Follow us on Twitter and sign up for our newsletter for even more recommendations and exclusive content. Scouted is internet shopping with a pulse. And now that I’ve gotten used to it, I can’t ever go back to the old way of doing things. It seems like a small convenience, but if you have a complex setup with a lot of devices, it eliminates a pretty big annoyance out of your day when you can just turn it all on with a simple voice command. In many cases, you can be even more specific-with the Harmony and a Roku, for example, I can say something like “Turn on Netflix,” and it’ll automatically turn on the TV, set my receiver to the correct input, and start the Netflix app for me. This is particularly awesome in cases where you’re doing something else-like making a sandwich in the kitchen-and want your TV to be turned on and ready for you when you make your way back to the living room. Or, even better, you can integrate the Harmony Hub with a voice assistant like Alexa, allowing you to merely say “Turn the TV on” to get everything up and running. You can press the “Watch TV” activity, toss the remote on your couch, and plop down while everything turns on for you. This may seem like a silly benefit, but since it takes 15-20 seconds to turn all your devices on, that means you don’t have to stand there holding your arm out like a statue while you wait for everything to start up. No Need to Point the Remote.or Even Touch It At Allįinally-and this is what really drew me toward the Harmony Elite when compared with its cheaper Logitech siblings-the remote’s usage of RF and Wi-Fi mean you never have to point the remote at the TV. In my experience, smart home control is hit or miss in terms of reliability-which is disappointing-but hardly a deal breaker, since that isn’t really what makes the remote worthwhile. It’s worth mentioning that you can also include smart home devices in these activities.so an activity called “Movie Night” might turn your TV on, switch it to your Blu-ray player, and dim the lights. And since it’s all customizable, you can make sure the screen isn’t cluttered with settings you don’t use. For example, I have a custom option on the screen called “Picture Mode” that cycles between my TV’s different image presets. If there isn’t a corresponding Harmony button for the function you want, you can add it to the remote’s touch screen. So in the “Watch Roku” activity, you may decide you want the “Info” button to show the TV’s Info menu, rather than the Roku’s-you can do that. What’s even cooler is that you can customize what each button does. On a Logitech Harmony remote, you’ll instead press an activity-like “Watch TV” or “Watch the Roku”-and it’ll turn on all the necessary devices for you at once, with the correct options automatically assigned to the remote’s buttons. You’d then press another device button-like “DVD”-to control your content. On a more traditional universal remote, you would click the name of a device-say, “TV”-then press the Power button to turn it on. Logitech’s remotes use a slightly different paradigm than most, which they call “Activities.” This can seem a bit confusing at first, but once you figure it out, it becomes a much better way to control your home theater.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |