Logitech Harmony Universal Remote Controls

[Hellrazor]

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.

[Nicholasp27]

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

[mmbt0ne]

Should've read this astroglide post

[astroglide]

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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

[gusmahler]

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.

[ddubois]

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.

[citanul]

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

[Hellrazor]

[ 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?

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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.

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

[citanul]

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

[krimson]

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.