LogitechHarmony 665 Advanced Remote Control

Nice, solid remote. Online setup was easy - but don't be in a rush. Gather model #s of all devices. In my case, I have a Samsung TV, Yamaha receiver, Cable Box, Nvidia Shield Streaming box (2017 version). Finally, I can control the volume when using the Shield with Volume Up and Volume Down buttons - and Mute. My Shield remote uses a touch slider that doesn't always work, hard to control and no mute. Being able to control the Shield is worth the purchase alone.The remote setup will ask you different questions as to how you watch TV and guesses what devices you use. Then sets it up to turn on only the devices used for that function. Example: To watch TV, it sets the HDMI input, it turns on my receiver, the TV and the Cable Box. If I want to switch to the Shield to watch Netflix, Prime, Youtube TV, Youtube, etc., I just click one button and it turns on the Shield, turns off the Cable box and switches the HDMI AVI Input. When ready to power down, just hit the Power button and it turns everything that is on, off. One button all on, one button all off.It takes a little getting used to what buttons are assigned to different features during setup. Mainly relating to the Shield. "Exit" is the back one screen button. Home takes you to the Home screen (obvious). Other buttons work as you would assume - fast forward, pause, select, etc.For the remote to work with my Nvidia Shield, I had to purchase a FLIRC USB dongle (search Amazon -$22). Since the Shield is Bluetooth connected by default, the FLIRC allows it to operate as an IR device. As long as there is a direct line of sight to the dongle, it works great. I have an external drive plugged into the Shield for extra storage and sometimes have another external drive plugged in to watch downloaded movies. Since there are only 2 USB ports on the Shield, I purchased a 4 port USB hub (Anker 4-Port USB 3.0 Hub $8) to plug my movie drive into and also the FLIRC USB. Plus, the hub makes it easier to have the FLIRC pointing outward for the Harmony Remote.During setup on the Harmony, treat the FLIRC as a device. Don't add the Shield as a device on Harmony - just FLIRK. PRIOR to using the FLIRC USB, plug it into your computer to activate it and get the latest firmware and software updates. AFTER you do that, you can plug the USB into your Shield (in my case, the hub). Set the FLIRC to Nvidia Shield during setup. I ended up Googling FLIRC setup for Nvidia Shield and also Googled setting up FLIRC on Harmony 655 Remote. It's not hard, just a little confusing (for me).I haven't gone back into setup to custom program any buttons. No need currently. I plan on canceling my Cable TV and replace it with YouTube TV (which I love). Then I will go back onto my computer and delete Cable from my remote.Prepare to spend about 30 minutes or so programming the remote. Give yourself a little time to get used to using the remote. The buttons on the remote are tactile - you can feel the different shapes in the dark to use the remote easily. The remote also is backlit if you move it or pick it up. Stays lit long enough to see the buttons, then turns off.I'm very happy with the Harmony 655 and would recommend it to anyone that uses several devices while watching TV.

This model is discontinued but I found a used one and snapped it up to replace an identical unit with worn out buttons. Unlike some similar models, this works with projectors as well as common equipment. Last one lasted 5 years.

New things I have discovered - if you are like me you have multiple devices connected to your AV Receiver so that the AVR is used as a switch to control them. I tried to create new activities using the AVR, the TV and the device I want to watch and I wanted to use the TV to control volume and sound. I found that anytime the AVR was included the 665 will assume you want to use it for volume control and there is no way to select the TV to do that.However, there is a pre-programmed activity called WatchTV that defaults to the TV for volume control. So you can create several WatchTV activities and add in the devices you need including the AVR and it will default to the TV for volume control. You can change the name of the activity to something that better describes what you are using. So instead of WatchTV 4 you can change it to Watch Sony BluRay.Does Not Support Roku Streaming Sticks - sticks do not use IR control. May be compatible with older Roku devices like Roku 1 which use IR remote.The remote does support multiple activities but you have to modify the power settings for devices that you do not want to shut down when you switch between them.At first I could not figure out how to switch to another activity once I selected one to start. Harmony support replied pretty quickly and let me know that the star button near the top of the remote provides access to activities. I could not find this information documented on the support website.So for now it seems to be working well - other than not supporting newer roku devices- but that is a technology issue and not a fault of the Harmony.I have increased my rating to 4 stars now that I am discovering ways to make the remote more user friendly.

This Logitech Harmony 665 remote is fantastic and runs all my electronic equipment. It's capable of controlling up to 10 devices. I wish Logitech was still manufacturing the Logitech Harmony remotes. Be warned that the MyHarmony software isn't designed to run on Windows 10 or higher. If you're running the Logitech MyHarmony software on a Windows operating system higher than Windows 8.1, you'll want to run the software in Compatibility Mode (Settings: Windows 8 mode as Administrator). For example...if you run on Windows 10 (or higher), you won't be able to click the "Next" button on the "Add activity" screen and you might think you're losing your mind. I'm still giving this Logitech Harmony 665 Universal remote 5 out of 5 stars regardless of the software not running natively on Windows 10 (or higher) because it was designed to run on Windows XP through Windows 8.1 and runs beautifully when tricked into thinking that it's running on Windows 8.