New Halo and Halo Touch Remotes

[Control4Savant]

Would people here sacrifice the touch screen and still be pleased? 

[chopedogg88]

1 hour ago, Nupe1911 said:

My remote still is on MST.  The remote is working fine....just a little annoyed on the MST on the face.

Is your system on MST? Remote should get its time zone from your system settings. 

[Cyknight]

6 hours ago, crash1977mtl said:

Then they should market the device as needing to be constantly charged. Changing everyone’s habits including children to always recharge the remote is not worth the trade off of having Siri voice control.

aside from Siri voice control there is not much benefit - all the buttons have been moved around and the battery life is so poor , had I known this as an end user there is zero chance I would have purchased 3 of these paperweights.

This remote is a big disappointment 

I want it all, I want it now, I want it for free. And if I didn't do my homework it's not my fault.

[wnpublic]

1 hour ago, Cyknight said:

I want it all, I want it now, I want it for free. And if I didn't do my homework it's not my fault.

Yes definitely, everyone should stop bitching about their $900 remote….

[Gary Leeds UK]

3 hours ago, Cyknight said:

I want it all, I want it now, I want it for free. And if I didn't do my homework it's not my fault.

I think the issue could be over marketing by C4 and the fact it starting to look like another Neeo 

it’s like they have released a production vision with beta software and asking there customers to test it for them. 
 

fingers crossed it will all come right in the end 

[crash1977mtl]

8 hours ago, Andrew luecke said:

What other issue do you have besides the battery life however?

Also, not sure what the complaint about the buttons is? It's expected that they may move some buttons around based on feedback during testing and new functionality

The only other complaint is that I find the responsiveness not to not as good as the zigbee remotes. Even scrolling to change rooms is slower then you would expect for a brand new product.

 

as for the buttons, it’s all muscle memory. I get that things change , but it’s not like they had compelling reasons to move the back/cancel/ prev buttons . This I can live with , but it’s not a change I think lots of people were asking for.

 

[crash1977mtl]

7 hours ago, Cyknight said:

I want it all, I want it now, I want it for free. And if I didn't do my homework it's not my fault.

Actually I don’t want it free. I spent close to 2000 dollars on these new remotes , so pardon me if I had an expectation they function. 
One unit was DOA and being replace , and the others can’t last a day.

 

if I missed any marketing from c4 saying the battery life is horrendous , that I apologize for. Can you provide the link where they explain the remote must be recharged between each use , or the remote won’t be ready the next time you need it ?

[ChzBurger]

8 hours ago, Control4Savant said:

Would people here sacrifice the touch screen and still be pleased? 

The screen on the button remote is not touch. The touch version (no number pad) is coming out 'Q1'. And is $900.

7 hours ago, Cyknight said:

I want it all, I want it now, I want it for free. And if I didn't do my homework it's not my fault.

As a dealer you are the first line in customer discussion/education. $500 isn't free. There is one reason to move from an SR-260. That is voice. Right now there is functionality on the SR-260 that is missing from the Halo (Comfort, Security, 'Custom Button' agent buttons). And you may need to have some good WiFi troubleshooting skills.

38 minutes ago, crash1977mtl said:

as for the buttons, it’s all muscle memory. I get that things change , but it’s not like they had compelling reasons to move the back/cancel/ prev buttons . This I can live with , but it’s not a change I think lots of people were asking for.

I agree with this. There are so many well laid out remotes out there, including the SR-260. How they got to this layout is a head scratcher. Must have been someone with 'make almost every button the same size in 3 columns' OCD. (IMO the best laid out remote was the Harmony Companion.)

I'm willing to cut C4 some slack. Hopefully they will make software/firmware improvements to improve battery life. There are a fair number of opportunities for improvement in some of the menu functionality (including not limiting favorites to the touch). One of my worries is about the durability of the case. If I look at the bottom edge of the case I can see places with no texture. Does that mean the texture is going to quickly wear off or get shiny? (My used-every-day SR-260 is barely showing texture wear where the back contacts a counter after 5 years of use.)

[Baubas Cat]

As for all the battery talk, I don't understand how everyone says the battery is awful. In the video on page 12 at around the 2:50 mark, Jacob states that the battery life is better than the Neeo. I think my Neeo isn't very good. It is rarely used and lasts about 3 days. From Jacobs statement, if I was to get a Halo remote, I would expect it to last me a minimum of 4 days. Does anyone with the Halo remote also have a Neeo and if so, is the Halo lasting longer than it? If not, then that statement should have not been made.

[crash1977mtl]

50 minutes ago, Baubas Cat said:

As for all the battery talk, I don't understand how everyone says the battery is awful. In the video on page 12 at around the 2:50 mark, Jacob states that the battery life is better than the Neeo. I think my Neeo isn't very good. It is rarely used and lasts about 3 days. From Jacobs statement, if I was to get a Halo remote, I would expect it to last me a minimum of 4 days. Does anyone with the Halo remote also have a Neeo and if so, is the Halo lasting longer than it? If not, then that statement should have not been made.

I would be thrilled with 3 or 4 days. I’m not exaggerating when I say the remotes are lasting approx 12 hours. This is without using them, sitting on the couch within 20 feet of a wifi access point.

I can’t wait for all the apologist dealers out there to try and convince their customers this is normal behaviour.

 

 

[dinom]

Now mine only goes down about 15% if not used and not in charger overnight.  So about 12 hours. So not sure what to say. 

[Reednatron]

I just have a different point of view I guess. 

This isn't a mobile phone that travels with me away from home, its a device that stays in my room and controls the C4 system in my house.

The charger is literally in the same room as the remote.

It feels 1000% better in hand than the playskool 260, and has a nice screen for album art/GUI.

In my usage, its way more reliable than the Neeo it replaced, and battery life is comparable.

C4 is still making the 260, right? If you need 74 days of battery life and simply cannot stand to put the remote on charge, use the 260 and look at yellow text.

$500 is too much for what it is, but the Core controllers are expensive as well. Inflation I suppose.

 

Also: I've used about every Harmony remote that exists and prefer the feel and utility of the Halo.

 

[House72]

I placed an order for Halo Remote. I am now waiting for them to be available to try it.

[Control4Savant]

1 hour ago, ChzBurger said:

The screen on the button remote is not touch. The touch version (no number pad) is coming out 'Q1'. And is $900.

As a dealer you are the first line in customer discussion/education. $500 isn't free. 

Yeah it was a bit of sarcasm. I sell my smart remotes at cost because I think it’s absurd to pay $500+ for what is essentially IMO a TV clicker to my clients.  Control4 has a large beta program and dealer base and Snap is pretty much the leader of our industry in the resi. market. Part of my purpose for being on this site is debunk and filter the BS between pros and end users. I also no longer sell Control4 with new projects and use other solutions regardless of budget because of my own woes after 15 years. With that said…what do you expect dealers to do in this case? We dont control the releases and can only give back as much feedback as we can. Brands across the board constantly do things dealers specially ask them not to do. We have clients getting new product release info, clients desperate for updated products. It’s unrealistic for many pros to just switch to a different automation system on the fly just as it is for an end user.  I can understand being frustrated because of the cost and if you have a new system and this is the only option, that would be a bad design on the dealers part since all new tech releases are subject to problems in the open environments. I assume for the most part people still have their original remotes to still use in the meantime while updates are hopefully soon made. 

 

[WisC4]

a week in, my remotes are doing great.  one is always kept on charger between watch sessions, and the other is left off charger and seems to last a couple days before getting real low.  feels great in hand, and it is really nice having backlight at night.  I customized the 3 softkeys in composer HE.  Only thing that isn't working is any voice control for appleTV but I blame that on my integrator not being able to figure it out, not the remote itself.  Just a few more weeks and a few hundred dollars for a truck roll and just maybe I can speak to siri from the halo...

[chopedogg88]

I can help you with the Siri stuff if you need (remotely).

[ChzBurger]

47 minutes ago, Control4Savant said:

Part of my purpose for being on this site is debunk and filter the BS between pros and end users.

I think that was my point. Dealers can and should add value. The main selling points of a dealer system is dealer knowledge and support. C4 offers a reasonable mix of capabilities. Low-mid range complexity AV control is its major selling point for me. If you look at non-AV automation there's no magic in any dealer system today C4, Savant, whatever. There are $100-$200 options that will do about whatever automations that dealer systems can do, no $250 add-on drivers required. The best dealers will know the competitive system marketplace, how to segment customer markets, and sell their value.

[House72]

Can you gain Siri functionality with the Control 4 app on iPad?

[Control4Savant]

7 minutes ago, House72 said:

Can you gain Siri functionality with the Control 4 app on iPad?

Your iPad has Siri functionality.  There’s nothing additional happening on the C4 end.

[House72]

I understand my iPad has Siri functionality. Can I use my iPad Siri and say turn off the room? Will that control the entire C4 routine?

The better question is, what does voice command do with Halo? Is that only to control apple tv and no other aspect of Control 4?

 

Cheers

[chopedogg88]

Yes its just for controlling the apple TV via Siri. 

[chopedogg88]

That said, if they are able to add support for other voice providers such as Josh, Alexa, Google... It could get more interesting... 

[House72]

My integrator was saying about JoshAI. I plan to add that when the media room is done

[cnicholson]

2 hours ago, House72 said:

The better question is, what does voice command do with Halo? Is that only to control apple tv and no other aspect of Control 4?

It just passes audio from Halo to the target device.  It (apparently) can do whatever your Siri remote can do, including controlling stuff in your Apple/Homekit ecosystem (so not really limited to Apple TV functionality in that sense).  

There are solutions that will bring your C4 ecosystem into the Siri/Homekit ecosystem that will allow Siri to control your C4 stuff, but that's not really a Halo feature--- it just allows you to control that stuff from Halo instead of native Siri remote (or HomePod / iPhone).   Check out the DTI Homebridge drivers.   But that would be a separate project well beyond the scope of adding a Halo to the system.

Alternatively, once they get the Josh.ai integration working, then your Halo will become a microphone for Josh and you could use Halo to control lots of C4 stuff.  I assume this will be the supported/recommend solution, but quite pricey for most people/projects.

[cnicholson]

5 hours ago, dinom said:

Now mine only goes down about 15% if not used and not in charger overnight.  So about 12 hours. So not sure what to say. 

Ditto.  I think of it like my iPhone.  Best practice is to charge every night, but generally good for almost two days unless you are using it a lot.   Perhaps 3-4 days if it is sitting there doing nothing.  For me, so far the battery life feels very much like the Neeo in that regard.