Harmony HUB as IR emitter

Sorry posting this again hope more users like to have this....Besides activities sync which BTW works great, Another great feature which I think will drive more and more users towards RR is if we can call device level commands from RR using the Harmony Hub as a IR transmitter this add-on will be fantastic and will let us ditch Harmony app all together. This will surely replace RR IR blaster which is not being manufactured anyway and Global Cache as well. I am sure all of us using RR would have a hub or two I have 4 hubs and if we get this capability good buy Harmony app...besides providing great flexibility

The Harmony Hub is generally much more expensive than Global Caché adapters. The GC adapters are definitely still being manufactured, are inexpensive, of excellent quality, have numerous additional configuration options over the Harmony Hub, even supporting serial and relay, and on and on. We continue to recommend them for all users needing infrared or serial control.

I actually think that this specific request was not even possible via the API or only a subset of it would be possible making the implementation very confusing for end users, so exactly which set of users this would benefit is unclear. It's a very small slice (those without GC adapters) of a small slice (those who have parallel deployments of Harmony Hubs). It's not that it's a bad idea, but realistically I can't see prioritizing this because of API limitations and the inexpensive availability of quality adapters.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts if there are API challenges then yes it’s a no go...however Harmony Hub is at $99 MSRP but most of the times on sale at $69, and with a hard remote $129, $99 street price. Also I think almost all of us tech geeks using RR would have Harmony remote as a hard remote device for the non tech house hold members as such if there was a possibility to use the hub as IR command emitter at the press of a button in RR it will 100% replicate the hard remote functions in RR...for instance devices with no IP control say a non smart TV devices we can control using activity sync...but if we have to say increase vol we have a create a dummy activity in Harmony and sync that to an activity in RR, and to decrease volume another activity...list goes on change channel etc...if it was possible to send these IR commands via HUB we don’t need to create so many activities in Harmony...finally GC is great extension to RR but not a hard remote replacement for IR devices

Thought I’d throw this out there that I just stumbled on an article that Logitech is discontinuing the Harmony remote. While I personally don’t use one, I know there has been various discussion about them in this forum over the years.

https://flip.it/NtDK5C

They just never moved beyond the hard button remote. They never added any form of Media Guide. There were so many gaps. It's not about whether someone needs a "universal remote" which is really a meaningless and generic word, it's about what they need when consuming content. Their business model was based on selling custom hardware when the model for consuming content increasingly required interaction with the content as we do, and their hardware was very ill-suited to do that.

FWIW I did try to explain this to them as we spoke many times over the years. Some people there strongly agreed with me. But nothing ever happened. RIP.

I have decided to do a promotion in light of this news to help Harmony customers transition over. The price of Unlimited Perpetual is now 20% off for a limited time.

Wow this is some news it’s a great opportunity and endorsement for RR future directions. However there will always be a need for a hard button remote yes the #’s are decreasing but may still be significant...hope someone will buy this part of the Logitech business....any chance to integrated any other universal hard button remotes out there like Sofabaton U1 ?

I was discussing this recently on another forum and did some promoting of Roomie as a Harmony replacement, since I've replaced two Harmony hubs in my home with Roomie. But I got a lot of pushback from people who said their wife, parents, nanny, or guests, etc. would just not adapt to a touch screen. I will admit as a long time Roomie user that even I will pull out the hard remotes sometimes especially when having to enter letters on the screen virtual keypad or when having to hit the down DPad buttons numerous times to navigate. It's much easier to do by feel when you are looking at the screen for position. When I do it on an iPad my finger will drift slightly away from the arrow key I want and mess up my navigation.

Yes I agree but it’s hard to know the exact divide touch screen vs hard button remote...but one would imagine hard button remote will survive and remain a viable business it’s just that Logitech doesn’t see it that way, if I had money I would buy them out...LoL

Thanks for the 20% off Will!!

Yes very good timing to offer 20% off...I already have a perpetual license...👍

I'm getting ready to switch to RR. Just to make sure I understand correctly. Can I still use my current Hub to power on my movie projector with RR? Would rather not have to buy a GC adapter since the Hub works.

For the Harmony Hub you can only sync activities with RR...IR commands cannot be sent from RR like GC, I wish we could do that it will put all my Harmony Hubs into a much wider use. I have requested this feature earlier but I guess with Harmony going out of business it may never happen, and why would RR or anyone invest in an about to be killed Product / Platform. However if you define an activity in Harmony yes you can power on the projector...just sync with an activity of the same name in RR

An app can NEVER replace a hard-button remote. Nothing beats the tactile feedback and muscle memory for doing quick, repetitive tasks like controlling the volume, changing the channel, or using playback controls. An app requires you to look at it or talk to it. My theater with a semi-dedicated iPad is the only room where an app is a viable replacement for full control of my system. But that works only in the one seat where the iPad is at. And I still have to look over at the iPad and carefully aim my finger at the right UI element. I still tend to use physical remote for quick actions like volume, mute, pause, etc. According to Will I am a luddite and every Roomie user loves using the app 100% of the time for 100% of everything, so I spend my days yelling at the clouds about my desire for hard-button integration with Roomie via API. So far the clouds don't talk back. Not sure if that is good or bad.

But it’s not up to RR, there is a 100% need for a great APP like RR, there is none out there in the market....period, RR wins this by a long shot....however the need for hard button remote will always be there and as much RR would like to integrate one and frankly they have tired hard with Harmony, the hard button remote guys are not up to it what can RR do...I hope someone buys Harmony BU...maybe RR?

I agree with you totally. Roomie is great. I have a perpetual unlimited license. I have been here for years. It is obviously a matter of philosophical opinion, but my view is it does not replace a hard button remote for quick and repetitive task like volume control and playback control.

According to Will I am a luddite and every Roomie user loves using the app 100% of the time for 100% of everything

That statement is false. No part of it is something I ever said.

If I had such issues with hardbuttons as characterized, I would not have added numerous features to support them over time. At this moment, I'm pretty happy with our hardbutton support. The Harmony sync feature turned out great and numerous people use it. At this point that will get harder for users to put together over the course of time due to Harmony shutdown, so I've been considering what we should do in the future. But today it remains a good option to use them together.

I do believe today and since inception that ***Roomie *can* exceed the usability of a hardbutton. In Every Case.*** That is not to say it *does* exceed it always, it means that it is within the bounds of my mission to make that so. Often, we meet that goal. For a few people in select cases, we do not. My broader view is to add features that continue to improve usability relative to things like finding volume controls without looking at the screen, while also adding relevant features for hardbuttons where it may be broadly beneficial to a good number of users.

Agreed 100% with Will, RR has tried everything possible...now that Harmony is going out how about exploring other options ?

I was being facetious with my luddite comment that I attributed to Will. Clearly Will never said that verbatim, but as someone who values hard button remote for some tasks I do feel stuck with work-around situations by Roomie.

I absolutely agree with Will that "Roomie can exceed the usability of a hard button in every case." No question. The Roomie app is superb. Compare it to a very expensive app like Control4. Roomie is better. By far. So I am an invested fan of the app, but I still want to advocate for changes that I think are important. Therefore, I do not agree with your view that "RR as tried everything possible" when it comes to hard button remotes.

Once again, I think exposing an API for volume control and playback control for an activity would solve a lot of use cases for people with the interest and / or skill to solve those use cases. It would be low effort for Roomie since the API already exists to support Alexa. I know not everybody is technical and interested in this approach, and for those users I don't have any creative ideas on what a low effort option would be beyond what has already been provided. But by exposing an API it is possible that those with the interest and the skill might create solutions that work for the less technical users of Roomie.

I know I am beating a dead horse about the API, but I am a passionate user of the product and want to see it be as great as it can be. And I have opinions on how that might be able to happen.

That is a bummer about logitech discontinuing harmony remotes. Roomie did a nice job with this integration.