Logitech Harmony Universal Remote Controls
 

Anyone ever have an experience with these things? I saw a "Product Watch" commercial on my Tivo recently about this, and of course, it looks cool in the commercial.

This is the Harmony 880.

http://www.logitech.com/lang/images/0/6615.jpg

Here is a listing of all the Harmony remotes on the Logitech website.

Re: Logitech Harmony Universal Remote Controls
 

I just got one last week. The Harmony 880 the verdict so far is meh.

Does not work with one appliance I have (remote ceiling fan). Slow to change channels on my cable box DVR, assumes everything is off when you choose a function like "Watch DVR" or "Watch DVD".

To be fair I need to play with it more and see if I can alter it to suit my needs. I plan on trying to change the setup today and I'll post a report tomorrow.

Re: Logitech Harmony Universal Remote Controls
 

i recently got the harmony 659 and i love it

quickly told it my device manufacturer/models and now i just hit 'watch tv' or 'watch dvd' and it turns on my receiver, my tv (switches to correct component input) and the dvd player or cable box...u can get fancier with it and have it do pretty much anything tho

remotecentral is a great dot com site resource for remotes in general and harmony's (under logitech) as well

Re: Logitech Harmony Universal Remote Controls
 

Re: Logitech Harmony Universal Remote Controls
 

[ QUOTE ]
Anyone ever have an experience with these things? I saw a "Product Watch" commercial on my Tivo recently about this, and of course, it looks cool in the commercial.

This is the Harmony 880.

http://www.logitech.com/lang/images/0/6615.jpg

Here is a listing of all the Harmony remotes on the Logitech website.

[/ QUOTE ]

My Ex and I had one. It's an awesome remote for sure. User friendly and easy to program.

Re: Logitech Harmony Universal Remote Controls
 

I have a 680 and love it. I personally HATED the setup for it though. It's all done via a webapp which is a tad slow, and it's designed to be very "user friendly". The user friendliness is great at the start, but you'll find it does things you don't want it to do. As mentioned it will turn off devices not in use, which is not always desirable, and finding your way through the menus to adjust specifics like that can be difficult.

Once you get it running it's well worth it though. One mode will control numerous devices, so "TV Mode" for example will let you change channels on your cable box, adjust the volume on your receiver, and adjust the picture on your TV all from one mode.

Re: Logitech Harmony Universal Remote Controls
 

I have that exact one. It works great once you set it up correctly. The set-up is easy. It is very customizable so the more time you put into setting it up the better it will work for you.

Re: Logitech Harmony Universal Remote Controls
 

Krimson and Max,

You don't find it slow in changing channels, etc.? Is there a setting to adjust the delay before sending the signal?

Thanks

Re: Logitech Harmony Universal Remote Controls
 

Is this the best practical universal on the market? I've seen some crazy things with touchscreens and stuff (I think phillips pronto), but they seem a bit too pricey to be considered practical.

Re: Logitech Harmony Universal Remote Controls
 

hell,

what do you mean "doesn't work"? if it's just not compatible with the type of signal needed to be sent, you should have known that ahead of time o/wise, what do you mean?

it doesn't assume everything is off. it assumes everything is in the state which IT left them in. so if you turn off your TV by hand at some point, it doesn't know you did that. i don't know how you would expect it to.

i've had mine a while and haven't really spent the time to configure it fully, and am happy with it.

citanul

Re: Logitech Harmony Universal Remote Controls
 

[ QUOTE ]
hell,

what do you mean "doesn't work"? if it's just not compatible with the type of signal needed to be sent, you should have known that ahead of time o/wise, what do you mean?

[/ QUOTE ]

I mean I have a remote for the fan now, other models from the fan company are listed but this one is not in the online listing. It also won't learn it for some reason. I'll give this another go when I get home tonight.

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it doesn't assume everything is off. it assumes everything is in the state which IT left them in. so if you turn off your TV by hand at some point, it doesn't know you did that.

[/ QUOTE ]

Makes perfect sense, I just made a poor assumption that it always sent a power signal for the components. Thanks.

Re: Logitech Harmony Universal Remote Controls
 

Hell,

Yeah, I odn't know what's up with it not being able to learn your codes, as long as it's IR, I would think it could learn it. If your fan has a radio remote or something you could just be SOL.

WRT the power codes thing. Many devices have different on and off codes, but many just have one code for "power toggle." If it's just got one, then almost all devices don't have a "send signal to check state" functionality.

citanul

Re: Logitech Harmony Universal Remote Controls
 

The delay between commands is adjustable, somewhere deep in the configuration. If I remember correctly it defaults to 500ms which is way too much, and allows you to change the delay in 100ms increments. I reduced mine to 100ms and it's much less of an issue.

Re: Logitech Harmony Universal Remote Controls
 

[ QUOTE ]
Anyone ever have an experience with these things? I saw a "Product Watch" commercial on my Tivo recently about this, and of course, it looks cool in the commercial.


[/ QUOTE ]

I also have this remote, and also bought it after seeing Tivo's commercial. It is easy to set-up but I would have liked it better if there was a way to tweak the configuration without having to go back into the web app.

You can configure whether devices stay on or off, so if things are switching off when they shouldn't, this is fixable.

Also, re: changing channels slowly, I also found this to be true. But, you can also hold the button down and it goes into 'fast mode'. i.e. press once, it is slow to change channel / volume / whatever. Press and hold, and after a pause, it changes them rapidly.

Edit to ask:
"Deep in the configuration" = where is this?

Also, if the desired effect did not actually happen, the Help key cycles through the steps again, in case a signal was missed. I have found that switching TV inputs often leaves it on the wrong selection, pressing Help once fixes it. A little annoying, but an easy fix.


[ QUOTE ]

cliff notes: the harmony 680 is much better than the harmony 880

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This might depend on if you are used to or want Tivo-like layout?

Re: Logitech Harmony Universal Remote Controls
 

[ QUOTE ]
Should've read this astroglide post

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thanks for the props [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

cliff notes: the harmony 680 is an excellent and affordable universal remote, and it is also much better than the harmony 880

Re: Logitech Harmony Universal Remote Controls
 

The best remote control site on the web is:
http://www.remotecentral.com/

I have this remote: http://www.remotecentral.com/mx700/index.html

I'm very satisfied with it. Fully programmable, easy to use. Lots of macros.

It doesn't assume anything about the state the appliance is in. You tell it to turn on or off each device (hopefully, your devices have separate power on and power off commands).

The programming isn't web based. You download a program to your computer and program the remote via serial port.

Re: Logitech Harmony Universal Remote Controls
 

I have one and I think it's sweet. I previously had a "regular" universal remote, which was impossbile for anyone else to use ("ok, so when watching tivo M1 is skip...")

I had a Phillips Pronto, which was easy to use but huge and it broke, and now this. I have the model Astro recommended.

You can set it not to turn things off automatically on a device by device basis. I have it not turn off my cable box or XBOX 360, for example, but it does turn my dvd player and stereo on and off as appropriate.

Re: Logitech Harmony Universal Remote Controls
 

I have a Harmony 880 and I like it, but I would have liked anything that would let me store away 4+ separate prior remotes. I do agree my original Tivo remote had better ergonomics for FF/Play buttons, but I haven't been terribly annoyed, I just got used to holding the remote lower than seems natural.

The setup is "deceptively easy". You add devices via a web form and its quick and painless, and you think everythihng is cool, but my experience was that things didn't really work the way I wanted from that process. I had to tweak settings for a week and eventually had to have an hour long conversation with support to resolve timing/input issues with the Westinghouse LWM-42w2. It's pretty good now though. I still need to fix some more of the button mappings in one of the activities so I don't have to revert to device mode for a couple of functions, but it's easy and I'm just being lazy. More notably, I haven't been able to get the post-activity-launch macros to work for my Xbox (I wanted a separate xbox activity that takes me directly to Pictures, for instance). That might be a matter of needing more experimentation with delays in the macro.

I don't understand why people are knocking the fact that it's a web form instead of a downloadable application - who gives a [censored]? Anyway, I think they have a new 5.3 version updater that is downladable (but still accesses the net for device information), but I haven't tried it. In fact, I could be fixing my button mappings while I'm at work, instead of wasting time in OOT, because my configuration info is on the web instead of on my comptuer.

I was dissapointed it wouldn't work my ceiling fan, but that's not Harmony's fault, it's the FCC's. No universal remote can work an ad hoc RF device - no, not even the "RF" 890.