Universal Remote

[Ratsima]

Clumsy me spilled coffee into my Logitech Harmony 650 universal remote. I use this with a Samsung "dumb" TV, a Sony sound bar and an Apple TV. Until the spill, it worked great. Pushing a single button turned on all the devices and set the I/O correctly. Setting up the remote is easy with the Logitech app (MyHarmony?).

I'm looking for a reasonably priced replacement. (For reasons that are beyond me, the Harmony 650 sells for US$250 on Amazon.)

Most of the remotes I've seen require that they "learn" the correct commands from the original remote. I no longer have the original remote for the TV or the sound bar, so I need a remote that "knows" the commands for these devices either internally or from a setup app.

Any suggestions?

[thecolonel]

One suggestion would be to get a smartphone with an IR blaster.

Then you can control pretty much everything from your phone

I will say this though, it takes a while to get used to using your phone as a remote control device...

And it might not control as much as a universal remote (I'm unfamiliar with them)

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[Dannie Boy]

Alternatively, you could take the old remote to somewhere like the third floor of MV and ask at the numerous stalls there, hopefully one of them will be able to help?


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[Ratsima]

I had no idea what an IR blaster was, but I've done some research and see that there are inexpensive devices that you can control from a phone and which send IR to a zillion different devices. Worth a look:

Accessories that turn your iPhone into a universal remote control

Dannie Boy was was on the right path. I let the old universal remote sit in a bucket of uncooked rice for a few hours and then put it in the freezer for a while.

Now, it appears to be working normally again. Perhaps this "fix" won't last, but who knows.

[Big Boy]

Ratsima, check on Lazada for a genuine replacement first. Our TV remote was dropped one too many times a couple of weeks ago, and finally died. I was thinking universal remote, but just enquired on Lazada first. They had dozens of Sharp remotes, and it was just a case of scrolling through until I found an exact match. For just 205฿ I had an exact genuine replacement delivered 16 hours later - delighted.

[Ratsima]

The advantage of the universal remote is that with the press of one button all the devices turn on and the correct inputs and outputs are selected. Otherwise you need to fiddle with three different remotes and manually select the input and output. And, ya gotta use the Soundbar remote to change the volume and the TV remote to change the channel and the Apple TV remote to change apps. With a universal remote, one device does it all.

[Big Boy]

OK, so plenty of universal remotes on the likes of Lazada, Shopee, etc.

[Ratsima]

OK, so plenty of universal remotes on the likes of Lazada, Shopee, etc.

That is true. But every one of those I looked at require you to have the original remote in order to program the universal remote because it has to "learn" the commands from the original remote. So, if I bought one of those "universal" remotes on Lazada I'd also have to buy new original remotes in order to program the universal remote.

The advantage of the Logitech remotes is that the Logitech application already knows all the commands. All you have to do is identify the devices you have and the application will load the correct commands into the Logitech universal remote.