• 4 Posts
  • 49 Comments
Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: June 13th, 2023

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  • Can it be programmed without the app?

    Not as far as I can tell. You need the phone app to program it via Bluetooth. I suspect that the app has all of the codes and does not need connectivity once you’ve downloaded it, but the database of codes would live in the app and not in the remote hardware.
    I would prefer another Harmony to the Sofabaton U2, but the Harmony still relies on an app to program it. Unfortunately, according to this
    https://support.myharmony.com/en-us/download#harmonyRemote7x
    the software is no longer available, and even if you could snag it you wouldn’t be able to make a new account to use it (obviously it’s bullshit that you need an account, but c’est la vie.) Basiclly: Harmony had good hardware and bad software, the Sofabaton is the other way around.


  • I bought a Sofabaton U2 to replace my worn-out Harmony and it’s… okay. The main frustration is the buttons. You really have to mash them to get them to register, and way the remote is designed the IR signal gets weaker as the batteries fade, which can be really frustrating. The wheel that chooses your program has also become very flaky.
    That said, the app for programming it is better than Logitec’s for the Harmony. If you’re in there frequently to set up control of different hotel TVs it should be fairly easy.









  • I use an older Pi (can’t remember the model) running LibreELEC + Jellyfin client + the Kodi Sync Queue plugin on the server. Jellyfin takes over the entire Kodi library on the client. Control is via CEC from the TV.
    My understanding is that Raspberry Pis are not great value anymore if you don’t need the GPIO pins, so there may be a more affordable Single Board Computer out there that will run LibreELEC. Maybe even x86.
    I’m also trying an Apple TV 4K which I got on sale. It works well, and there’s a free Jellyfin client app in addition to a couple of pay ones, but I haven’t figured out how to configure my universal remote so I don’t need the Apple remote.






  • I have pihole running on an old Raspberry Pi B and it just chugs along. Except for the wonky update they put out a few months ago. That took some cleaning up after.
    I check the dashboard a few times a day and it’s a good way to notice network issues and misbehaving programs.
    I’m also running it through cloudflared to encrypt the requests, in case my ISP is snooping on them.




  • I have a Reolink PoE camera. It works fine. As far as I can tell, it only uses the internet to check for updates and set the time, but I have it blocked off anyway. Home Assistant was actually causing it to check for updates, too, so that got disabled.
    I don’t record, so I can’t help you there.
    I will say that is a pain to get Home Assistant to display real-time video instead of a slide show.