-year old Woo Audio WTP-1 CD Transport and my Anedio D2 DAC that I run a tube amp off of as well!…Also just put my AC units on it as well……this thing ROCKS!….Is there another way to do all of this on one remote? I like it better than a phone/tablet!
Not sure about your specific ac unit, but a lot of ac units and music can be played through voice e.g. alexa.
As for anything tv or projector related which most harmonys were used for, hdmi-cec does a great job these days with zero set up effort.
Hmmm. I had a different experience…LOL!I had to turn off all of the CEC controls on my HiSense TV, Marantz, Panasonic BD3000, and FireStick etc…they were all trying to talk at once, and it was a big mess! I currently have 10 things in my home that I control with the Harmony…There is one remote on my coffee table, and I do not need a phone or tablet except to stream HD music… I do have the very small Firestick remote out which I “occasionally” use if I need a Mic to facilitate a search…but I know it is a personal choice thing, but I just am NOT an Alexa or Siri kind OG guy……but I am one of the crazy people who invested the time in setting that all up. I “get” that it is not for everyone…and I am sure that I am in the minority as usual..LOL…Harmony has discontinued the product, what more is there to say…!
Thing is, A streaming remote can control nothing beyond the device it was made for. Sure, on SOME you can control the volume and/or power of the TV…Oh boy, what a thrill. But they cannot, and do not control the AVR, Blu ray player, change the inputs on the TV, change the TV channels…No, streaming remotes can’t compete. 6% market share or 60%, this is a definite poor decision call on Logitech’s part.
Newer tvs with hdmi cec setup can control the tv and receiver by setting the proper inputs to use the device in question. I can turn on the TV and receiver and have everything on the proper inout when I press the power button on my fire stick. If I use my xbox remote to turn on the xbox, everything switches to the right inout again. Then turn off the tv with any remote and everything is turned off.
When all I have in my media room are these two devices, I really don’t need a remote that controls them all doing the exact same thing.
Brad…I am glad that you are satisfied with your set-up…..in my experience you are describing a system that works great for a causal user, who is OK with multiple remotes and who can only find tune their devices from each individual remote, right?. I find that the Harmony Elite can control all of the small commands in all my devices. I really just need this one remote. If it had a Mic it would be perfect. Understanding the Harmony, how it works and setting it up at it’s best is a pretty big learning curve though, that most people are not willing to invest. I believe that is why the Harmony has lost popularity…It’s become pretty complicated….
I have a Harmony Elite, or rather had. When I had a cable box, Seperate Blu Ray player, multiple game consoles that didn’t have HDMI-CEC it made sense to use it. Now in that room it’s a receiver, the Fire Stick, Xbox Series X, PS4, and Switch. All of which have HDMI CEC.
I also have an Echo Dot in the room too to help control the lights and AC.
For me, 1 TV remote does enough for when I’m watching shows and the other remotes are game controllers for each system. Even then, I can use my manufacturers TV remote to control basic commands on most of the devices as well. I just don’t see a need for the Harmony when HDMI-CEC talks to everything connected to the TV.
I guess that I am not bright enough to get my HDMI to talk to one another properly. I really think it will not work with the CEC…but I am also controlling a DAC and a vintage CD Transport and some other things….so for me..I am sticking with the Elite….I may buy a spare! LOL!…
☹️ So Sad
I fell out of love with harmony early on, when their customer service reps on their forums kept telling me I was using their remotes wrong.
I asked how to change the order of the devices so that the 4 devices I used most would be on the first page on my remote. They told me I should use activities instead. I don’t want to use activities, because sometimes I just need to do something simple like switching an input. So that was my first and last harmony.
Harmony remotes are built around activities and keeping track of which device is on which input and things like that. You were using your remote completely wrong and the customer service rep was completely right.