NEEO looks to be $600 and it’s unclear if it’s even sold anymore, Amazon lists it as unavailable. Also it has a touchscreen, which is unacceptable to me. I just want to use buttons. Even if you ignore the touchscreen, that means you need to constantly recharge the dang thing. Beauty of the Harmony smart remote is is lasts well over a year on a single button cell.
@LMN8R: No, it will only switch to the FireTV, which is why I said it really isn’t a replacement for a universal remote as you’ll still need other remotes if you have more than one doohicky plugged into your TV.
The new Chromecast + Google TV remote lets you mix and match what the input, volume, and power buttons do. Between than and HDMI CEC I’m able to power on everything and switch between inputs as needed on my receiver. I still have to turn the PS5 on via controller (the CEC options aren’t granular enough, otherwise I could have it turn on every time the TV turned on too) but figure for a console, I’m going to need a controller anyway.
That’s not bad, then. Most streamer remotes don’t let you assign an input button.
So you pick up the GoogleTV remote, hit a button, GoogleTV comes on. Hit the input button, then your PS5 comes on. Does the GoogleTV remote know to control the PS5 through CEC, if you want to use it for Netflix or something? If you have to use your TV’s remote, well, that still sucks.
Not quite; I disabled CEC on the PS5 because it would always try to match power states with everything else in the chain, which led to a couple of database repair scares on the console. I’ve heard the Xbox Series consoles have some better options around this, but don’t believe the remote would control it regardless.
I’m never going to use the PS5 for media apps since they’re all on the Chromecast (and being Android you can sideload anything that isn’t strictly on Android TV), so that’s not an issue for me personally. For general day to day use I can do everything with the Chromecast remote + appropriate console’s controller. If you want to do settings tweaks that’ll require the additional remotes. Not often that I’m messing with that level of settings, and most of the receiver stuff can be done through their phone app (Yamaha).
I suppose so. I can’t think of a use case where I’d ever want or need to control my PS5 for something that was exclusive to that system and didn’t also need a controller, but obviously everyone’s needs are different.
Hmm I wonder if I will really just need RF Remote extenders like this Nextgen Extender because my main concern is controlling components behind cabinets. I’m less concerned about number of remotes.
I have a love/hate relationship with Harmony. Love the hardware, hate the software. The mobile app to program your activities is such a hot piece of garbage (the desktop app was even worse), I simply couldn’t recommend Harmony to anyone but my nerdiest of friends. It’s no wonder Logitech is killing it.
I might give HDMI-CEC another shot but I admittedly don’t fully understand how it works. I think my AV receiver is recent enough to support it. I only have two devices to switch back and forth, an Apple TV box and a PS5, so maybe it won’t be so bad.
So it appears all my devices (LG OLED, Apple TV box, Denon receiver, PS5) support HDMI-CEC, and I might not even need the Harmony remote.
Turning stuff on:
To watch Apple TV, press Menu or Home button on the ATV remote. TV and receiver turn on and switch inputs to the Apple TV. This works beautifully.
For the PS5, press the PS button on the controller and the TV/Receiver turn on and switches inputs to the PS5. This also works beautifully. I can also use the ATV remote to adjust the volume on the Denon receiver while using the PS5.
Shutting stuff off:
On the Apple TV, hold down the Home button to bring up the Control center and select “Put all devices to sleep”. TV and Receiver shut off.
Shutting down the PS5 also turns off the TV/Receiver. However, putting the PS5 in sleep mode does NOT. I prefer to put the PS5 to sleep, not turn it completely off, so hopefully there’s a solution. The workaround for now is to switch back to the ATV and use the Control Center.
I’ve stayed away from HDMI-CEC in the past since I’ve heard it’s unreliable, so we’ll see how this goes.
I route all my sound through the TV optical → soundbar. Chromecast TV remote does almost everything I want, with the HDMI-CEC handling input switching.
When I want to fuck with OTA broadcasts or (basically never any more) use the Wii, I manually wrangle inputs on the TV. Never touch the soundbar except to adjust volume.
Works fine? Happier now than I was with the shitty Harmony remote I had that chewed through batteries like whoa and was constantly confused about what state the TV was in, because invariably some CEC-enabled device would steal the input and then everything was terrible.
