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Logitech Harmony Remote Controls Officially Discontinued (cepro.com) 77

Posted by msmash from the PSA dept.
CIStud writes: The rumors have persisted for some time, and now Logitech has officially confirmed it has discontinued its once-vaunted Harmony remote controls, including the line of Logitech Harmony Pro programmable remotes for custom installers. Logitech plans to continue maintaining the Harmony database and software. The discontinuation does not affect the operation or the warranty on any Harmony remotes being used by integrators' clients already in the field. Logitech also plans to continue to offer service and support for Harmony remotes. The company also points out that the decision does not affect a customer's ability to interface with the Harmony universal remotes via their Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant voice controls.
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Logitech Harmony Remote Controls Officially Discontinued More

Logitech Harmony Remote Controls Officially Discontinued

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  • I bought one of these in the past but it never quite felt like a total replacement. They needed one or more 'wildcard' buttons you could assign a function so they could control a device completely.

  • Handwriting on the wall back in 2017? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by UnknownSoldier ( 67820 ) on Monday April 12, 2021 @02:11PM (#61264656)

    Back in 2017 Logitech announced [arstechnica.com] that they were shutting down "service and support" for Harmony Link devices.

    Logitech bailing on a product is just the standard modus operandi for forced obsolesce. They do with with mice, keyboards, and trackballs all the time for devices not as "profitable" as they want -- which is why I recommend that once you find a keyboard / mice you really like to buy two of them.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by cruff ( 171569 )
      Same thing happened to the Squeezebox audio devices. Fortunately there is active open source development continuing and you can use them fine for locally stored content. (I don't use mine for streaming other content.)

    • Oh they have likable devices. Getting them to last is the problem. That's why I'm rocking a G-wolves mouse and Corsair keyboard.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by hjf ( 703092 )

        Well I have a DEXXA 2-button serial mouse somewhere, and it still works.

        Inside it says (C) 1987 Logitech.

        • Well I have a DEXXA 2-button serial mouse somewhere, and it still works.

          Inside it says (C) 1987 Logitech.

          Yes, and because it's "somewhere" and not on your desk being used every day, it didn't break eventually. That's a bit like keeping an 87 Corvette in your heated garage and it's still like new.

          • Maybe not now, but odds are that it got plenty of use back in the day.

            I still have an old Gateway PS2 keyboard (1992 I think) that works just fine when I need it. That keyboard has a lot of miles on it even if I don't use it daily anymore. They don't make hardware like they used to.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by hjf ( 703092 )

              My mom's MS Intellimouse Explorer from 1999 is still in use today. It's ugly and the paint has worn, but it works like a champ.
              I remember reading about it in magazines and how optical was the future of mousing. Only 1 week without having to clean a ball was enough for me to convert. Sixty bucks... but still rocking.
              Somewhere there's also another optical mouse, a little newer, with older technology. It uses a special reflective pad with a dot pattern (oddly, it has a SUN logo in the pad). I think the pad was

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by GuB-42 ( 2483988 )

              But did you play Diablo with it?

              Anyways, you can't really compare a mouse from 1992 to a modern mouse.
              - Modern mice have a high dpi, high speed optical sensor, not a ball and a pair of encoders (that you had to clean regularly)
              - Modern mice have at least 2 buttons + clickable scroll wheel, but 5+ is common. 1992 mice had 2 or 3 buttons and no scroll wheel
              - Modern mice are low voltage, especially the wireless ones, to save power. Counter-intuitively, it is more demanding on the switches.
              - Workloads tend to b

        • Something that looks clunky, and most likely is beige colored would look very out of place in a modern computer setup.

          I imagine using it as an emergency backup, but not as your "daily driver".

          Are you sure it still works? The electronics might work, but the rubber wheels that connect to the rubber ball might be turning into paste by now.

          I don't miss those kind of mice- having to clean all the crap that build up on those little rubber wheels...

  • I bought one of these when I installed a new HT setup, based on the online recommendations that they were the thing to have. I installed it and tried to use it. It sucked. You basically have to disable HDMI-CEC else it cannot keep track of what is on/off, so you cannot have your TV turn on automatically when you start streaming to a Chromecast from your phone... Same with any other non-IR method for control (like Google Assistant). After trying a few workarounds, I just gave up. HDMI-CEC turns on the

  • That Database should be open sourced (Score:5, Insightful)

    by denis-The-menace ( 471988 ) on Monday April 12, 2021 @02:20PM (#61264702)

    Many people in the community have contributed to this Database.

  • Is anyone aware of any open source solutions for configuring the Harmony remotes or at least the communications protocol that the remotes using for configuration?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Pascoea ( 968200 )
      As far as I'm aware, at least with the "newer" stuff, it's all encrypted. Unless Logitech does something to open it up, you're SoL.

      • "eNkrYpTeD" = lock in, control, and forced obsolecence by the manufactuer.

          There is no legitimate reason for doing this, as remote control codes are not some big trade secret.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Pascoea ( 968200 )
          The "legitimate" excuse they used: If you RMA a remote they just send you a new one, you're supposed to just shit-can the broken one. Encrypting the information was their means of assuring that the busted was essentially bricked. (Not saying this was right, but this is the excuse they used)

  • The best remote is no remote, just say "hey TV, ESPN" or something like that. And where you need to do it in quiet, it should just have a gesture based UI.

    • I don't want to talk to my devices...
      Sure it seems cool in Star Trek and other Science Fiction (Much like Holographic Displays)... However that is more of a way to translate what is happening to the viewer than actually being a useful tool.

      I am OK with gesture based UI, (Like on the Apple TV) where you just swipe up and down to navigate to what you want. Even a good universal button remote is fine too, if they actually came with good buttons with feedback, and not either squishy rubber keys, or mini-chick

      • I don't want to talk to my devices...
        Sure it seems cool in Star Trek and other Science Fiction (Much like Holographic Displays)... However that is more of a way to translate what is happening to the viewer than actually being a useful tool.

        I am OK with gesture based UI, (Like on the Apple TV) where you just swipe up and down to navigate to what you want. Even a good universal button remote is fine too, if they actually came with good buttons with feedback, and not either squishy rubber keys, or mini-chicklet keys that you can't feel where the buttons are.

        And let's not forget the one thing some remote manufacturers should burn in hell for. No backlight on a remote, that you're probably going to use almost all the time in a darkened room.

      • "I am OK with gesture based UI"

        I want to configure it so the sound goes mute when I put up my middle finger should Trump's blatherings ever pour fourth from my TV screen.

    • "gesture"

      And the channel flips wildly during that big football game.

    • This sounds like the dumbest way to control an entertainment system.

    • The problem is with "false triggers". Sure, a device can be coded so it ignores what it plays through it's own speakers, but what about other devices?

      A TV character saying "Hey Alexa", for example, and your Alexa will obey the character's instructions.

      This has been a problem that existed for a long time. Ask any owner of a "Clapper", especially when a TV was plugged into it, like shown in that old 80's television commercial, and any noise resembling two loud claps would trigger it.

      We can go even further bac

      • And those ultra sonic remotes didn't use digital codes (not the early ones at least).
        The first ones were literaly an acoustic musical instrument, with buttons that caused a hammer to strike a metal bar inside, each one tuned to a different ultrasonic "note". That's where the term "clicker" came from.

  • "We expect no impact to our customers by this announcement. "

    Hahaha .. do they all get a share in the Brooklyn bridge too?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Pascoea ( 968200 )
      "No impact"...yet. Until they shut down the databases and application, and turn my $150 remote into a paperweight.

  • After many years of reliable service my Harmony One finally died earlier this year. It still had the original battery. Finally the charging circuit just stopped working. I was shocked how long it lasted and that we never had an issue with it. Even our newest devices were supported right until the end.

  • No longer needed (Score:3)

    by MBGMorden ( 803437 ) on Monday April 12, 2021 @03:00PM (#61264904)

    I've owned two of these total - one it still sitting in my house somewhere, but I haven't felt a need to use it in at least 5 years. Streaming device remotes a la Roku and/or FireTV can control their device and power/volume on the TV, which is good enough for most things. And if you're using a smart TV one remote will control nearly everything anyways.

    • . And if you're using a smart TV one remote will control nearly everything anyways.

      I have a newer samsung tv and a nvidia shield. All I did was connect them together, both instantly recognized each other and configured their remotes to work correctly with each one automatically. I barely lifted a finger.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by leonbev ( 111395 )

      Yeah, most modern devices support HDMI-CEC connectivity, so the TV remote basically acts as a "universal" remote for anything that you connect to it.

      Good luck getting anything from different manufacturers built before 2017 to work with it, though.

  • "Logitech plans to continue maintaining the Harmony database and software."

    A good gesture, that will surely pay back in sales to customers who don't have to fear Logitech will just turn off vital internet links for their hardware, like some radio manufacturers COUGH Phillips or just end useful products when you tire of them about every six months COUGH Google.

  • Ugh, I had to set a bunch of these up for work many years ago. The web-only instead of local setup was awful - and not set up for 3rd party installs at all. AND the 'wizards' were infuriating - you HAD to go through the whole process even if you could have just filled out what you wanted without dealing with 100 options that don't apply to you. And to top it off, it was slow as hell.

  • Never liked ours (Score:5, Insightful)

    by roc97007 ( 608802 ) on Monday April 12, 2021 @03:22PM (#61264988) Journal

    I bought one when they first became a "thing", as my wife was having trouble managing all the remote controls for the TV, stereo system, outboard AC/3 decoder, DVD player and I think later the Roku.

    The Harmony, or "happy wife remote" was supposed to fix all that.

    It did not.

    From memory (it's been a while) I found it difficult to program, very slow in execution (you had to push the button and wait significant time for something to happen) and the "turn everything on/off" button didn't work consistently.

    It was IR only, and the stereo we had at the time had an RF remote, which broke the "one remote to rule them all" paradigm.

    It was billed as the remote for non-technical people, but needed a technical person to manage it. It seemed to be aimed at households with one geek and one or more non-geeks.

    And even then, there were no buttons labeled for things like rear channel volume, so you either had to figure out how to label buttons or rely on memory. So wife was always handing the remote back to me for non-trivial adjustments. And I would struggle to remember which button had been assigned to that task.

    We struggled with it for a couple months and finally gave up on it, going back to individual remotes.

    Later, when I swapped out the stereo for one with built-in surround decoders and IR remote, I might have had a second go at it, but the other issues would still have been in effect and frankly I was tired of fiddling with it. I guess I wasn't enough of a geek to see the appeal.

    Sometime later I remember seeing a programmable remote with a touch screen on which you could program custom labels, and that looked interesting, but was MUCH more than I wanted to spend for a remote.

    My conclusion, the Harmony was a decent idea but a poor execution. And with the slowness of IR remotes, the idea of doing batch tasks never really worked out.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by vux984 ( 928602 )

      Well, for your anecdote, here's mine:

      Ours worked great. Wife and kids liked it and found it easy to use. It did everything they needed, and everything i needed. and the other remotes were put into storage with the batteries removed and we never needed for anything ever.

      Of course, I am techy enough to deal with the admittedly klunky programming; and we bought one of the lcd panel enabled ones because you really NEED that if you want it to do more than the basics. I had a moderately complicated setup that i w

      • Maybe that was the problem. I had purchased an original Harmony remote, and paid the price for being an early adopter. I should have waited until the touch screen versions came out, and saved up for one of those. I dunno, though, they were hundreds of dollars. I don't see that as a good value just to combine remotes.

        One thing that did work for us, for awhile, was that I built an media center based on Windows 7, with HD receiver and AC/3 built in, and that worked pretty well. It would do DVD, and later

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Megane ( 129182 )

      and the "turn everything on/off" button didn't work consistently

      That's mostly due to most consumer devices not having discrete-on and discrete-off command codes. All it can do is assume that the devices are in some state and blindly send a "toggle power" code. You might have been able to fool it by covering the IR LED window while pressing the button that matches the current status.

      What I didn't like when I had one (a 600, I think) was that it had a "You will only watch ONE device at a time!" mentality. I am usually playing a PC game on one TV while watching my DVR or

    • What I found with the Harmony's was it really depended on the Harmony remote you bought and your AV equipment to our good your experience was.

      The first Harmony I bought the experience was a poor one. It was from memory a 550. It had the IR directly in the remote and so you had to keep holding it up till the activity sequence finished which was the cause of the first problem, my wife would hit the activity then put it down on the coffee table before it finished and it wouldn't complete properly. The second i

  • For those of us nerds who buy second-hand old electronics, these are super useful and I hope that there is some way to continue to configure them after Logitech stops supporting them...

  • Minority Report - Best Remote I've ever used... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by David_Hart ( 1184661 ) on Monday April 12, 2021 @03:44PM (#61265090)

    I guess that I am in the minority. I loved the Harmony remotes.

    Programming required a little bit of effort but got better over the years. Once set up, it replaced 4 to 5 other remotes.

    I even setup a couple up for my parents. They love having just one remote instead of having to use 3 or 4 and don't miss having to search for the right one.

    Granted, my experience has been with the higher-end remotes, the Harmony One, Ultimate, Elite, etc. and with more popular A/V components.

  • I'll miss them - deeply (Score:5, Interesting)

    by teg ( 97890 ) on Monday April 12, 2021 @03:48PM (#61265114)

    I have had Harmony remotes for more than a decade, and I'm very fond of mine. Not only do they replace a lot of remote controls with one single remote, but you define activities that include more than one device. Sure, there are other remotes that can be configured to learn a couple of devices, in a bad way - e.g. my receiver remote can try to control the cable box (which I don't have) and the TV.

    Harmony handles complex setups - I have a TV, a receiver, an AppleTV, three consoles, a 4K Bluray/SACD player and a Sonos Port. This is a mix of some devices plugged into the TV with HDMI, some into the receiver with HDMI, one device controlled via wifi and with digital coax to the receiver.

    An action can be: "Use Xbox" - this will turn on the TV, the Xbox, and the receiver, set the TV to use one of the HDMI inputs for video and the receiver to use the HDMI EARC for audio. Or "Listen to Sonos" - this will turn on the receiver, set the audio input to a digital coax input and control playback from the Sonos (volume, skip, back etc) from the remote. I even have a button to turn off the lights (Hue) if I want to watch a movie or just relax and listen.

    Sure, this will continue working for a while - but one day the hardware will fail, and I can't get a new one.

    (dupe, due to Slashdot's annoying "Post anonymously" pseudo-feature used in an earlier discussion to avoid undoing mods...)

  • Any tips?
    After years, it's just too simple to press 1 botton on my harmony keyboard to launch an activity, as for example... power on TV, HDMI1, TV volume down until zero, turn receiver on, DVD input, turn nvidia shield. And double as a BT keyboard on this one.
    Now press another, goes for my Nintendo...

    What are the alternatives, preferably with a Bluetooth keyboard if possible?
    Sure, will keep using as far as I can go, but it's no on my server... :(

  • I previously loved logitech harmony remotes. I think I still have 5 or 6 that are in use around both my house and my parent's house. They were some of the best in the market.

    However, to me, they lost very large segments of the market when they dropped the physical buttons for the number pad from the remote. This is a one of the most important features on a remote as it is the easiest way to input a channel, or to interact with dozens of other devices. Without physical buttons, you now had to rely on a touc

  • I had two of them, they were as good as you could do.

    Which isn't good enough. The fundamental problem with remotes is that devices don't talk to each other, unless they do it in a bad way (The TV is on, so you turn on the LG blu-ray, which tells the LG TV to toggle, and it goes off), and because most remote signals are stateful.

    My favourite device is my receiver/amp, which has separate signals for turning on and turning off and can't get it wrong.

    Now you're seeing more devices with WiFi built in. But is t

  • A programmable remote really needs buttons with customizable labels, and the simplest way to do that is with a touch screen. That makes these devices prime targets for takeover by phones. All you'd need to add is an IR transmitter/receiver.
    The biggest drawback of using a phone is that it autolocks. A remote must be immediately usable, without jumping through hoops first.

  • So how does that actually compare to a 5 USD ir-blaster that's plugged into your mobile phone USB port? (In case your phone doesn't have an ir-blaster itself.)

  • Harmony remotes had their issues, some of which were already mentioned in other posts:
    - slow execution of macros
    - not 100% reliable (because of dependence on the internet connection to Logitech servers)
    but they had one huge advantage - physical remote.

    Just about all of other universal remotes are IR+Bluetooth combos which require an app on a tablet for the UI. Erm, no, and not because of the cost. Logitech Harmony Companion cost me ~100EUR, for which you can buy say Broadlink RM4 mini and some cheap Android

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