Companies can’t be expected to support legacy products indefinitely, and I think Logitech is being pretty decent about the whole thing. Well yeah, they basically said it’s a matter of time. People would complain if they stated a time frame, so by doing this they allow users to move on and reduce the kick back to a lower number. They will just leave it running and when use drops to a certain point they will kill it. Not going to happen ever, period… A large company with a history of announcing product end of lines, does not spend money without seeing a direct return on that investment. In the meantime, this thread has motivated me to buy a Broadlink RM4 sensor to see how much of my automation I can replicate with it. Mind you, I approach every purchase like that, regardless of what companies say. I wouldn’t shy away from buying a Harmony if you can get a good deal on it, but you have to be comfortable not knowing how long it’ll continue to work. The way I see it, if you really like the Companion remote (and I do), then it’s better to get as much use as you can out of it while you can. I get a lot of use out of mine, including using it to automate an IR-controlled pedestal fan, but I’m definitely an outlier. I agree with Rich that Harmony-style universal remotes are a dying breed as AV systems become simpler and HDMI-CEC improves. Eventually, they’ll also have to consider how much effort they put into maintaining their Android/iOS apps to account for OS updates. My hope is that they’ll eventually push a software update that enables the remotes to continue working without their servers, which would make a lot of long-time users happy. So it’s vague, but still better than saying “we’ll give you two years of support from today”. Even then, I’d guess that they’ll give a lot of warning to users, and not pull the plug overnight. They’ve chosen their words carefully by saying, “as long as customers continue to use them”, which gives them leeway to pull the plug when they see dropoffs and decide that it’s no longer worthwhile keeping the servers on. They no longer manufacture Harmony remotes, but they will continue to support them indefinitely. With those caveats in mind, here are our current picks for the best universal remote.Logitech do not support the stuff anymore. If you have an AV receiver and multiple sources, however, it gets more complicated. With a smart TV connected to a soundbar and a game console, for example, you can control streaming apps, audio and device switching from a single remote (the TV's), eliminating the need for a universal remote. Many entertainment systems today don't have as many separate devices as in the past, so you might not even need a universal remote. A number of cheap replacement clickers are available too, but we can't recommend them because we haven't tested them yet.Įven with the emergence of SofaBaton, the universal remote category is still less popular than before. And the Roku and Fire TV clickers, while great for controlling those streaming devices, respectively, as well as most brands of TV, don't really qualify as "universal" remotes in the classic sense. The outgoing Fire TV Cube is expensive and more of a hybrid Alexa speaker/streamer than a universal remote, although it will also control your devices. So what's left? Among remotes, we can recommend based on hands-on testing, not much.
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