By combining Amazon's Alexa with the Logitech Harmony Hub, you can now extend Alexa control to your entertainment center.
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Harmony Center, photo by David Gewirtz.
I am a geek in the entertainment center. Since the establishment of the network, I have been connecting VideoGuide, WebTV, TiVos, DVR, Apple TV, game consoles, speakers and amplifiers together.
Thanks to the API released by the company, Amazon's Alexa product line will soon acquire new home automation skills.
Although the gear mechanism has changed over the years, it has remained the same: switching between devices is always a bit painful.
When
I probably sold it out. Its price is over $500, but even so, it is worth it because it unifies all these remotes. most. You have to find and download the remote configuration for each device you have, and then use the software on your PC that is basically a drawing program to design and program the screen that will run on Pronto.
When Pronto worked, it was troublesome, and after about five years, it just failed. Fortunately, a better product appeared during this period: Logitech Harmony.
The harmony at the time (in the mid-2000s) was amazing because Logitech solved the multi-remote problem. They are the first company to satisfy entertainment center geeks with a controller. The controller not only has no limit on the number of devices to be controlled, but also makes it very easy to set up everything.
You connected the PC to the remote control via the USB port and ran a program to manage your devices and group them into activities. Not only is it effective, but it also makes it easier for my wife and guests to navigate between all my boxes.
Then, back in 2008 or 2009, we carried out another recreation center renovation. My old high-definition HD TV broke down. We used the high-definition TV as an excuse to replace the old TV to make things more convenient. My wife and I have been sharing a remote control, but we decided that each of us would like to put a remote control on each side of the sofa.
then,
Available, so we bought two. The good thing about the Harmony software is that I can set up the device and activity once, and then download the settings to the two remotes.
Since then, we have replaced it approximately once a year near the entertainment center, but we have not replaced the remote control. We are still using those Harmony Ones to turn on and off the TV and amplifier, switch inputs and control our equipment.
Changed today.
As you know, i am
. We have
. Their most common use is to turn on and off Hue and WeMo lights.
Alexa has become our smart home hub,
. But Alexa has never been able to control a TV or entertainment center. Although we have a few streaming media boxes, the amplifier and two HDMI switches don't have any IoT intelligence. You can only use the infrared remote control to switch the input. Alexa doesn't speak IR.
But harmony is true. The Harmony system has always been good at sending a series of IR commands to enable activities.
For example, to switch from a media center PC to an Apple TV, we need to set our 1x4 HDMI switch to input 2, and our 4x4 HDMI switch must be set to input A and output 3. The TV needs to be set to HDMI 1.
These are all IR commands, and our old version of Harmony One executed these commands almost perfectly. But Alexa cannot communicate with Harmony. so far.
Logitech is very friendly, you can send it to me
, It is an upgraded version of the Harmony One remote control. However, the Harmony Hub that drew our attention most today is the Harmony Hub that comes with Elite. The remote control and hub of the Elite Edition kit are priced at US$349.
The price is $99.
Harmony Hub is a Bluetooth and Wi-Fi device that can transmit IR signals through its own stone-shaped housing or through two IR repeater nodes. The hub can talk to apps on iPhone or Android devices, so you can use your phone as a Harmony smart remote.
Choose harmony techniques.
But more notably
. Logitech created the Alexa skill, so when you say "Turn on Apple TV" to Alexa, the Harmony Hub will respond by performing a programmed activity-in my case, change all the HDMI switch settings I described above .
Treat friendly names as aliases.
When you link it to Alexa through the Harmony Hub's skills, you can also set various "friendly names" for the event. Therefore, although my Roku event is actually defined as "Central: Roku 4", the friendly name I defined is just "Roku".
You can assign multiple friendly names to each event, so you don't always have to call Media Center PC through "Media Center PC". You can also give it "PC" and "computer" as friendly names.
This feature solves another problem that my wife and I often encounter: remembering the equipment we set up for which streaming service. Although Prime Video is only on Roku and iTunes is only on Apple TV, Hulu, Netflix and HBO Now can be used on both-but I only set them up on Apple TV because I am tired of entering username and password .
Using friendly names, I attached "HBO", "Hulu" and "Netflix" to the Apple TV event, and "Amazon" and "Prime Video" to the Roku event. Now, we don’t even have to care about which device is running which device, we can only say "Alexa, turn on HBO" and watch "Game of Thrones" (when the new series finally comes out).
What makes this feature particularly useful is that when Alexa tells the Harmony Hub to change the activity, the Harmony Hub sends the change to the video device and remote control.
Watching this happen is particularly smooth. When I said "Alexa, turn on Apple TV", my various HDMI switches were changed, the Apple TV screen was displayed on the main video screen, and the Harmony app of my iPhone was also changed to Apple TV, and so was the Harmony Elite in this way.
For devices with more options, there are other screens with more buttons and controls.
This means that once a voice command is issued, there is no need to change the input on the remote control. It just works.
However, there is a small fly in the ointment. My old Harmony One remote control does not automatically change the input. Therefore, when Alexa switches to a new device, it is still necessary to make changes on Harmony One.
sigh. We have a Harmony Elite and our iPhone. We must either share Elite or one of us must control the entertainment center through the iPhone app. According to the Logitech Forum,
, But there is also $149
.
On the other hand, I don't have to set up Harmony Elite from scratch. Logitech’s technical support representative, Ara, helped me import my old Harmony One activities and equipment into Harmony Elite and Harmony Hub. That saves a lot of time.
Most importantly: this is so cool. The combination of a remote control and a hub is expensive, at US$349, but the hub alone as a companion to a smartphone application can be counted as hundreds of US dollars. The family of two faces some challenges, but hey, there is not another incredible picayune first world problem for a week, right?
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