Tag Archives: remote control

HDMI-CEC: Your Logitech Harmony Remote replacement | This Old Nerd S03E08

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It was a sad day when Logitech announced it would discontinue its excellent line of Harmony universal remotes. These devices let you easily control your home theater components. Complicated activities could be done with the press of a button or a virtual button in an app.

So what’s the future? Well, it’s the present. HDMI-CEC seems to be the way we’ll have to control things until some product is as good as the Harmony line. HDMI-CEC stands for High Definition Multimedia Interface – Consumer Electronics Control. If a component has HDMI-CEC it can control or be controlled by another HDMI-CEC-enabled component. Is this great? Not exactly.

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Timecodes:

  • 0:00 – Welcome!
  • 0:27 – Today’s project: Goodbye, Harmony
  • 1:25 – HDMI-CEC is the future
  • 3:54 – Other options?
  • 4:12 – Why you should NOT keep your Harmony devices around.
  • 8:45 – The full rant.

Remote Controls

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Almost every electronic device has a remote control. The more components you add, the more remotes you accumulate. The components determine the type of furniture you get and how you arrange your other furniture. Since infrared is still the standard for remote controls, line of sight is still very important.

ﾠI have found two solutions for line of sight problems. All remotes are not created equal. Your remote may require you to contort your arm to get your remote and component to work together. Logitech Harmony remotes are different. I’ve owned two different Harmony remotes (the 880 and the XBox 360 version). Harmony made revolutionary universal remote controls that used USB to program the remote; Harmony was subsequently acquired by Logitech. Instead of sitting with a list of thousands of codes, all you have to do is input the make and model of your TV or other component with the software and then sync over USB. They even cover oddball brands.

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The Harmony line seems to have a much more powerful IR transmitter than any other remote I own. There is no contorting to gain line of sight. Just aim at the TV and components underneath that are somewhat blocked by the coffee table will still respond. Beyond the convenience of having a universal remote, the IR transmitter makes you forget about using your other weak remotes.

ﾠThe other solution was found at HV20.com, a forum for Canon HV20/HV30 users. Digital audio cables a.k.a. TOSLINK cables a.k.a. optical cable can be used to route IR signals. I saw a forum post where someone used a digital optical cable to route an IR signal from behind the Canon HV20 to the front of the camera where the IR sensor is located. A friend and I tested this with his home theater components. Since he was going to build a new home entertainment center, designing the center hinged on line of sight. The digital optical cable tests were a success. The design no longer depended on line of sight for every component. To see how a TOSLINK cable works check out Wikipedia.

ﾠOf course, neither solution plays well with other standards for remotes like Sony’s use of bluetooth in the PS3 or other components with RF. There are also options to convert your IR remote into a RF remote and this may be cheaper than getting a Harmony remote, but definitely this is not as cheap as setting up a TOSLINK cable. Keep this information in mind the next time your arm is up in the air with your wrist pointed awkwardly trying to get that remote to communicate with a device.