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Logitech Harmony Remote Software

P.J. Denyer

Penultimate Amazing
P.J. Denyer
Joined
Aug 21, 2008
Messages
16,583
Location
Oxfordshire
Does anyone have the installer for Logitech's MyHarmony PC version? They removed it from the site about a month ago and I'm finding the mobile app unreliable..
 
Last edited:
Wudang said:
If I do it's in the study where my wife holds Teams marathons all day. Feel free to nudge me tomorrow as I'll forget.

Hang on - is this it? https://archive.org/details/logitech-harmony-remote-software-7.9.0.143-osx
Click to expand...

I think that's the one! Thank you very much.

I thought my hub had gone to the great scrapheap in the sky last week, a reboot fixed it but it motivated me to pick up a spare, I could survive going back to the individual remotes for our setup but my wife doesn't get it and doesn't have the interest to learn it. (admittedly it's a lot simpler now than it used to be when we had a mix of analogue & HDMI devices and the old amp didn't do hdmi)
 
I ditched mine shortly after they announced they were sunsetting it. I think I saw it in a drawer last week. I just started setting up the LinknLink eMotion Pro which are presence sensors with Ir blasters. Work well with my TVs and split ACs.
 
Donal said:
I ditched mine shortly after they announced they were sunsetting it. I think I saw it in a drawer last week. I just started setting up the LinknLink eMotion Pro which are presence sensors with Ir blasters. Work well with my TVs and split ACs.
Click to expand...

I have a stand alone Alexa compatible ir/rf blaster (and the Firestick remote acts as one too although you're limited in what it will support), but I like the Harmony series for three reasons, one is that I've had a bunch of them over the years so I've got brand loyalty and I've not had to set up from scratch each time, secondly it has an actual physical remote, I don't want to use my phone to control the TV! Thirdly I like the activities organisation and the fact that when you switch between them it doesn't resend the on/off command for things that are already on (and therefore turn them off).

When I first switched to Harmony I had a mix of equipment, some of which was analogue, some was HDMI and my surround amplifier didn't have an HDMI input so all my analogue equipment went through the amplifier and my HDMI sources were connected directly to separate TV inputs for video and optical inputs on the amp for audio. I keep the sound off on the TV and always use the amp, so depending on what you wanted to watch you needed to turn on the TV, amplifier and the appropriate source, set the TV to the appropriate input, the amp to the right input and then have a remote for the source, a remote for the TV and a remote for the amplifier.

My wife almost divorced me.

The Harmony equipment just takes all that away from the end user and still manages to be really easy to set up for anyone with a reasonable understanding of how the system is set up, even my original frankenAVsetup worked seemlessly as a single black box for my wife from the remote (and later with Alexa voice control). It even controlled bluetooth remote devices like my PS3 (Sony blocked 3rd party AV control for the PS4) and my FireStick, which is now our go to "TV" device. At around this time I knew a couple of people in the really high end home cinema/audio business (one of them charged £25k per channel for audio valve amps) and they charged £500 plus several hundred pounds in set up time for a universal remote that wasn't as good.

With my newer surround amp and everything being HDMI now it's a lot simpler and I could use a combination of my IR blaster, Alexa routines and the Firestick remote.. But it wouldn't be quite as seamless, you'd need to turn on the TV by voice command (defaulting to Firestick input), then change to other functions. The Harmony is easier.

I've picked up a spare hub dirt cheap because I thought mine was dying, it seems to be okay for now, the battery was low in the remote and seemed to be sending rogue commands.. But I'm also going to keep an eye out for a spare remote. Just in case.


The prices second hand and new old stock prices on eBay suggest that while the market for these devices isn't huge it does exist and people are willing to pay well for them. Logitech really pissed me off by buying then killing this product range.
 
Wudang said:
I found my Harmony 650 in a drawer. Want it as a spare? The bedroom TV is bluetooth remote and my wife hates the Harmony. Am I henpecked? Hang on, I'll ask SWMBO.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the offer, but I use the next gen on from that as we need the Bluetooth too for the Firestick, I need to look out for the one that goes with the hub now I have a spare hub!

You might want to consider eBay, they seem to be going (or at least being offered) for silly money.
 
The other advantage of using a set up like the Harmony is that when Blue Ray was first coming in and the players were still quite expensive I happened to spot a nice Sony one in Richer Sounds, ex-display, remote lost, for £40. Years later it's still going strong.
 
P.J. Denyer said:
I have a stand alone Alexa compatible ir/rf blaster (and the Firestick remote acts as one too although you're limited in what it will support), but I like the Harmony series for three reasons, one is that I've had a bunch of them over the years so I've got brand loyalty and I've not had to set up from scratch each time, secondly it has an actual physical remote, I don't want to use my phone to control the TV! Thirdly I like the activities organisation and the fact that when you switch between them it doesn't resend the on/off command for things that are already on (and therefore turn them off).
Click to expand...
Ya, I still have my TV remotes and use Home Assistant to run scenes and automation. Harmony actually worked great with HA and my Philips Hue lights.
P.J. Denyer said:
When I first switched to Harmony I had a mix of equipment, some of which was analogue, some was HDMI and my surround amplifier didn't have an HDMI input so all my analogue equipment went through the amplifier and my HDMI sources were connected directly to separate TV inputs for video and optical inputs on the amp for audio. I keep the sound off on the TV and always use the amp, so depending on what you wanted to watch you needed to turn on the TV, amplifier and the appropriate source, set the TV to the appropriate input, the amp to the right input and then have a remote for the source, a remote for the TV and a remote for the amplifier.

My wife almost divorced me.
Click to expand...
If I had a dollar for every time that happened (or happens)
P.J. Denyer said:
The Harmony equipment just takes all that away from the end user and still manages to be really easy to set up for anyone with a reasonable understanding of how the system is set up, even my original frankenAVsetup worked seemlessly as a single black box for my wife from the remote (and later with Alexa voice control). It even controlled bluetooth remote devices like my PS3 (Sony blocked 3rd party AV control for the PS4) and my FireStick, which is now our go to "TV" device. At around this time I knew a couple of people in the really high end home cinema/audio business (one of them charged £25k per channel for audio valve amps) and they charged £500 plus several hundred pounds in set up time for a universal remote that wasn't as good.
Click to expand...
Ya, it's a constant battle between the cool stuff I can do with the granular control in HA and what will prevent my wife from killing me.
P.J. Denyer said:
With my newer surround amp and everything being HDMI now it's a lot simpler and I could use a combination of my IR blaster, Alexa routines and the Firestick remote.. But it wouldn't be quite as seamless, you'd need to turn on the TV by voice command (defaulting to Firestick input), then change to other functions. The Harmony is easier.

I've picked up a spare hub dirt cheap because I thought mine was dying, it seems to be okay for now, the battery was low in the remote and seemed to be sending rogue commands.. But I'm also going to keep an eye out for a spare remote. Just in case.


The prices second hand and new old stock prices on eBay suggest that while the market for these devices isn't huge it does exist and people are willing to pay well for them. Logitech really pissed me off by buying then killing this product range.
Click to expand...
Another good reason to ditch cloud-connected devices.
 
Donal said:
Ya, I still have my TV remotes and use Home Assistant to run scenes and automation. Harmony actually worked great with HA and my Philips Hue lights.

If I had a dollar for every time that happened (or happens)

Ya, it's a constant battle between the cool stuff I can do with the granular control in HA and what will prevent my wife from killing me.

Another good reason to ditch cloud-connected devices.
Click to expand...

I don't mind cloud connected per se, but I'd like to have a single app for things like lights, switches, cameras etc and I'd like it to be a requirement that a local/community supported alternative be mandatory if an ongoing concern abandons support for a product range. I'm thinking local for my setup, with possible community support for users to maintain a new device database. Having a local server for it would also help when the internet goes down (the Harmony still works but quite slowly). If you've bought something in good faith the supplier shouldn't be able to decide 'This doesn't work any more' because they've built in dependenciesthey no longer want to honour.
 
Ya, it covers pretty much all of your needs except it doesn't come with a native TV remote and there is work to set it up. I still use the remote for my firestick and the remote that came with my other TV. Family still uses those to control the TV and HA handles automations and scenes that coordinate with the TVs.
 
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