Too Many Remotes!

[highfigh]

I have an Xbox One. I order it to do my bidding with my own voice. Most of the time it obeys well Occasionally I use the controller it comes with to do things.

Is that with the Kinect?

 

[slipperybidness]

Is that with the Kinect?

Yes, only has this capability if you have the Kinect connected

 

[highfigh]

Yes, only has this capability if you have the Kinect connected

Is it the Kinect that responds to voice commands, or through a signal sent from the remote?

Have you had a situation where the Kinect stopped responding to player movements? I got a call about that and rebooted everything- didn't change. It also shows that the HD doesn't have enough storage space for an update and the drive is unformatted, but they don't have any games loaded and I had formatted it last year. AFAIK, nothing has been changed.

 

[slipperybidness]

Is it the Kinect that responds to voice commands, or through a signal sent from the remote?

Have you had a situation where the Kinect stopped responding to player movements? I got a call about that and rebooted everything- didn't change. It also shows that the HD doesn't have enough storage space for an update and the drive is unformatted, but they don't have any games loaded and I had formatted it last year. AFAIK, nothing has been changed.

Honestly, I don't really use my Kinect, it's sitting in the closet.

But, I'm fairly certain that the Kinect itself responds to the voice commands. I believe the Kinect can also take a voice command and then send out an IR signal to a component too.

It can do some great stuff, but a camera on top of my living room television doesn't really appeal to me in the slightest.

I'm certain that some other AH members can enlighten us on the topic.

 

[speakerman39]

Once dialed in, you can safely store your orginal remotes out of sight. The orginal remotes only come in handy if there are some obscure menu items you need to reach in your equipment that maybe easier to reach then by going to it using the Harmony.

That would be good enough for me. Will order me one soon. Thanks for the info.

Cheers,

Phil

 

[MR.MAGOO]

I suppose I expect too much from a "universal" remote. They cannot seem to mimic 100% every feature of every remote their Marketing Dept. brags of. Now that I know what to expect I may try the Harmony 650, I can send it back before 60 days at Crutchfield.

 

[selkec]

I use a Harmony smart control remote that has the blaster hub... The blaster will control anything in the room. No line of sight needed.... It also gives alot of control over home automation now. Linked a insteon hub to it and hit watch movie it dims all lights also and even turns on a generic rgb led light strip for ambient light... Add to that the IFttt app on a cell and it will turn on lights and equipment when I arrive home. It also now turns on my TV and lights when my alarm wakes me in morning... Not bad for 70$ online...

 

[highfigh]

I suppose I expect too much from a "universal" remote. They cannot seem to mimic 100% every feature of every remote their Marketing Dept. brags of. Now that I know what to expect I may try the Harmony 650, I can send it back before 60 days at Crutchfield.

You need to look at what is needed when starting activities and moving to other ones- it's not a lot of commands, but they need to be presented in a way the equipment can use, not all at once and stepping on each others' toes. Some equipment needs a 5 second pause between Power On and any other command, so changing the order or adding delays may be needed. Some devices don't use discrete commands, so they scroll from one input to the one that's needed next and this is the case for my TV (and many, many other older ones). This means changing the order of the activities can really cause problems but since Harmony remotes have a Help button, it can be corrected easily enough. It's also very easy to add buttons to the activities. To be honest, it's easy to do with all remotes, but without using a Wizard-based setup, non-programmers have problems with the order of the commands, pauses, macros, etc.

All remotes can learn any IR command, but the trick is getting them in the right sequence, with the correct timing.

 

[speakerman39]

I suppose I expect too much from a "universal" remote. They cannot seem to mimic 100% every feature of every remote their Marketing Dept. brags of. Now that I know what to expect I may try the Harmony 650, I can send it back before 60 days at Crutchfield.

Yeah, I plan to go with the 650. But, I am getting one refurbished for half price. Have had good luck with refurbs myself. Might as well save some money.

Cheers,

Phil

 

[highfigh]

Yeah, I plan to go with the 650. But, I am getting one refurbished for half price. Have had good luck with refurbs myself. Might as well save some money.

Cheers,

Phil

It's early for the model, but if you see a Harmony Companion with the hub as a refurb, buy it. It works extremely well and it rarely misses a beat. The one input that sometimes misses is when I switch to TV, but it doesn't matter because using the channel +/- commands puts it in TV tuner mode. If you need more than 6 activities, it's not the best choice but for 6 or less, it rocks.

 

[selkec]

^ agree. Any Harmony with a hub is great. Very easy to set up also via a smart phone.