iPhone / iPad as a Remote Control

Note to fellow Mods: If there's a better place for this thread feel free to move it.

I've tried a few multifunction remotes in the past and not been thrilled due to less than stellar and there was no way to rename a key if you changed its functions.

I started experimenting with using an iPad /iPhone as a remote and tried the Red Eye. I am wondering if there is something similar out there with better performance / support now that Red Eye is no more.

I've been looking at Universal TV Remote | Universal Remote App | Home Automation | Remote Control as an alternative but I've seen some complaints of lags during button pushes and skip1Macro capability
s while streaming.

Ideally I'm look for the following features:
1. Macro capability
2, If it uses IOS ideally I'd like to set up one profile for my wife and one for me. She tends to prefer these things as simple as possible.

Any comments / suggestions appreciated.

I've tried a couple iOS remotes just for controlling Plex and the lack of a tactile feel to them drives me nuts. I'm curious as to what multifunction remotes you've tried in the past. I've been using Harmony remotes for years and swear by how customizable they are, although the build quality for some of them has been... lacking. They've gotten better, although I would never recommend the Harmony Touch in particular. I've avoided options that require an IR transmitter to work with an app in part because of the potential lag and the need to have a transmitter permanently placed somewhere that can reach all my devices.

The lack of tactile feel drove me nuts for a while but I got used to that in short order. My first shot at this was hears ago with a Sony remote that was a pain to program. Never quite got it 100% right partly due to my gear. Biggest problem though was that if toy repurposed one of the virtual buttons you couldn't rename it one the screen and therefore had to remember the new function.

I also tried one of the Logitech Harmony remotes before trying the Red Eye setup. I think the Logitech I used was a predecessor to this one. Only cost me about $50.00 IIRC. I was on a really tight budget at the time. Still am but might be willing to stretch things if I can find the right solution.

Right now we have a pretty open cabinet so that would not be an issue though there are times I'd like to close it for due to the dust and clutter.

Do you have any experience with the Harmony Ultimate series?

That Harmony 650 is actually a really good remote. My in-laws use that. The top screen is a bit more limited than the Harmony One that I use (which has a resistive touch screen with 6 actions per page), but it feels about the same in the hand (button layout is about the same) and the overall build quality is MUCH better than the One. Only thing I really dislike is that you can't seem to permanently get rid of the remote assistant that comes on screen every time you use the blasted thing (EDIT: not a problem on the One, I should add). People complain about it on Logitech's forums, but it's one of those tone-deaf things they just won't address for some bizarre reason. Oh, and before I forget, you absolutely can rename the virtual buttons. You set the name on the same screen in their desktop software that you change the function for it.

As for the Ultimate series... I've used the Harmony Touch, which was the predecessor to the Harmony Ultimate and from what I've read, they are identical except for a tilt sensor in the Ultimate. Logitech sent it to me when a couple buttons on my Harmony One failed just past the warranty period (their customer service is top notch, I'll give them that!). I used it for a week, then begged them to let me send it back and I instead found a 3rd party shop that specialized in repairing Harmony remotes. I thoroughly loathed it. The media play/pause/FF/RW (etc) buttons are up top and not easily gotten to. You have to shift your grip to get at them, and in the process potentially rub you palm on the touch screen and make it do "things". It's seriously short-sighted. As for the touchscreen itself, it's a much nicer capacitive type like modern smartphones, but badly implemented. The menus now scroll continuously rather than a page at a time, so you can't count on an action being anywhere in particular on the screen. There are also fewer actions on screen at a time compared to the One because they use a full-width pill-shaped button for each action rather than squared ones like you see in this photo of the One.

The Touch/Ultimate allows for gestures to do things related to media playback, and I guess that explains why they put the buttons on top, thinking people should use the gestures instead. But it is HARD on the thumb. Imagine skipping forward 7 or 8 times to get past a commercial break on a DVR recording. It's easy and natural with a physical button to just tap it quickly a few times, but on the gestures screen, you swipe on the screen with your thumb over and over and over. It's slower to do and strains the thumb quite a bit. Same problem with the D-pad... it's too low on the remote compared to how you hold it naturally so you have to torque your thumb a bit to use it. Here's one review on YouTube where the reviewer makes some of the same observations I had.

If Logitech would update the Harmony One with the build quality of the 650 and change the resistive touchscreen to a capacitive one that keeps the 6 actions per page and let you swipe pages around (the same way you'd go back/forward in Safari on iOS today), I'd be first in line for one. The buttons are perfectly placed on these two remotes; the balance and feel in the hand is just utterly perfect.

BTW... I just took a look on eBay and if you think the Harmony One is more your interest, you can get used ones in good condition for under 70 bucks. I'll give you a link to the shop that fixed mine. They repaired my button over a year ago now and it's still working great. If you can get a killer deal on one that just has a couple buttons not working, this may be the way to go.
Logitech Harmony Remote Repair

PS: Don't confuse the Harmony One that I'm talking about with the Harmony Ultimate One. Totally different remotes.

FWIW: We've had and used an old Logitech Harmony Remote 520 for years, and recently spent almost too much time re-programming it when we added a recent Apple TV to our entertainment system and it works very well, once I got everything working.

The hassles were the Logitech Harmony online directions were not accurate and didn't work, and basically I got thins working by manually adding an exaggerated time lag between various commands. One on-line page was very helpful if I can find it, and I will admit that I spent a lot of time getting things to work they way I wanted.

Just thought I'd mention that it worked very well and still does…

pm-r said:

FWIW: We've had and used an old Logitech Harmony Remote 520 for years, and recently spent almost too much time re-programming it when we added a recent Apple TV to our entertainment system and it works very well, once I got everything working.

The hassles were the Logitech Harmony online directions were not accurate and didn't work, and basically I got thins working by manually adding an exaggerated time lag between various commands. One on-line page was very helpful if I can find it, and I will admit that I spent a lot of time getting things to work they way I wanted.

Just thought I'd mention that it worked very well and still does…

Click to expand...

Some devices just don't work right with these remotes and it isn't always the fault of the remote. When I first got started with them (before Logitech bought them out!), I had a roommate who had a Kenwood AVR. The blasted thing just would not turn off randomly despite having the remote pointed at it properly. Or something along those lines... it was really bizarre. I double-checked and custom-programmed the IR codes directly into it, but it just wouldn't work right. I eventually got my own AVR, a Harman Kardon, and everything worked as expected. I later had another weird issue when I got a Samsung DVD player. I can't recall what the problem was, but I traded emails with their support guys and they couldn't understand why there was a problem (it really made no sense what was happening... interfering with the commands to the AVR, IIRC). I eventually replaced that DVD player with a Harman Kardon and the problem went away (and in the process realized what a turd that Samsung player was... the picture quality and color accuracy coming out of the HK was sooooo much better!).

I've had no issues with device compatibility since. Definitely none with the ATV. These remotes are amazingly flexible and programmable if you understand what you are doing. In fact, I figured out how to create a "reset" action for the ATV that is normally done by holding 2 keys down on the ATV's remote, something that doesn't work on 3rd party remotes. It was kinda tricky to do... but it worked great once I nailed it. Logitech has since added the code to their list of actions for the ATV, but didn't have it at the time I needed it. I wrote up a tutorial here at the time.

Lifeisabeach said:

Only thing I really dislike is that you can't seem to permanently get rid of the remote assistant that comes on screen every time you use the blasted thing (EDIT: not a problem on the One, I should add). People complain about it on Logitech's forums, but it's one of those tone-deaf things they just won't address for some bizarre reason.

Click to expand...

I take this back. I decided to look into this again, and they did finally add an option in their software to disable the Remote Assistant. I just killed it once and for all. Yay!

Thanks for the info guys.

@LB Tons of useful info here. I'm not in a huge hurry to buy at the moment so I have a little time to do some research. I used to hate scrolling through six commands at a time but that sounds better than the current setup.

Slydude said:

Thanks for the info guys.

@LB Tons of useful info here. I'm not in a huge hurry to buy at the moment so I have a little time to do some research. I used to hate scrolling through six commands at a time but that sounds better than the current setup.

Click to expand...

Sure thing. I have a lot of experience with the Harmony remotes and have done some creative things and know of more. You can set up a button to send a sequence of commands, for example. I did this to reset the 4-hour inactivity timer on my TV every time the OK button is hit on the remote for any other reason (keeps my in-laws from getting confused/panicking if it pops up when they are downstairs using it... technophobes!). You can also get around the device limit on their cheaper remotes if need be by simply using the IR learning tool to add the commands for those "other" devices from their remotes.

I saw a Harmony 1100 last night for less than half what it costs new. Almost bought it. Wasn't sure about the software though. I think the OS X version listed was 10.5. I haven't checked to see if the newer Logitech software would work. Just started looking at this one.

I found my previous Harmony rather versatile. The problem I had was that my TV was too slow powering up so the switch in inputs never registered no matter how much I slowed down the macro. That shouldn't be a problem now since I no longer have to make that input switch. Just dawned on me last night that the two TV-related commands didn't have to be right next to each other in the macro.

Slydude said:

I saw a Harmony 1100 last night for less than half what it costs new. Almost bought it. Wasn't sure about the software though. I think the OS X version listed was 10.5. I haven't checked to see if the newer Logitech software would work. Just started looking at this one.

Click to expand...

Logitech has two different pieces of software for some bizarre reason. The 1100 requires the older Harmony Remote Software, not the MyHarmony app. Their website says you need v7.7 but the current version is 7.8.1 and that's what the link leads to. I can certainly vouch for 7.8.1 working in Yosemite and the 1100 should be programmable with the latest version... AFAIK, the differences are merely bug fixes.

I found my previous Harmony rather versatile. The problem I had was that my TV was too slow powering up so the switch in inputs never registered no matter how much I slowed down the macro. That shouldn't be a problem now since I no longer have to make that input switch. Just dawned on me last night that the two TV-related commands didn't have to be right next to each other in the macro.

Click to expand...

Yeah, you can completely control the sequence of startup commands. Have the TV on first, then turn everything else on, then change the TV input last. (EDIT: at least I think you can... adding a touch menu button to switch the input manually is an option if not)

That's good to know. Thanks.

If the current software didn't work with the 1100 I could run the older software on an external drive. That would only work for a while though. Eventually i wouldn't be able to do that. Not sure my wife would like the 1100 anyway. Things that large sometimes prove difficult to use due to the size of her hands.

I'd love to just dive right in, buy something, and see how it works. That's definitely a bad idea. Over the last few years if you added up the total const of cheap replacement remotes, the Logitech I had, and the Sony programmable I tried years ago, I've probably sunk $300 or more into remotes.

Slydude said:

That's good to know. Thanks.

If the current software didn't work with the 1100 I could run the older software on an external drive. That would only work for a while though. Eventually i wouldn't be able to do that. Not sure my wife would like the 1100 anyway. Things that large sometimes prove difficult to use due to the size of her hands.

I'd love to just dive right in, buy something, and see how it works. That's definitely a bad idea. Over the last few years if you added up the total const of cheap replacement remotes, the Logitech I had, and the Sony programmable I tried years ago, I've probably sunk $300 or more into remotes.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I'd been very unhappy with the build quality of Logitech's remotes till recently. I had a Harmony 768 (right before Logitech bought them out) that was built really well, back in 2002 or so. I upgraded to an 880 2 or 3 years later to get some more advanced features, but man was it built poorly. Just over a year into it, I had 2 or 3 buttons fail on me and it wouldn't sit in the charger right... had to prop it little so it'd make contact. Logitech sent me a refurbed unit despite being out of warranty, but that didn't last a year before I had the same problems with it. I eventually got the Harmony One that I use now, and eventually had a button or 2 fail on me as mentioned previously. The buttons on their current remotes do feel a lot sturdier and the body is pretty solid (mine keeps popping apart just a bit at the seams). There is a button failing on the 650 my in-laws use, but that's the fault of my father-in-law. He doesn't gently press a button like you should... he crams it down as hard as he can.

Despite all this, there is no way I'd go back to using conventional remotes. The activity-based programming just knocks this completely out of the park. There are other remotes that function in a similar manner, but mostly require a home theater installer to program it because they won't release the software to the public (URC is notorious for this). Phillips used to make some remotes that looked promising, but they've discontinued them.