when I was 14 I hated the concept of universal remotes because all we had were those stupid Walmart ones with no LCDs, and there were always commands missing. So we had to keep all the original remotes accessible *anyway*, why even bother? Discovering Harmony about 10 years ago changed my life
Those of us who chose Android back then largely did it based off of the fear that if Apple's standards (locking the user out of everything) became dominant, everyone would just start designing things that way, and consumers would forget what value tech could offer as it's increasingly designed to extract money from you for non material goods.
My opinion is no one needs anything above and beyond their Harmony 350. It's far more ergonomic with a far better button layout and battery life similar to a standard remote. HOWEVER I would tolerate the 880 at $15.
The way the videos are edited, the way f4mi talks, the very interesting themes, and the fact that the videos look very retro, makes this one of my favorite RU-vid channels without a doubt. f4mi deserves more attention for sure. Hope you continue with these great videos!
I'm so glad someone is taking a deep dive into more Logitech products. The only Logitech controller that people remember is the one that sank an entire submarine.
TBH, the controller was probably not has fault in the submersible fiasco. The ego of a stupid CEO, and a very bad choice of material for the hull probably was
That's so funny to me, because I was considering getting it years before that happened And after a few years, I kinda wish I did. If only because the start and select buttons suck. I got a SteelSeries Stratus Duo, for anyone that may ask. And wired is more reliable
I recently bought a Logitech wireless mouse, so seeing this video felt like a huge coincidence. I actually saw an increased interest in their wireless game pads, though I don't know if they're reliable, at least for casual PC gaming. In a bit of black comedy, after the Titanic incident some companies began advertising that specific model on sites like Facebook for some reason
This is like that Technology Connections idea on the really fancy toaster, in that I’m going to look at my TV remote and always seethe slightly that it could be so much better :’)
This remote perfectly captures the feeling of what tech was like in 2005. The way it looks and works, with these features from when they'd make things like this just for the sake of it. Except this one is actually pretty cool. It's weird reflecting on how much the iPhone really changed things… This is specific, but this remote really feels like something my grandma would buy, never figure out how to use, and forget about until she let me use it.
9:36 just a quick shout out, Apple TV does actually accept Infrared input! Not only do all revisions of the the Siri Remote have an IR blaster, the Apple TV itself, including the latest Apple TV 4K with A15 Bionic, has an IR sensor. This is to keep compatibility with traditional TV remotes, Accessibility related remotes/accessories, and also Apple's older Apple TV remotes that don't have Siri or Bluetooth
Awesome vid! Speaking of remotes, you should cover the Mission Impossible game for the Game Boy Color. It was your generic, run-of-the-mill movie tie-in game, *except* it came bundled with an entire suite of utility programs, one of which was a remote that used the Game Boy Color's IR sensor. It was fun to mess around with - if you took it to a department store where they had those huge walls of televisions, or pointed it at a neighbor's TV through their window at JUST the right angle, you could control other TVs and wreak all kinds of miniature havoc💀
13:55 That's exactly what I was thinking when you first mentioned the Harmony database. Hopefully someone manages to download the whole database at some point, it would be a shame if those codes just got lost once Logitech finally decides to stop supporting the Harmony line.
I suspect that the hub-based remotes will eventually go bye-bye when logitech kill the servers, but the simpler ones will stick around forever. I've got two kicking around as a contingency plan.
@@LordVarkson You actually don't need to have the hubs internet connected. You can control them over LAN. I'm not sure how (as I haven't bothered poking into the code), but there's integrations and controls with Home Assistant, so there's an API somewhere.
@@coleisforrobotDoes it store the codes in hex format, like Remote Central and other things that use IR codes (PSP homebrew IRShell, and the Flipper Zero etc.) I always had to use the PSP (and now Flipper) to download missing codes that weren't in Logitech's database, then teach it to my Harmony as a missing command. Using one programmable remote to teach another one - because they wanted to keep it user-friendly and not expose an interface to add or edit hex data. All remotes are doing is sending a series of binary data using the LED, after all. So you can represent that in hexadecimal, which is the de-facto standard.
There is Remote Central, a forum/community that stockpiles IR codes for remotes, and it's used in more high-end applications (I worked for a company that sold integrated smart AV solutions, including an iOS app that people could use to control their TVs - we'd download codes from there and bake them into the little transmitter units for their equipment)
linus kitchen background, screaming AAA like dankpods, and you're talking about the remote that is the source of some of my oldest tech memories??? instant sub
Man wish i know about these back in the mid 2000, infinitely better that the one i still have. Also wasn't expecting the Daytime Slideshow music from the Wii's News Channel in the end, nice touch.
I love hearing you talk, your accent coupled with the advanced way you structure English sentences makes my brain happy, you communicate your ideas very well.
My parents have been using the harmony touch as a daily driver for years and even before that, they were using the 885. It was so cool to use this remote as a kid
I still use a Harmony remote (a new version with the hub). It's so convenient to have everything in one spot and consolidated into your home assistant (google, Alexa, etc). It doesn't just program buttons, it programs timing and sources too, automatically. It account for the model of TV and how long it can take for something to turn on and switch channels, on top of that it can turn other thing on and off in the same instance. like a sound bar. So if I have my TV playing and press the music button it'll turn off the TV and put the soundbar in Bluetooth mode.
just thirding or fourthing here that the logi smart hub with Home Assistant is great. Rock solid and it works locally over the LAN. Although the Smart Hub seems to call home and stuff so someday when Logitech unplug some servers somewhere I'm pretty sure it will just flash a little red light forever 😡
I'm surprised nothing newer has came out but I'm still good. I got an ultimate for my basement, living room and bedroom have smart control, and everywhere else uses fire stick remotes.
I got my first 880 shortly after they came out. Eventually got one for each member of my family. Over the years they have worn out and I have purchased replacements off eBay. Kids have moved out and I have a pile of 880s in various states. Still love the 880 to this day and fear for the day they are no longer supported to the point they don't work any more.
I'm surprised that servers for this thing are supposedly still online, considering it's discontinued for three years now. Logitech could just do the usual corporate thing and silently shut it down, and don't listen to complaints, but if it works in 2024 it's pretty awesome. Still would back up the whole database and upload somewhere just in case. O_o
Yeah, we need an offline alternative for when Logitech decides not to maintain it anymore. I use a newer version of the software than what she shows here, that runs natively on Windows 7 (and was the one you could download in 2020 before they discontinued the products) but it still requires you to sign in with your account and needs an internet connection for it to work.
What a great nostalgia trip. Not just the top tier aspect ratio, but the remotes. I remember selling these at my job way back when. Folks with complicated A/V setups were so relieved to learn of them, and the people who would scoff at the price tag and wonder why any remote is so expensive were always impressed with a quick demo. Good times. Thank you😢
I kept my G15 keyboard and put it back in it's box after it served me for a decade of WoW. Nostalgia for that thing is extremely high. Love that damn thing.
Ah yes, "universal" remotes, the bane of my grandparents. More recent ones, even if generic and cheap, can still be reprogrammed by using either some IR interface on your PC, or plugging an audio cable to a socket on the side. Yes, a simple remote has an headphone port, while phones do not.
I almost purchased one of these. I have a projection mapped show for my house using four projectors. I originally used the Broadlink RM Mini 3, but sometimes a button press would be missed getting the signals over Wifi. So my end goal was eliminating the need for internet altogether, but I also needed something that would start up on its own. I ended up purchasing an old android phone with IR (LG V40) and using Tasker along with irplus to program everything. Now I can leave the phone plugged in outside in a box and the phone will automatically restart, launch into irplus, and send the sequence of IR button presses needed to launch the video on all four projectors at the same time.
I love your arguments about using touch screens for almost everything, this is one of the reasons why gaming still uses gamepads and not any game can work the same on a mobile device, it just isn’t the same feel
This inspired me to buy my own Harmony 880 remote. It arrived today, and I am excited to try it, but it didn't come with a battery. So I have ordered a replacement battery for under $10. Great video, and worth a subscribe!
Man, and my thing with universal remotes was that I very rarely had one work 100% with my TV's over the years. There were always quirks like menus being mapped to buttons like "info" or things like "previous channel" not working at all. You basically had to pick the code that had the most functionality.
I miss the days when smartphones had stuff like an ir led (not irDa sensor, that died in the feature phone era with Nokia sadly) to use your phone as a remote or and FM radio with way more functionalities than a hardware one... At least we are finally getting remotes with embedded rechargable batteries and small calculator style solar panels...
I kinda miss how "out there" Logitech was with their products during this era, i remember one of my first controllers as a kid being a logitech wingman rumblepad, which had an interesting layout to say the least lol
Some time ago I found a old harmony remote on the attic. Nothing fancy, without screen. I was amazed that it just worked. I just threw soms AA'S, connected to a pc and I was up and running. Cool to see that some companies are keeping old products alive
my favorite lost feature on samsung phones was the infrared emitter on the top of the old galaxy phones. They let you program them and use your phone to control literally anything that uses remotes (it's still a lot of devices) from air conditioners, to lights to random fans it was so cool. RIP lil light.
Xiaomi phones also USED to have IR blaster. Mine from 2020 has it. Sadly, with recent Xiaomi 14 line they decided to get rid of IR blaster. Some non-flagship model may still have it, but cease and desist has alreay began...
I configured my dads harmony when I was 12 in like 2008. Gave him a harmony reciever thingy years later which is now connected to Alexa. The remote was better. Fantastic products.
This video just popped on my RU-vid feed and I thank the algorithm for that. Great quality, interesting use of 4:3 ratio with modern HD video, well-edited and funny. +1
I'm sitting here like.. why does this look odd and also really familiar. Green screen and LTT set. Maaaaan crazy how much of my life LTT was, ever since the day I looked up he velodrive 1.2tb before I bought it. What a champ. I'm so happy his company is gigantic and massively profitable. The dude worked his way up and fully earned it, champ.
I owned one of these, the coolest thing about them was all the hidden IR codes. Like SONY TVs have a button to go immediately into their service menu, or switch to input 7. No consumer device would ever have access to that stuff without the online IR code database.
Yeah, but OEMs have done a better job at hiding or disabling those. I had a Samsung TV which I bought in 2013 for example (an actual Samsung, not a Smasnug 😉) with four HDMI inputs. The only discrete codes I could find anywhere were for HDMI 1, 2 and 3. So how did you get to HDMI 4? Well, assuming you had sources plugged into all the inputs (the TV would hide disconnected inputs from even appearing in the list), it would send a discrete command that switched to HDMI 3, then press the Input button, right arrow key, and OK key. That way it would take you to HDMI 4, without you having to select it yourself. That was actually all built into Harmony's database, I didn't come up with that. Some user thought of it, submitted it to Logitech, and it got merged. "If it's stupid but it works, is it really stupid?" Of course the problem was if you didn't have anything in HDMI3 that entire process would fail; it also took a few seconds opposed to instantly switching like the first three inputs. Now, in 2022 I bought a Sony TV. I looked everywhere for a discrete on and discrete off code, to no avail. Tried a dozen different models. Harmony's database had them programmed in, but they were identical and just did the power toggle of the factory remote. To this day I still don't have that working because Sony never made a code available :( So yeah, tl;dr Logitech can only add codes that exist, if the OEM doesn't provide one then it won't happen. Most of the time, someone has to call them and bug them enough to get some IR codes sent to them, then those get shared with everybody. I used to work for a company that did integrated smarthome solutions and we literally did this ourselves, calling up TV manufacturers and pestering them day after day until some fed-up representative emailed us a file to get us to stop calling them.
That reminded me of when my stepdad had a fancy LG "XStudio" plasma TV (that had a built-in DVR which could pause, rewind, and record video inputs!), and he used it with a Logitech Harmony 650 which was able to load commands for jumping to specific video inputs, and I later learnt that it was part of LG's external control stuff for allowing TVs to be controlled by hotel headroom systems and AV systems and the like.
I bought a second hand harmony hub with the touchscreen remote about 8 years ago and it's phenomenal. If you have an AV receiver and more than one video output it's a no brainer. Also the hub has its own IR blasters built in. When I go to other people's houses I get so confused when I have to: * use more than one remote and * actually point it at the TV Also it has a phone app, and "Works with Google" so you can just ask one of the Nest speakers to turn the TV on and it'll power on the TV, the Amp, select the correct input, and dim the lights. When you switch it off everything goes back to how it was before
this is just my kind of favorite thing! i kinda miss old devices from the early 2000s like these. theres another channel that has a series dedicated to phones called "when phones were fun" god was devices back then alot more tactile and rugged. smart phones are versatile but they turn everything into the same shape and form factor due to them needing to support Apps. i remember having this really old portable cd player years back and i would basically bring it everywhere and since it had a usb port i just bring movies and stuff with me.
Harmony remotes are still, to this day, the most useful tech product I have ever purchased. I still use the same remote that I purchased in 2010-it’s still working. My autistic daughter has peeled off some of the buttons, destroyed the faceplate that protects the IR LEDs, and poured drinks on it several times. It continues to work. It’s incredible.
Ive had a harmony 720 remote i bought when i learned you could control your xbox 360 with it like a controller. It still works. Use it now for an older toshiba lcd and old sony surround sound system in my living room. Also works with the roku premiere.
This channel is a hidden gem. Keep doing what you do I'm sure you'll grow! I'm definitely subbing and I'll spread this around to some friends that are into niche old tech
I can remember wanting one of these when I was younger so bad after reading about it on Engadget way back in the day. Ended up just pirating some software for my Palm Treo instead and using its ir blaster, which actually worked well from what I recall. Also because of dankpods I too now must scream all battery sizes
You got a new super loyal subscriber here. The video in itself was super interesting but the moment you got the G15 out I HAD to subscribe. I love and own every keyboard Logitech ever DARED put and lcd screen on. GG, looking forward to new content.
I WATCH IN WIDESCREEN MODE AND ONLY JUT REALISED THE VIDEO IS IN 4:3 ASPECT RATIO OH MY GOSH!!!! it's like a callback to 2005 in itself. also, nice vids! second one i've watched of yours so far. i like you, you're cool. subbed :)
good video like all your videos. i like how you go into detail and present all the background info about stuff most people wouldn't even think of. i like your blue hair by the way, you're so cool!
I was going to post something like "life hack: use the remote that came with the device" but this is actually a huge leap forward for universal remotes. I wouldve been all over this if i knew about it at the time. But now i dont have much that uses infrared.
So, I have a Logitech Harmony One, that I got from Circuit City, literally the day they closed, it was $300, but I paid about $50. But I still use it, the programming app still works, but... the best thing to me, is that I can use it to record IR signals from ANY remote and then custom program the remote to do basically anything I want.
I almost bought one of these back in the day. I don't have many devices, but it would be cool to program different channels with logos so I won't have to keep entering the channel numbers on the remote that came with my TV on an antenna. It is also fun to see how things worked years ago.
OMG!! I never knew anyone even knew these things existed! The best version they had thats still my dream setup was the harmony device that hooked into your network to send IR signals to all your devices in a given room. I essentially took an old 1st gen ipod touch i customized and modded for aesthetics/fun and made it my dedicated harmony remote. I used it and my normal iphone to control various TVs, monitors, DVR, AV receiver, some consoles even (like the media functions for the xbox 360 & ps3). Man, yall remember when companies like logitech used to make not just useful but also good products? Wtf happened 😂
Finally these things are getting the respect they've always deserved! I was lucky enough to find a Harmony series remote (no screen unfortunately, but it works with the database) at a thrift store, literally for free. After years of fighting with "universal" remotes, it was truly bliss. The hardest part was getting the janky old software to work, but work it did, and it included support for everything I wanted to control! Unfortunately it was a well-used remote to begin with, and now some of the buttons are starting to fail. But I can't bring myself to get rid of it, it's just such an oddity. I think the closest open-source alternative we have to Harmony is the "JP1" project (which is a whole rabbithole in and of itself). They have software that allows you to flash custom firmware onto a wide variety of remotes. They have a massive database of codes too, although I'm sure the Harmony database dwarfs it. Still, JP1 is pretty awesome for a community project.
I actually own a couple of the Harmony 650/665/700 style remotes and an older one with a black and white screen and all the ones I have actually use AAA or AA batteries instead of being powered by potential spicy pillows.
I was sad when these were discontinued. I never bought one (so I'm part of why they are gone) but I always thought they were very cool. Lately my dad has put together an AV tower with a couple of VCRs, a Beta max, some satellite receivers and more random stuff and has like 13 remotes on his desk, it's insane. It might be worth it to get one for him... Or not, because then I'll have to be the one managing and teaching him how to use it. 😢
I still have that remote! I don't use it but I have it. That software was still better than their mobile app IMO. Had more options. I wish the unfolded circle remote two wasn't so expensive and a Kickstarter. If you use Home Assistant it's a potential end game remote. Anything in HA can be mapped to the OLED screen or physical button. So, if you had a smart doorbell and someone rang it you could have the video feed come up on the OLED display. It also has other integrations like android TV, hue, homatics. It's also open source and has an open source API so anyone can develop for it if they want
9:35 Interestingly enough, Apple TV's shell is made from a black plastic that is transparent in the inferred wavelength because it actually does allow for programmable button mapping!
I was a bit more pragmatic. I started with the Logitech 300 and about 10 years ago got their 350 update. Knowing they were folding I opted to buy 10 when they were on closeout. To me the 300/350 has a more ideal layout since it does EVERYTHING the 880 does with a battery life similar to more standard remotes. As far as being well built I still have the 2 Harmony 300s kicking around but have burnt though 2 out of 10 Harmony 350s. For me it's ideal as I can program some of the extra buttons for let's say TV volume or sound system volume.
Fucking yes!! Cheers f4mi, got the Sunday night blues before work tomorrow and this cheered me up! Time to drink wine and be hungover in the morning to get through it...
