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376K views 3K replies 419 participants last post by  mskreis 
#1 ·
Has anyone tried out Roomie Remote for iOS? It looks nice, but pretty new. I'm interested in a lot of what it seems to provide, but curious to get impressions from people that have already tried it. I'm especially curious about the two-way feedback with my receiver (Yamaha RX-V2065).



Dave


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Yamaha RX-V2065 Receiver

Sony KDL-46XBR3 TV

TiVo Series 3

PS3

Mac Mini

WD TV Live
 
#2,296 ·
I've been a long time user of Roomie and Simple Control as well. However my experience of their support is like some others here. I would agree especially with regards to Will Price. I couldn't upgrade to v5 as I was running devices which didn't support iOS 11 and also didn't want to update some devices to iOS 11. I was initially told I could update some devices and leave others on v4.5. However it wasn't made clear that if you did this with IP control of an AppleTV, the v4.5 apps would crash immediately on opening. It has something to do with a change in the control for this device in v5 which syncs through to all devices but v4.5 doesn't support it.

Will was completely dismissive of the concerns and the problem when I raised it. They have completely abandoned any support for v4.5 and I'm now stuck with being unable to edit my Roomie plist files as they removed Dropbox support as well. I've paid a lot of money for both their products and subscriptions over the years but they simply don't think about this or care. If you dare question Will, he simply ignores you and their support forum is a joke as it's moderated by them. You can't post anything negative as it won't get past their moderation. Will Price and one of his other support executives, Jon Lopez, have no idea how to treat customers.

There's no doubt they have a good product but the way they treat loyal customers is a disgrace. I'm surprised there hasn't been more negative press about this aspect and the problems with their new version 5 app.

Does anyone know of a way to edit the plist files in v4.5 without Dropbox linking or am I stuck with not being able to do this unless I move to v5?
 
#2,299 ·
Is it true that the builder software is Windows only? If so, DemoPad is a non-starter for me. I am not going back to Windows!
 
#2,300 ·
Yes its true, the builder works only in windows. You can always run windows on a mac. But why do you hate windows? Do you like paying over priced low quality machines that apple pushes out and then forces you to update well before the life of a machine is over? The OS is defiantly not better and oh ya they have viral and spyware issues too. Hahahahaha just messing around.
 
#2,307 ·
Question on Custom Device.

I'm a 4.5 user, and have a RoomieCodes.plist file for my Datasat RS20i.

Trying to move to 5.5...

I made a backup to iCloud.
I can log into iCloud on my PC and download the SimpleControlBackup.zip
I open the zip and extract SimpleControlBackup.

When I open the SimpleControlBackup file with an Editor, it is not an XML file that I am expecting. I'm using Notepad2 to edit the file and it has all sorts of control codes in the file.

From what I read in the DDK, I should copy a part of my plist file to the SimpleControlBackup but when I search for the codes tag it is not in the file?

What am I doing wrong?
 
#2,308 ·
Well it seems that the "Backup" from iCloud is a special .plist file. According to SimpleControl I must use either XCode or BBEdit, both of which are Mac only.

I asked Simplecontrol and they responded with "We are unable to recommend a windows editor"...

Since I do not own a Mac, does anyone know of a compatible .plist file editor for Windows that I can use? I see several "Paid" versions but honestly do not want to buy an editor for something I do not plan to edit often!
 
#2,309 ·
I have a Mac and Xcode and it doesn't seem to even work in reading the file. The plist was so easy. The documentation doesn't seem to really cover Version 5. They just say "it works like 4.5", but not in my view (or I'm doing something wrong). I will try a few other things... SJ
 
#2,310 ·
Honestly, this company works hard at turning off their clients... Custom devices should be something every "remote" app should have native!

I've purchased a license to Demopad... Took cpl of hours to transfer all of my devices. Now just playing with the designer.

If you have IRule it is a very easy to move over your devices.

I got the Sony VW5000, KScape, Oppo, Roku, Lumagen, Apple 4k and DirecTV done, along with the Universal Remote ISY99 integration completed, mostly just cut n paste from IRule. Works with my ITach's perfectly.

Oh and took all of 5 min to integrate with the Datasat... Including feedbacks!

The designer is a little more complicated than IRule but I'm slowly figuring it out...

I went with Simplecontrol when IRule was discontinued, however, prolly going to move away from SimpleControl's for good. Liked 4.5. Hate 5.0+

Demopad looks like it has the customization I need.
 
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#2,312 ·
Meanwhile for those still using SimpleControl here's what the CEO thinks of those who occupy this forum. Delightful language. There's been various other comments about his customers which indicate he has zero respect for those that effectively keep his company going. And no I'm not an employee of any other remote company.

Will Price (Simple Control)
Aug 5, 09:27 AKDT

AVSForum has always been a cess pool littered by many people who are in fact paid employees of competitors. Just imagine how many of the 9,000 Logitech employees might occasionally decide to dump on a competitor there. Now multiple that by every other competitor. If you're going to make a judgement from that site, you should probably give up now.
 
#2,314 ·
I am using Simple Control 4.5 and refuse to upgrade to the current subscription based product. I am able to keep editing adding and subtracting products using an application called iMazing to backup and restore my profiles since dropbox is no longer supported through their app.
 
#2,317 ·
Well it seems that Will Price really is on a mission to alienate his customers and doesn't seem to care about bad publicity. I asked a customer service blogger to see if she could get anywhere and he blocked her from twitter and refused to connect through LinkedIn. What is wrong with this man? Does he actually want his company to fail?:confused:

I was going to post a link to her twitter account but can't as I don't have enough posts yet! Anyway her twitter name is ladyjaney75. She has brought in a few customer service giants from the US and they agree Simple Control can't continue on its current path of ignoring customers concerns and being actively aggressive towards any form of criticism.
 
#2,318 ·
I don't work for Logitech or anyone else, but I'm truly fed up listening to Will Price's blather. V5.5 is aimed at customers satisfied with simple functions and his 5-year old crayon style icons. I was very pleased with my 4.5 set-up which after a sh*tload of work and money for itach controllers worked superbly. The forced switch to the new and improved version broke 50% of my setup. Clearly Price doesn't give a tinker's damn about users populating this forum; he's focused on money. Technical support isn't important because SC isn't interested is anyone fiddling with his pastel masterpiece.


Thanks for the Demopad tip - definitely interested in a more flexible and professional option to the disappointing end of Roomie. Is anyone working on open source options? Where's the pfSense options for the remove AV world?
 
#2,319 ·
I only use Simple Control as a secondary control system, but have found the support to be really good. They have responded quickly to all of my requests. I was grand fathered for my GC devices, but find that the latest updates have made the interface very quick in how it responds. The guides are great (I use Dish) and the interface seems easy to use. I have added custom devices and although takes a few extra steps to integrate, it does work fine. Most folks probably don’t need it. SJ
 
#2,320 · (Edited)
What is your Primary Control System? What is "GC"?

No problems with support here either. The guys seemed helpful and responsive. I'm still on v4.5 (with Mac-Hub and Alexa) because my dedicated remote is still an iPhone-5 and can't get to high-enough iOS. Also because it works fine and I've been busy with other projects.

But I do have better non-dedicated iPhones and iPads available, so maybe I should just go ahead and upgrade? From the upgrade stories I hear, sounds like I might as well just start over. No big deal ... it only took a day or so to get it setup nice last year anyway.

I just wish I could have a truly integrated hard-button (Harmony like) remote. Right now, we run them parallel and it doesn't always play nice.
 
#2,323 ·
The last straw

We had a showroom displaying simple control, set up several large homes and promoted this unfinished product, despite their incompetence. We, now as all other dealers, are being abandoned. There will no longer be dealers, no local showrooms to offer help or parts. We have had to tell our clients that after buying the hub, they now have to buy somethings else to continue to use the system. Additionally, several of our clients were billed multiple times for renewal and still lost their service.
They had a good idea and start, they just need someone that knows how to run a company. Having the CEO start attacking the users online as being plants from other companies is now a show of great leadership.
RIP Roomie
 
#2,324 ·
We had a showroom displaying simple control, set up several large homes and promoted this unfinished product, despite their incompetence. We, now as all other dealers, are being abandoned. There will no longer be dealers, no local showrooms to offer help or parts. We have had to tell our clients that after buying the hub, they now have to buy somethings else to continue to use the system. Additionally, several of our clients were billed multiple times for renewal and still lost their service.
They had a good idea and start, they just need someone that knows how to run a company. Having the CEO start attacking the users online as being plants from other companies is now a show of great leadership.
RIP Roomie
That just demonstrates that he's not a leader and is certainly not fit to be CEO of any company.

I'm another user who has been ignored, blocked and given the brush off by Will Price. I have a large number of custom devices and have spent many hours designing custom remote setups with Simple Control. I cannot update to v5 as I have devices that are still running iOS 10. It wouldn't matter whether I could update these devices anyway as I'd have to redesign the entire set of custom remotes. I have attempted every method to update the RoomieCodes.plist file but have been unable to achieve this since the Dropbox integration was broken. I looked at iMazing as mentioned previously but this didn't work either.

I sincerely hope that Simple Control does now fail, as a company and CEO that has such a poor attitude to it's customers deserves to fail. I know that some have mentioned getting good support, well you've been the lucky ones. Try questioning anything or disagreeing with them and you'll find the same response as so many others have.

As others have mentioned, Will Price is interested in only one thing - money. Only if that dries up will he realise the damage he has done but I doubt even this will have an effect. Arrogance of this magnitude is unfortunately impossible to reverse:frown:.
 
#2,325 ·
Will aside, what should companies do when they move on to a new product? iRule/Oncontrols just gives everyone 4 years notice to move on. They stop all new development, but do provide basic support. Seems like the same should have been done with 4.5. Keep it working as is for X years. This includes things like Dropbox, etc.
 
#2,327 · (Edited)
Seems like the same should have been done with 4.5. Keep it working as is for X years. This includes things like Dropbox, etc.
Well, 4.5 still works for me.

SimpleControl says DropBox depreciation was their API change. I agree it was handy ... especially in the beginning during testing (with no SC Subscription yet). I also liked having my config in a file that I could touch and backup. I'm probably missing something, but I don't see how iCloud Backup and/or subscription backup don't fill the void. I'm guessing you can't "hack devices in it" so maybe that is what you guys are talking about.

At first, I too was wondering why they couldn't just develop v5.x for a iOS-10 or higher iOS target. I don't know all the ins-outs of developing an iOS App of this magnitude but I think you have to target the latest iOS if you want support for the latest features (newest HomeKit, AirPlay-2, etc.).

Luckily, Apple is keeping "last years" iPad in the line-up through the years. A few months ago I picked-up a brand new iPad-9.7in-Gen5-2017 at Staples.com for $225.
 
#2,329 ·
I believe all of the old ip feedback is still there, it just seems to be buried in the devices themselves. I asked the same question on the Simple forums, but never got a good answer (not keeping the audio feedback info on the main activity page is a major step back imo)

As Roomie member since 2011, I love the continued innovation and support for new devices, but I am not a fan of the new layout at all. I truly don't understand why they just didn't leave it backwards compatible for the users who have spent countless hours setting up there activities.

Has anyone found a similar/comparable product and made the switch from Simple Control? If so, I'd love to hear their thoughts.
 
#2,334 ·
I like theHomeRemote. Seems to be able to control just about everything and runs on all platforms for $5. Was a lot of work to set up, maybe 16 hours to do 10 devices for a newbie like me. But most of that was researching and testing http and tcp protocols and learning a little java. But I'm now controlling AVR, Tivo, BD player, Roku and thermostats by IP and a few other devices by IR via iTach on a mix of Windows, iOS and Android phones and tablets. I know very little about Roomie, but sounds like theHomeRemote has similar capabilities. Only difference is they don't have a stellar set of graphics built in, so count on using your own if you want something really slick looking.
 
#2,335 ·
Either way I don't think you will find any thing as simple as Simple remote to set up. If you liked iRule and are on IOS device, I would go with DemoPad. If your on Android I would go with HomeRemote. Both will have a learning curve. Especially if you have no experience with a builder. You can do so much with either one. You can DL the builder and the App for DemoPad for free and try it out with one device. HomeRemote is only $5.00 so not much to risk. Now if you don't want to developed your own, then some thing lie Control 4 or others would be what you want. Though kinda pricey.
 
#2,336 · (Edited)
Running 4.5.8 on iOS 12, ran into an issue just yesterday with my TiVo not responding to commands; they show up in red in the command history drawer. I verified that the tivo’s ip didn’t change, verified the MAK was still there in The SC config for the TiVo device. The TiVo hard remote still works, when I browse to the TiVo Ip I get a TiVo welcome splash page.

I don’t know if there was a Continuous Inconvenience I mean Improvement pushed out to the TiVo that could’ve caused this. My next step is to do a total reset on the TiVo but before I did that I wanted to check in in case maybe I’ve missed something.
 
#2,339 ·
I opened an SC support request from within the app, and was summarily told to upgrade due to 4.x no longer being supported.

WRT TiVo no idea if it’s possible to revert or not. SC did refer to the TiVo upgrade as a “security” upgrade so not sure how wise reverting might be, assuming it’s possible.

I was worried about the upgrade process & potentially having to start from scratch, but if you leave 4.x installed when installing 5.x, the new version is able to pick up the existing config. Just be careful because the config is still linked & accessible by both apps. If you make a change in 4.x it will also get reflected in 5.x.
 
#2,340 ·
Similar to atebit's experience with TiVO control breaking, my SC version 4.5.11 on iOS 12 / Simple Hub 4.5.11 running on macOS platform had been stable for months but in the last few days, Apple TV 4K is not responding to SC commands. The Apple TV hard remote works fine. Commands show up in red in the command history drawer. I verified the Apple TV's ip didn’t change, and it is assigned a DHCP reservation in the router. I've restarted the router and the Apple TV many times.

When I deleted the Apple TV and attempted to re-add the device, it got interesting. Under Add Devices>Local Network Devices, all three Apple TVs on my home network show up with status of "Verifying" for about 30 seconds, then the word Verifying goes away and they appear stable. I click on the Living Room Apple TV and an Apple TV Pairing code appears but in the Apple TV Settings>General>Remotes section, there isn't an option to choose Simple, only device available to add is my iPhone X. If I enroll my iPhone X, the adoption seems to complete, but the newly added SC remote does NOT control the Apple TV.

Are others still controlling Apple TV 4K fine with 4.5.x? Any thoughts? Thanks.
 
#2,343 ·
Is anyone here still using version 4.5.11 of Simple Hub with the Simple Control Legacy app for controlling their system with Alexa?

I was until a couple days ago when the Simple Hub stopped sending out the commands. Everything else seems to work, just the commands don't happen. Has anyone else experienced this recently?
 
#2,344 ·
Is anyone here still using version 4.5.11 of Simple Hub with the Simple Control Legacy app for controlling their system with Alexa?
Yes.

All still working fine here:

Simple Control v4.5.x
Simple-Blaster,
Simple Subscription 20-Device,
Simple Hub for Mac v4.5.11 (on Mac-Mini),
Amazon Echo (Alexa)
 
#2,346 ·
Hello,

Is there a step by step guide on how to setup the remote? The majority of my items are ip but when I do an auto search it only finds my sonos, appletv and Hue lights. Nothing else. I wish they had a youtube video for step by step instructions.
 
#2,348 ·
You can enter it manually by entering the ip and it will ask you what type of component with make and model
 
#2,353 · (Edited)
I have version 4.5.8 and am getting notifications my Roomie Remote Service subscription 1 year has expired and I can no longer control my Xfinity cable box.

I don't care about channel listings, which I still seem to have though they won't change channels?, I just want to be able to mirror the xfinity remote.

I don't use the remote much and have tired with the issues but at times I would like to use the app when I am not in line of sight.

Would I need to renew Roomie Service just to mirror the remote? Is it even available and supported on 4.5.x anymore?

I am not interested in upgrading to the newer app.

Thanks.
 
#2,355 ·
I can no longer control my Xfinity cable box.
I've found it's tricky working with provided/rented STB's because they eventually update them (even the old STB's). Things break. I've run into that with my Cisco boxes from TWC/Spectrum.
 
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