Harmony 880

[smack]

I don't know if anyone has it (or cares), but I picked up the Harmony 880 universal remote and it works perfectly with all of my components.  

Web based setup was easy and it works great, new color display etc.  Wife is finally happy and I don't have to leave an instruction manual for family and friend if they want to watch tv when I am not here.  Best of all, I can put the other 4 remotes away!!!!!

They are not "officially" released yet, but the BB stores got a first shipment before all the other vendors and they still have some left (brookfield) as of today.

smack

[TPK]

I don't know if anyone has it (or cares), but I picked up the Harmony 880 universal remote and it works perfectly with all of my components.  

Web based setup was easy and it works great, new color display etc.  Wife is finally happy and I don't have to leave an instruction manual for family and friend if they want to watch tv when I am not here.  Best of all, I can put the other 4 remotes away!!!!!

They are not "officially" released yet, but the BB stores got a first shipment before all the other vendors and they still have some left (brookfield) as of today.

smack

How much???  And is it worth it over the 600 series remotes???

I was thinking of getting a 680 myself, but I wanted to hold out until the 880 series came out and compare them.....

[Bebop]

I don't think the 880 is worth twice the price of the 600 series.

I think BB have a special arrangement in which they get them before anyone else. They are selling as low as $160 online.

[smack]

It was $249, but I had a bunch of reward zone $10 coupons I had gotten for buying some other stuff and I wanted to get rid of them.  So it was only like $189 for me.

I don't really know how to compare it to anything else because this is my first universal remote (put the other 4 away).

Pros:
It does have a color screen which I like better than the mono screens, and rechargeable Li-ion batteries that charge everytime you put it in its docking station which is right in with my other stuff (plus now I know where the remote is).  It said they should last a few weeks when fully charged.  I was just suprised at how simple it was to set up and it works everything perfectly the first time.

Con:
It is not a touch screen.   It really doesn't matter to me, but it would have been a nice option.

Like I said before, now the babysitter or parents can come over and watch tv or a dvd without me worrying about them messing everything up.

smack

[TPK]

Con:
It is not a touch screen.   It really doesn't matter to me, but it would have been a nice option.

I dunno... I have a touchscreen remote (Mx-1000) and there are times that I kinda wish I would have gotten one with all hard-buttons.  Its sort of a pain to have to look at the remote all the time to figure out what button I am pressing.. With hard buttons, you can more easily operate the remote without looking at it....

Thats why I am thinking of switching to a harmony....

I guess I can't decide which is better....  The customizeabilty of a touch screen, or the no-look tactile response of a remote with hard buttons.....  The mx-1000 is the most customizable remote I have ever seen....

There are other advantages to the harmony though, which is why I am probably going to switch....  The only questions is should I go for the 600 series, or splurge and go with the 800 series..

[jkane]

The thing I don't like about the Harmony remotes is the very thing that makes them popular!  The power on and off of equipment is sloppy.  If I tell it to leave stuff on, it always leaves stuff on even when it's the end of the evening and I want to turn everything off.  If I tell it to turn stuff off, it turns my DVD player off when I go to check what's recording on the PVR's and then I have to find my spot on the DVD again.

The on-line programming is slow, but it's an interesting concept for those who don't like learning stuff.  The ability to learn also makes it good.  I taught it all the codes for a second DiSH receiver on a different remote channel.  It works quite well.

One of these day's I need to get my MX-500 reprogramed.  They had to fix it last month, so I bought the Harmony as a substitute.

[jkane]

I dunno... I have a touchscreen remote (Mx-1000) and there are times that I kinda wish I would have gotten one with all hard-buttons.  Its sort of a pain to have to look at the remote all the time to figure out what button I am pressing.. With hard buttons, you can more easily operate the remote without looking at it....

Thats why I am thinking of switching to a harmony....

I guess I can't decide which is better....  The customizeabilty of a touch screen, or the no-look tactile response of a remote with hard buttons.....  The mx-1000 is the most customizable remote I have ever seen....

There are other advantages to the harmony though, which is why I am probably going to switch....  The only questions is should I go for the 600 series, or splurge and go with the 800 series..

The buttons on my harmony are way too close together.  I have a hard time not pressing two of them at once.  That's a drawback too.  If you have and like the mx-1000, you might not like the Harmony.

[picopir8]

I have had my eye on this remote for several months now.  IT looks like the best remote out there for the money.

Anyway, I do have one question.  Does it allow you to specify button push durration?  Most projectors require you to hold the on/off button down for a second or two to prevent inadvertent power on/offs.  I have yet to find a remote w/ macro capabilities that will simulate an extented button press, consequently nothing seems to work with the projector.

[cjucoder]

I have yet to find a remote w/ macro capabilities that will simulate an extented button press, consequently nothing seems to work with the projector.

My cheapo MX-500 can do this, the trick is to "teach" it by holding down the learning button for an extended time on the teach-er while the MX-500 is the teach-ee.  After that the MX-500 will behave the same with an extended press as the original remote.  I haven't tried using the extended press in a macro though, if that's what you meant.  Must try that when I'm bored sometime.  Have you looked into if your projector has descrete power on and power off that could be programmed into a remote?  Those may not need an "extended" press like a regular power toggle.  Just thowing darts, don't know.

[Rick Sass]

I have had my eye on this remote for several months now.  IT looks like the best remote out there for the money.

Anyway, I do have one question.  Does it allow you to specify button push durration?  Most projectors require you to hold the on/off button down for a second or two to prevent inadvertent power on/offs.  I have yet to find a remote w/ macro capabilities that will simulate an extented button press, consequently nothing seems to work with the projector.

Harmony can learn codes via "Raw" mode. Press the button on your original remote for as long as you want and the Harmony will learn that long button press. All buttons can be learned in "Raw" mode, but volume and power commands are the ones most often used.

[jkane]

After you program your harmony remote on-line, you can tweak it to your hearts content.  You can adjust key timeouts, and durations.  I'm not positive, but I would bet you can make some series of changes to send power on/off enough times to work with your projector.

The default inter-key press wait was way too long for me.  When naming a DVD on my writer, it would queue up my pressing the arrow keys to select the right letter.  It would keep sending my arrow presses for 20 seconds after I stopped pressing it.  I had to lower that delay by quite a bit.  It was taking me a VERY long time to edit the chapter titles on it.

The harmony is almost totally customizable.  You just need the patience and creativity to search the web pages for the tuning parameters you want.

If you've never used one before, it is a true HT remote.  It doesn't think in terms of controling a single device.  It thinks in terms of controling the devices all at once.  IE.  It sets up some buttons for your TV, some for your amp, and others for your receiver/player.  Then you don't need to press the button for which to control.  It also remembers what's on and what's off as you flip around.  It has a built in help that you MUST use if it ever gets out of sync because someone used a different remote or pressed a button on the device you want to control.

It's nice, but I think it's too smart.  Reminds me of Micky$oft's bad habit of highlighting more than one word when I only want to edit part of the first word!

[brewtownska]

This is a little off topic, but I wanted to include the info in case someone new is interested in purchasing a Harmony.  After a recommendation from someone on this board, I looked into purchasing a Harmony...but I wanted to start cheap as I didn't know how much I would like it.  I got the SST-768, which from what I found out, is an old model from back before the company got bought by Logitech.  Got it off Amazon.com for a very good price.

Setup was easy...I learned quickly that you could make it as simple or as complicated as you like, which is great.  After about 2 weeks, the backlight on the remote went out.  I was bummed, but still used the remote as it still functioned fine without it.  But after a few dark sessions of not seeing what I needed to see on the remote, I checked their online support.  After trying the things they suggested (plugging it into the computer w/o batteries, tried changing batteries, even re-flashed the firmware), it was determined the remote was defective.  I called customer service, and explained the problem and what steps I had already done to verify the problem.

For once, a company actually believed I was competent in troubleshooting and didn't try to make me feel at fault.  He passed my problem to the returns dept and said I'd hear from THEM in 1-2 days with service info.  I got my email later that night, called them this morning, and I already have a new remote on it's way.  Because they don't offer the 768 anymore, they gave me the choice of the 659 or 676.  The 676 looked newer, and the lady at Logitech said if I have a DVR (or plan to get one), the 676 was better to use.  The nice thing here is I will GET the new remote, be able to set it up and be happy, all before having to send the old one back.  Now THATS customer service!

I guess my point here is that Logitech has made a point to stand behind the products (even though they didn't really have their hands in this model at all) and are doing their best to keep people happy and let word of mouth take over.  I too will definitely recommend Harmony remotes to people after this experience.

Mike

[oz]

Tom's Hardware Guide recently posted a great review of the 880 and 688 models:  http://www.tomshardware.com/consumer/20050517/index.html

The 880 is very pretty.