Questions about the Sofabaton Universal Remote

[Foxbat]

Well, I don’t know about you, but I have a Harmony Universal Remote and it works great for controlling all the devices in my Home Theater. The problem is the Harmony remote we have is old, experiencing polymer degradation (i.e., its soft-touch case is “sticky” to the touch), and it’s on it’s second replacement LiIon battery. At some point the battery will die again and I’ll be bringing out all the old remotes from hiding.

Also, our tech-adverse friend loves the Harmony 580 (I think that’s the model number) that controls her TV, Satellite, AVR, CD player, etc., but she’s afraid that she’s going to kill the Mute button the further we get into the 2024 Presidential Election. To be fair, she mutes all commercials, so political ads are not her only target for “Mute”…

I have been keeping an eye on the Universal Remote market, especially those that allow for Macro Commands (switch on the TV, switch to Local OTA tuner, tune to Channel xx.ss, switch on the AVR, set input to ARC/HDMI 1, set audio to Dolby Digital, and set volume to 20%) that can be assigned to a single “Watch TV” button. I haven’t seen anything promising until Sofabaton showed up.

So I will ask SatelliteGuys, does anyone here have one of the Sofabaton remotes? Does it work as well or better than the Harmony remote? How difficult is it to program? Does it have a good build quality?

Here’s a review that came out last month from Tom’s Hardware:

SofaBaton X1S review: The best universal remote

The SofaBaton X1S improves on its predecessor in every way.

www.tomsguide.com

 

[harshness]

I think the bigger question may be how substantial the associated device database is.

Universal remotes have taken a big hit from HDMI-CEC and rightly so.

URC still makes some powerful remotes but they're wicked expensive.

 

[Stuart Sweet]

I'm also very interested in this answer. A lot of interest in these products right now from Solid Signal customers.

 

[Foxbat]

HDMI and CEC is great if your equipment is recent and talks with everything else, but my tech-adverse friend is not going to like me telling her if the $55 remote dies, she has to replace her entire entertainment center. Maybe not the Denon, but most everything else is over ten years old.

 

[harshness]

I'm also very interested in this answer.

It appears that the only way to find out if something is supported is to try it.

 

[klang]

I have a U1 model from a couple years ago. It does not have the Hub. Been a while but I recall setup was pretty simple via the iPhone app. I didn't have any need for macros so didn't venture in there. Seems to be similar build quality to what I recall of the Harmonys. I was never fond of the Harmony software so I found this easier.

But honestly, I use the Sony TV remote the vast majority of the time.