Logitech Harmony Hub, Turns Your Smartphone into a Universal Remote Control for SKY, Apple TV, Alexa, Roku, Netflix, Sonos and Smart Home, Easy Set-Up App, LG/Samsung/Sony/Hisense/Xbox/PS4 - Black

I've had several Logitech universal remotes. Using them is never just simple. You have to tinker and tweak to get things just the way you want them. Trust me you do...I moved to using a hub for the Alexa integration. This is pretty good, once you know what to say and how to setup the software you can control 'most' things on your TV by voice, i.e. change channels, switch it on/off, increase decrease volume, mute etc.What you can't do is navigate your TV, Navigate Netflix or Amazon video, or use any channel guides or anything. For that you have to use the Harmony app on your phone. There are no 'Alexa Up, down, left, OK, back, Menu, Guide' commands available. There is also NO WAY of configuring these commands that I can figure out without using some other intermediary server like 'Home Assistant', for which you need a computer/server/raspberry pi and to be technically minded.Firstly, you need to understand that you have 'Activities' like 'Watch TV', or 'Play Playstation', and that only 1 activity can be running at any one time.The alexa integration allows you to give your activities friendly names, i.e. Play Playstation, can be called PS4, PS, Playstation, Console and then you can tell Alexa to 'turn on' any of those friendly names and she will run the activity.The same can be setup for 'Favorite' channels on your TV. BBC1 can be given friendly names like 'The beeb, bbc uno' etc and then you can say 'Alexa, turn on the beeb' and she'll switch to that channel.My setup:LG OLED55b7V TV,Humax HDR-Fox T2 Freeview boxSony AV ReceiverPS4 (the harmony app acts as a Bluetooth keyboard for this console, harmony hub however CAN'T turn it ON)Wii UMost useful stuff I can and do say:Alexa, turn on the Tv (sets up everything for watching the humax)Alexa, turn on the PS4 (sets up everything for using the ps4, but can't actually turn ON the PS4, but I can turn it off)Alexa, turn on Amazon (switches the tv to Amazon prime video)Alexa, turn on Netflix (switches the TV to Netflix)Alexa, turn up the volume (she turns up the volume 5 notches)Alexa, turn up the volume on the Tv by 2 (she turns up the volume on the tv 2 notches)Alexa, mute the Tv (mutes the tv)Alexa, unmute the TV (unmutes the tv)Alexa, turn on CBeebies (she switches the humax to CBeebies)Alexa, turn on ITV (she switches the humax to ITV).... I've setup many other channels similarly, you can have upto 50Alexa, channel 345 on the TV (she switches to whatever is on 345 (I've no idea what that is btw))Alexa, turn off the TV (she turns everything off, even the playstation or Wii no matter what activity was running, it all goes off :))Alexa integration is great for young kids. That's one reason why I got it. They can now control the TV without learning how to switch inputs or even being able to read!My frustration comes with having a fishtank light that's IR controlled (Biorb flow). I can teach the hub all the remote commands so I can control the fishtank light from my phone (with the Harmony app). However, I wanted to be able to setup Alexa to be able to schedule switching the Fishtank light on and off at certain time, but that isn't possible. You can't configure individual remote commands to work with Alexa (as an Alexa scene) only Activities and Favorites. If I setup my fishtank as an Activity, switching it on would also switch off the TV. Bah! What it needs is activities that can be run independently OR being able to setup a 'Favorite Command' (like favorte channels) that you can then setup to be what you like. So, it's good but not perfect.

So I've had my harmony for a day or so. Used it extensively. And after reading so many negative reviews I'm surprised to find that the harmony works really well with Alexa. The reason I bought it - for an open plan kitchen extension where hands free comes in handy to control the TV.Set-up wasn't painless. The Harmony paired to my tablet, updated its software, and logged into my logi account just fine. It found my LG TV, BT Youview box and soundbar first time. The only problem I had is that it wouldn't change the hdmi input on the TV during set-up. And I defo have the right TV selected. So I ignored that problem but once setup was complete in normal usage it changes the hdmi input. So it was only a problem in Harmony setup. I've set up favourite channels and played with the Harmony Android app - the app is great, especially having a grid of favourite channel icons that I can tap to go straight to the desired channel without using the TV guide or remembering channel numbers.Now for Alexa setup with Harmony :-). In the Alexa app I enabled the blue harmony skill (which is the better to use of the two harmony skills) linked it to my harmony account and it found my harmony Watch TV activity. Next set-up stage it had all of my TV Favourite channels listed where it allows you to choose one or more friendly names (essentially additional names for TV channels that Alexa should hear more easily) for each favourite TV channel. So for example, for TCM I added Turner Classics and Turner Classic Movies. And for my local regional BBC 1 channel I gave it the friendly name of East Midlands. And BBC 1 is reserved for BBC 1 HD. Once that's done you save your changes. Next 'discover devices' in the Alexa app , which should find your all of your favourite channels and add them and their friendly names to the Alexa Scenes section in the Smart Home section of your Alexa app. I then tried some alexa TV commands such as 'turn on tv', turn on BBC 1, turn on ITV 1 and it all worked. Marvellous.Things to remember. You cannot say 'watch' to change TV channel. It must be 'turn on' and then the channel name. And if you decide to update the friendly names for TV channels in the Alexa app, you have to disable the skill, enable it again, link accounts and repeat the process - albeit it does remember your previously configured friendly names fortunately (saving a lot of time and effort). And if you delete any friendly names, or channels, you must go to the scenes section of the Alexa app and delete them manually. Unused scenes are not removed automatically unfortunately.After extensively changing TV channels using Alexa it works most of the time. It does hiccup now and again not hearing my commands properly but that's a quirk of Alexa, for anything, not the fault of the Harmony Hub. And for any issues I changed the friendly channel names.So what can you do with Alexa TV control with Harmony. So far I can increase/decrease TV volume, channel up/down, turn on (change to) any of the TV favourite channels (max of 50), pause live TV or recordings playback on my BT Box (and resume). And of course turn the entire TV Activity on and off. Plus I have separate harmony activities to take me straight to the Netflix or Amazon Prime apps on my TV - but once in the app I have to use the remote control.With Alexa it's not perfect and that's why I'm not giving the harmony hub 5 stars. Plus I think it's a little expensive. It works though with occasional Alexa mishearing hiccups. And I'm finding I'm using Alexa to change channels before heading for the remote control. Alexa doesn't replace the remote control - I can't seem to use it for the TV Guide for example. Pros and cons but the hub is a defo worthwhile addition to an automated home.