What alternatives are available for universal remotes?
Unfortunately, not much.
The Harmony was always my second choice, I was an original NEEO user and I loved where that was headed. Then they hobbled it with an update about 48 hours before announcing they had sold the company to Control-4 and would no longer update the current version (which had just quietly received numerous bugs). It was a great remote, but unfortunately it was no longer reliable.
Most of the comparable options these days involve hiring a custom installer to update your remote anytime you buy a new streaming device or Blu-ray player, which isn’t something that I’m real excited about. I like control over my control.
There are a few options out there that are home-brew app-based solutions, and I love having the ability to open an app and fire up the theater to get everything powered on before I go downstairs to the theater, but once I’m in the room I want a dedicated device.
I’m hoping to be able to continue to use the Harmony until a new, better option becomes available. Currently, I’m keeping tabs on the YIO (I assume it’s pronounced like NEEO but with a Y?), which plans to go to on Kickstarter this summer at some point. Hopefully it doesn’t take as long to deliver as the NEEO did (about 2 years, maybe longer). But it seems to have that same, really nice design and construction that NEEO had.
The missing home automation control platform. Starting with Remote Two. The only remote you will ever need. Local and open.
www.yio-remote.com
If this doesn’t end up being the one, and the Harmony starts to lag, I would likely go back to the NEEO via Control-4.
