I tried the SofaBaton this week. What I’d read is it can’t run a macro that automatically handles HDMI switching. One or two places suggested vaguely it might.

I returned it after three days because if it could I sure couldn’t figure out how. I’m not above saying it could be user error buuuuuuut.

Then we tried a Broadlink RM4. After three tries it was willing to learn buttons manually from our 2020 Yamaha AVR, there was easy community automatic learning for our more obscure Oppo 93, and it recognized but after over a dozen tries it absolutely refused to learn the buttons for our 2020 LG TV. As such, I couldn’t really test whether it could do automatical HDMI switching. We could adjust to voice-only. Not ideal but okay. It also has the benefit of being a smart home utility knife that’s closer to the beginning of its utility life. A frustrating shame. We still have it but are sending it back this weekend.

So... instead of either of those $50 solutions, we grudgingly spent $150 on a Companion. Amazon said 1-2 months so Best Buy’s 1-2 days seemed wise. We regret the purchase of this premium device on life support but we really need a solution. The LG remote has always been wonky but the killer is our Yamaha AVR’s HDMI switching is positively insane and possessed. The easiest way to control it or correct it when it goes nuts is to open its web portal, which is freaking phenomenal but not suited to a phone. Truth is, without something like Harmony, this would be a mess and we’d regret not having it more. Sucks spending $150 to make a $400 AVR work right. Fortunately, it’s the Costco model which is the same as their $600 model... so we can squint and pretend it’s still a bargain.

As usual, the setup went okay but not perfectly smoothly. Then again, two days with RM4 vs two hours with Harmony. That’s almost worth $100 alone.