[mythtv-users] Setting up a Logitech Harmony Smart Control remote with mythtv

Fri Dec 15 09:19:08 UTC 2017

> On 14 Dec 2017, at 20:31, Greg Oliver <oliver.greg at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> On Thu, Dec 14, 2017 at 1:23 PM, Andre Newman MythTV <mythtv-list at dinkum.org.uk> wrote:
> 
> > On 14 Dec 2017, at 16:53, David Engel <david at istwok.net> wrote:
> >
> > On Thu, Dec 14, 2017 at 12:37:02PM +0100, Andre Newman MythTV wrote:
> >>
> >>> On 14 Dec 2017, at 00:54, Anthony Giggins <seven at seven.dorksville.net> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> On 14 December 2017 at 09:33, David Engel <david at istwok.net> wrote:
> >>> On Wed, Dec 13, 2017 at 11:01:42PM +0000, Jim Abernathy wrote:
> >>>> I have 2 Harmony Smart control remotes and I love them.  For controlling standard stuff it works great.  I even have one mythtv frontend controlled by it.  That system has a Microsoft MCE 1039 IR remote and I added the Mythtv FE as a Microsoft Media PC.  That remote works on Live TV, FireTV, and Mythtv.
> >>>>
> >>>> So now to the problem.  My newest FE uses an old Vista MCE remote model VRC-1100.  Using the wiki on mythtv on the VRC-1100, I got my FE working fine with the Microsoft Vista remote.  Now I want the Harmony Smart Control remote to work with it.  But not sure where to start.  I thought I’d check with the experts here before digging much further.
> >>>
> >>> Chuck your IR remote and receiver and go get a ~$15 (or less) USB
> >>> Bluetooth dongle.  Then configure your Harmony Hub to use BT instead
> >>> of IR.  You'll get a *much* more reliable and faster remote.
> >>>
> >>> David
> >>>
> >>> Ditto Bluetooth is miles better then IR with the Harmony setup.
> >>
> >> Very interesting, which Harmony profile do you use for the Bluetooth?
> >>
> >> My IR has always been a bit of a pain and I have a couple of BT adaptors knocking around.
> >
> > As noted in another message in this thread, tell the Harmony you're
> > setting up a Windows Computer.
> 
> Thanks I spotted that on the way past, a little job for the weekend.
> 
> Just a curious bystander, but could someone tell me *why* this is so much better than IR which has worked for me well for so many years.  In my opinion, I have had several issue with BT on Linux in the past, and I cannot think of a single time IR has failed me.
> 
> Is it just the response time?  So going from IR on the remote directly to the IR receiver through USB on the host is that much slower than going WiFi from the remote to the Hub, then BT to the BT receiver through the same USB with keyboard emulation is that much faster?

The wifi on the Harmony hub is just for updates, downloading ir codes and to give script kiddies something to do on a wet wednesday afternoon!

The remote talks to the hub via a much more direct RF signal, similar to logitech’s RF keyboards (same actually), that adds a miniscule delay, the keyboards are just about fast enough for gaming so pretty low latency, also the range is much better than BT.

I think the real reason BT is less laggy than IR is due to Harmony’s laggy IR implementation, you can tweak the timing settings to make it a bit better but it’s always been laggy. For some unknown reason their BT is much better, so really it’s more about the oddities of Harmony than the technology involved. 

I tried to get BT working for MythTV some years ago without any success but that was before the Harmony Hub came along, hopefully it’s more succesful this time.

Andre

> 
> Any other pros to switching to BT?  I guess I could always run them both since the remote does both and play with it, but it just seems like I would not notice anything since I never type with a remote and I have already mapped all the keys I would ever use in my lirc config file..
> 
> Just trying to get the benefits all explained :)
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