Logitech Harmony Smart Keyboard Add-On for Harmony Ultimate Hub Remotes

I ordered this Logitech Harmony Smart keyboard to use with my Harmony Ultimate Home remote. This recently became a possibility with a firmware update from Logitech. Adding this keyboard into my home media setup gives me the ability to use it with my PC, Xbox One and Amazon Fire TV. No more hunting and pecking for text input. I can just pull out this small keyboard and type comfortably. It also has a trackpad with left/right buttons that work as an input device on the PC.This keyboard can be used in place of the remote almost completely. It has the ability to change inputs to the various devices on the system as well as dedicated buttons for media controls. It includes two USB nano receivers to use with devices that do not have built in bluetooth. In my case this came into play with my PC and my Xbox One. Directions for pairing and install were very clear and easy to follow.The keyboard is very lightweight. It has a nice grippy texture and is a matte black. Setup was very easy using the Harmony app on my iPhone. All told setup took about 5 minutes.I fear that Logitech has stopped making these devices and selling them as add-ons. You can still find them as their own Harmony Smart Keyboard set with an included Harmony Hub but the price is pretty high (usually 3x the cost) compared to just buying the keyboard as an add-on for existing Harmony Hub setups.If you're considering adding one of these to your media setup, I encourage you to jump on it sooner rather than later.

There are many apps for the Fire TV stick now, that offer live tv services known as iptv apps. The bad thing is, because the Fire TV remote doesn't have any number keys, you can't change channels that way. You can use a hand-held keyboard such as a Rii remote. This Harmony keyboard will also work BUT, it will not show up in your My Harmony as an add on device. It is just stand alone. Therefore, even though it works with your Harmony hub, Alexa cannot control it. I've tried time and again to figure out a way around this. I even tried to trick my Harmony into thinking the keyboard was my tv. But, that ended up screwing things up badly and now Harmony thinks my Amazon Fire tv stick is the keyboard and that my tv is the Amazon fire stick!!! I've written to both Harmony and Amazon and urged them to come out with a remote for the Fire TV stick that has number keys on it.

It's not a terrible option for Xbox, Playstation and HTPC's, but there are those occasional unresponsive moments that'll drive you nuts. When it's working, it's not bad. I wouldn't attempt a 1st person shooter, but for a little added control when you need it or would like to have it, it's great. It beats trying to type with a controller or standard remote. Logitech actually makes a better option if you're only controlling one device with the keyboard. My TK820 is much more responsive, and you could probably play a 1st person shooter (against bots/computer). I use this on a HTPC and Xbox 360. Switching between the two is nice. I hate the way it does it, and find myself switching input with a second remote, sometimes. The top buttons are activities, and once you push them, the keyboard assumes a series of events have occurred (input change, television on, xbox on, etc.). It's a not so smart feature that should probably be replaced with standard on buttons, device, and input change buttons.

This was a great purchase. Yes, it requires the Harmony app on an Android or iOS device to go through initial setup, but that's because it's made with the Harmony Smart Control Hub in mind. For those who aren't in the mood to do the product research, the Harmony Smart Hub is a hub that is primarily designed to work with an iOS or Android device.The included dongles are for devices that don't have built-in Bluetooth, but these are NOT direct connections to the keyboard like with most dongles. The dongles must be synced with your Harmony Smart Hub, along with the keyboard. The keyboard communicates with the hub, and the hub sends information to the dongles or to Bluetooth devices. This is NOT like a normal desktop keyboard. It's not meant to establish a direct connection to a PC, game console, or set-top box. It's meant to interface with the Harmony Smart Hub, and the Hub is what communicates with your PC, game console, or set-top box.Once you understand this, the potential of the Smart Keyboard is unlocked. This one keyboard controls my PC, my android set-top box, and my Xbox 360. When I switch Activities, the keyboard switches to control the device the Harmony Smart Hub is currently communicating with, so I never have to switch things around or rewire anything. No transporting dongles around the room or setting up splitters, either.Keys are programmable for each device you have. For example, on my Android box the ESC key is "back" and the Guide key is "home", but on my PC they work as Escape and F1,respectively.The trackpad is fine, though I wish I could disable the tap-to-click function. I haven't found a way to do that yet. A nice bonus-- The trackpad actually works to navigate on the Xbox 360, although there's no pointer on the Xbox GUI.I was up and running within about 10 minutes after opening the box. Everything works fine if you just follow the directions on the Harmony app. Once you've done initial setup, you can tweak more on the Harmony PC app.It's a shame this is getting so many low ratings. It appears a lot of people have completely misunderstood what this is, exactly, and they're mad that they can't just plug the dongle into a device and make it work immediately. It's just made to work that way. You MUST have a Harmony Smart Hub, and you MUST pair the keyboard AND the dongles with the Harmony Smart Hub for this to work. Once you do this relatively simple thing, it works beautifully.My only complaint is that it's not backlit. That would be a great benefit in a home theater room when your watching a movie with the lights off, though I imagine adding backlighting would probably raise the price to unbearable levels.I'm giving it five stars. It's exactly what I needed, it works perfectly, and I got it for a great price. The lack of backlight isn't enough to dock a star, especially since it's not advertised as having that feature. I wish it were there, but it's not a deal-breaker by any means.If you have a Harmony Smart Control, you already have the Hub, which makes this a no-brainer if you have a PC connected to your home theater setup. Before purchase, you should definitely look up the Harmony Smart Control. That's a specific device; Not a generic description of any old Harmony remote. Make sure you have the Hub you need, or else this is an entirely useless device for you.

I bought this hoping to make my Roku and Steam experiences better. It took some doing to get it synced with the hub but once synced it worked. Traversing the Roku was more difficult than with the remote. The Steam client was slightly more useful but the track pad wasn't useful for playing any games. In all, I haven't found a good use for the keyboard.

If you have a Harmony remote, this is a great addon for your media center. What I love about it is that in the Harmony app on my phone and tablet, I now can bring up a keyboard. So even if the actual keyboard is across the room and I just want to type something I can call up the app and do it without getting up. This has allowed me to use the same keyboard on 2 different Harmony remotes in my house.The keyboard comes with 2 BT USB dongles too. I'm connecting them to Nvidia Shield TV and the device just recognizes them natively, so it was a snap.

Its a love hate relationship, when my mouse dosen't freeze up for seconds at a time and it turns all my devices at once as its suppose to do it's wonderful. The mouse freezes up dozens of times a day for a few seconds at a time and when i ask it to turn on my tv and stereo it forgets my tv 1/4 of the time. On top of everything you have to be tech savvy to set it up.

it *may* be worth it to hook a computer to your home theatre but I'd just use a bluetooth keyboard etc If this worked with satellite/cable boxes it would be so worth it.

Doesn't control a lot of devices. I was hoping that this would integrate into my home theater (I have a dedicated movie room with a 185" screen) better but it only functions (as a keyboard) for a few different devices,

Keyboard ok, but disconnects frequently (more than other Bluetooth devices)Also, Harmony system is not very stable.