Reviews for Griffin Beacon Universal Remote Control System

Even with latest firmware installed Beacon does not FULLY support Sky UK (BskyB) boxes. As individual colour buttons are not supplied as standard, they simply do not "learn" either. The dvr controls are also poor - "play" actually is the "green" infra red command (PLANNER)!
Until Digit support UK Sky users with the necessary colour and dvr buttons, this simply becomes a very basic remote, unfortunately for lots of ££££'s
Sticking with old Harmony remote...

As others have reported too, while this product fails to supply or learn codes for UK Sky boxes, it's practically useless for most people. It's not been too bad at learning other codes, but the app is flakey even then and putting the effort into configuring a UI on the phone which would be acceptable is frustrating when the app produces inconsistent and even erroneous behaviour. It would be one star as it's useless for me and now gathering dust, but I'm giving it credit for a nice design feature of having multiple iR transmitters built into it which would make it effective at getting a signal to boxes over a wide angle - if anyone doesn't need it to work with Sky boxes and can put up with fairly basic UI layouts in the app, then it does "work".

-update hope this helps those who might be experiencing some connection issues-  mine suddenly started developing issues where the blue tooth was connected and showed pairing but the remote could not control the device, then would and then stopped. I tried new batterers and was starting to go oh no got same issues as everyone else.  Just started complaining to my misses when she said I wonder f those ornaments have anything to do with it?  I moved them there this afternoon!  They are metal and were about 4 inches away from the device.  We moved them and low and behold everything works beautifully ow again.  See the rest of my review below

After hesitating a lot on the hardware between gear4 and Griffin all due to the very mixed reviews I was saved the decision as my wife bought the griffin as a chrimbo present! 

I have to say it works flawlessly and it's easy to learn remotes and set up macros-  all drag and drop.  I did have a problem in the beginning getting the device to learn a remote but this was user error on my part.  When using learn u point the original remote not at the front of the griffin hardware but at the back.  Underneath the box it clearly indicates this but it's not clear in the instructions hence a 4 and not 5 star review.  Once I understood this the device learned remotes very quickly and I soon had my first macro done.  

I don't have sky plus so cannot comment on whether it works or not- it maybe the device it maybe user error- best check the software developers.  I can say I have had no problems with Bluetooth and iPad being on or off etc- and reconnects almost seamlessly- it works very well for me.  

Another very good advantage is the user account u set up with dijit (or u can use a Facebook account) as this means any apple product u use and set up with the user account and all your settings devices and macros etc all get shared:) 

Ok- no iPad app but from looking at the developers site this is with apple waiting for approval.  

Hope this rather long review is useful - I am motivated to write it as without the mixed reviews I would h e bought is before and been using it for a while- I would go for the griffin only because it seems to have auto off/on and the Dijit app account shares all settings

Good luck

It was impossible to find a set of working codes for a Sony Tv and a Sony Dvd/harddisk recorder. The SW search and test function may be OK in some cases, but leaves no clue if you are near to a solution to other functions than on/off volume and chanel select. This may be enough on a TV (?) but a HD recorder needs other complex functionality.

Works well, and is a realistically priced alternative to 5 and 6 remote controls hanging around the living room.
Some items had to be manually programmed but were easy enough to do using the learn function, I even use it for my lights and ceiling fan!
Good product, HD graphics would be nice.