Which Harmony remote?

[gus6464]

I am looking for a Harmony remote as Christmas present for my in-laws. They hate complicated stuff so has to be the simplest one to operate. They only have two devices so I don't need one that handles a zillion.

LCD TV
SA 8300HD DVR cable box

Anyone have any experience with a couple of the Harmonies to recommend the simplest one they have?

 

[Davemcc]

I think the 659 is the easiest to use, the way the keys are laid out and labelled. My wife loves her 550 because it's slim and looks pretty. Really, I don't think there's too much difference between most of them except the 1000, which is useless. Programming them all is the same.

 

[Nomo]

I have the 550. It does everything I need it to do; But the small buttons and small screen on it may prove to be annoying for some one not accustomed to tech gadgets. A step up to the 880 may be a better choice.

Keep in mind programming any of the Harmony's requires hooking it up to a computer and a bit of trial and error to make it perform seamlessly. Some may find this somewhat of a cumbersome task.

 

[highfigh]

I think the 659 is the easiest to use, the way the keys are laid out and labelled. My wife loves her 550 because it's slim and looks pretty. Really, I don't think there's too much difference between most of them except the 1000, which is useless. Programming them all is the same.

The 1000 is hardly useless, you just need to use your imagination when it comes to button mapping. It does have some graphics limitations and they have upgraded that area since it was introduced.

Why do you call it 'useless'?

 

[highfigh]

I have the 550. It does everything I need it to do; But the small buttons and small screen on it may prove to be annoying for some one not accustomed to tech gadgets. A step up to the 880 may be a better choice.

Keep in mind programming any of the Harmony's requires hooking it up to a computer and a bit of trial and error to make it perform seamlessly. Some may find this somewhat of a cumbersome task.

Find out which ones have the non-slip coating on the back. Some, like the 880 and 890 don't and it can slip out of your hand pretty easily.

If you can't find what you want in a Harmony, URC has some inexpensive ones, but programming isn't done with a computer- it's all button pressing.

 

[davidtwotrees]

I own the 659 and love it. They are new on ebay for $40 delivered. As has been noted, it does take some computer skills to get it running.......but most of us here have four or five devices and activities. If they just have a tv and a cable box or dvd then it should be ok. The help feature is pretty good, too. This is a battery operated remote and you can leave it on...........and run the batteries down pretty quick I think. I'm not sure of the price and functionality of the ones that are chargeable........that would be a feature I would get next time..........

 

[WINGNUT4772]

The Harmony One is very good.

 

[Phil Taylor]

I too have the 659 and love the raised buttons - a feature that the new Harmony One has as well. The One has a color display and if I ever replace my 659 it will be for a One.

 

[strube]

I got my dad a Harmony One for his HT, and I think it is great. It is the newest, so it has all the best features of all the older ones IMHO. It has activities that send all the instructions he needs to do something (i.e. Watch Blu-Ray, Watch TV, Watch HD-DVD), and besides play, pause, volume, and channels, the one activity touch screen button is all he needs to do a certain task. It also automates switching between activities. Also if there is not a button for a certain function of a certain device, it can be mapped to a touch screen button.

Edit: It only works with IR. It doesn't have an RF transmitter in it so it can't be used in conjunction with the Harmony RF extender.

 

[highfigh]

I own the 659 and love it. They are new on ebay for $40 delivered. As has been noted, it does take some computer skills to get it running.......but most of us here have four or five devices and activities. If they just have a tv and a cable box or dvd then it should be ok. The help feature is pretty good, too. This is a battery operated remote and you can leave it on...........and run the batteries down pretty quick I think. I'm not sure of the price and functionality of the ones that are chargeable........that would be a feature I would get next time..........

The rechargeable ones use a battery that's similar to what's in a cell phone. The reserve capacity makes a difference and I'm looking for a source for when my customers start to need them. I called Harmony and they don't know where to get them, either. They seem to think the distributors stock them, for some reason, even though they don't show them in any price list. I'm going to go to Batteries Plus and if they stock them, I'll post it here.

I have a customer with two Harmony 1000 remotes and they have had no problems with the batteries not holding a charge in over a year and a half.

 

[strube]

The rechargeable ones use a battery that's similar to what's in a cell phone. The reserve capacity makes a difference and I'm looking for a source for when my customers start to need them. I called Harmony and they don't know where to get them, either. They seem to think the distributors stock them, for some reason, even though they don't show them in any price list. I'm going to go to Batteries Plus and if they stock them, I'll post it here.

I have a customer with two Harmony 1000 remotes and they have had no problems with the batteries not holding a charge in over a year and a half.

I may be sort of confused, but are you saying you're just looking for replacement batteries for the Harmony, or some higher capacity aftermarket ones?

The reason I ask is that you can buy replacement batteries directly from Logitech, if that was your concern. I am not sure if they are available wholesale though.

http://www.buylogitech.com/store/logius/en_US/DisplayCategoryProductListPage/categoryID.11201700

 

[jostenmeat]

I am looking for a Harmony remote as Christmas present for my in-laws. They hate complicated stuff so has to be the simplest one to operate. They only have two devices so I don't need one that handles a zillion.

LCD TV
SA 8300HD DVR cable box

Anyone have any experience with a couple of the Harmonies to recommend the simplest one they have?

You specifically asked for a Harmony, but I would like to suggest, if only for brief consideration, the remote that I use: URC RFS200 PowerPak Bundle w/ MasterControl RF20 and PowerBlaster.

Harmony remotes can perform one-touch macro's that turn any necessary devices on or off. However, if anything doesn't receive the signal, your macro is now out of sync, so to speak.

I know it sounds incredibly elementary to figure out, but you would be pretty surprised at how often having an out-of-sync Harmony occurs with older folks, for instance. The Harmony is not only set to any particular macro, but it will be thinking at any given moment that the macro is either "on" or "off".

YMMV.

I programmed a Harmony not only for myself, but others as well. One is an older gentleman, a brain scientist of many decades who basically has his own building at a UC. IOW, a "smart" guy. I swear he could never figure out his remote once his system was out of sync. I had to write detailed instructions for him to troubleshoot. He started to "get it", but actually is back to using the stock remotes, believe it or not.

With the URC, you can program two buttons for power on/off for the two devices. While this does require ONE more button to press during powering on or off of the system, its a much more fool-proof situation, IMO. A remote like that isn't in the mode of "thinking" its particularly in an "on" state or "off" state for any macro. (Which is one more thing for a noobie to be confused about).

I could have been more eloquent above, but sometimes I prefer diarrhea of the fingers.

The URC is RF based, so even if they failed to perform its line of sight IR commands, they will still pick up.

If you don't want to use the RF, or the emitter wires, just get the remote w/o blaster system, and save $30. ($80 vs $50).

Alas, my 2 cents. I've owned both brands, and I will never, ever buy a Harmony again as far as I can foresee.

 

[highfigh]

I may be sort of confused, but are you saying you're just looking for replacement batteries for the Harmony, or some higher capacity aftermarket ones?

The reason I ask is that you can buy replacement batteries directly from Logitech, if that was your concern. I am not sure if they are available wholesale though.

http://www.buylogitech.com/store/logius/en_US/DisplayCategoryProductListPage/categoryID.11201700

Just looking for a good source of direct replacement. So far, none of my distributors know where to get them, but since it's only a preemptive move, it's not a pressing matter. Higher capacity wouldn't be a bad thing from the "How long does it go between charges?" question, but the whole reason I started looking is that I have a customer whose remote wasn't seating properly in the cradle and I had to do a trouble call because it wasn't working.

 

[highfigh]

I know it sounds incredibly elementary to figure out, but you would be pretty surprised at how often having an out-of-sync Harmony occurs with older folks, for instance. The Harmony is not only set to any particular macro, but it will be thinking at any given moment that the macro is either "on" or "off".

That's specifically why Harmony has the Help button and Smart State. Still, it's not necessarily intuitive for all people. I have a customer who took six months to learn that when he pressed the activity buttons and dropped his hand to his side, by doing that when the green LED was still on, he was effectively trying to control his floor because it's "line of sight" operation. He finally admitted that he's not good with highly technical things. The URC and Harmony remotes need a completely different mind-set and some grasp one more easily than the other. Some people never use most of the controls for the devices, whereas some, myself included, do. For the ones who don't, macros and activity based control is great and for all of the different types of remotes, non-discreet commands are the bane of programmers, installers,, salespeople and users, alike.

The guy who has the problem with technical things finally decided to buy a new LCD display, so I get to eliminate his input issues.

WOO HOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[10010011]

I would avoid of the "activity based" remotes Like the Harmony and get a standard device based model.

Sure you might have to press a few more buttons to turn everything on at once but most people can figure that out just by looking at it.

Receiver's on but the TV's off?
Press TV then press POWER.

Cable box on the wrong channel?
Press "cable" then chan up or down

It always did kind of annoyed me that you could not just do that with the Harmony remote.

My wife could understand the device based model without ever being shown what buttons to press. But was totally lost on the activity based idea. She just would end up screaming "I just want to watch the F'n TV! Why does it have to be so difficult?" My wife could deal with the remote pile better. At least she knows that if she picks up the DVD remote is it going to control the DVD player, and the receiver remote is going to control the receiver and all the buttons on the various remotes will do exactly what they say.

She never could tell if the Harmony remote was in the right "activity" and changing activity would launch it's macro and things would get out of sync. You could not easily put the Harmony in "TV" mode to just turn on the TV if it was out of sync when you started the "Watch DVD" activity. You had to step through a really poor "help" system, and my wife gets impatient because she just wants to watch a movie not answer a bunch of "help" questions, it just got ugly from there.

 

[davidtwotrees]

I was just helping a senior neighbor......her old crt crapped out and her son took her to buy a 32" LCD. I hooked up all her stuff for her (straight cable, dvd and a vcr) and showed her how to use her new sammy remote..........she would never be able to figure out a Harmony. Nor would most seniors I know. There is a learning curve.........for sure. But now that I know how to use the online remote site really well, as well as all my gear..........it is such a breeze to use.

 

[jostenmeat]

Receiver's on but the TV's off?
Press TV then press POWER.

Cable box on the wrong channel?
Press "cable" then chan up or down

The URC would not require pressing "TV" or "cable".

Just program any specific button to that on the macro. So, to turn on the two devices, two buttons are hit. If one device failed to receive the signal, just hit that button again. On a Logitech Harmony, I can only imagine the utter confusion that might occur if the users were my parents, for instance, once the system was out of sync.

The URC has two discrete buttons on it called on and off. Use that for the TV. Of the 5 customizable buttons on top, name one of them as cable, and use that for cable power.

To program the macro for these two devices, for all necessary functions, would take about 2 minutes.

 

[Davemcc]

The 1000 is hardly useless, you just need to use your imagination when it comes to button mapping. It does have some graphics limitations and they have upgraded that area since it was introduced.

Why do you call it 'useless'?

I bought the 1000 but returned it out of frustration with trying to use it. IMHO, it's a matter of style over substance. The limited number of buttons on the unit leave the user scrolling through pages of device pages to perform any function other than volume or channel changes. The more conventional remotes with separate buttons for each function are much easier to use and understand. Following my weeks of using the 1000, I find it difficult to recommend, of course YMMV.

 

[gus6464]

My wife and I went to BB today to check out the different Harmonies and we figure we would give the 670 a try. We liked the button layout and feel of the remote so if they don't end up liking it or it gets frustrating we can get them another and keep the harmony.

 

[highfigh]

I would avoid of the "activity based" remotes Like the Harmony and get a standard device based model.

Sure you might have to press a few more buttons to turn everything on at once but most people can figure that out just by looking at it.

Receiver's on but the TV's off?
Press TV then press POWER.

Cable box on the wrong channel?
Press "cable" then chan up or down

It always did kind of annoyed me that you could not just do that with the Harmony remote.

My wife could understand the device based model without ever being shown what buttons to press. But was totally lost on the activity based idea. She just would end up screaming "I just want to watch the F'n TV! Why does it have to be so difficult?" My wife could deal with the remote pile better. At least she knows that if she picks up the DVD remote is it going to control the DVD player, and the receiver remote is going to control the receiver and all the buttons on the various remotes will do exactly what they say.

She never could tell if the Harmony remote was in the right "activity" and changing activity would launch it's macro and things would get out of sync. You could not easily put the Harmony in "TV" mode to just turn on the TV if it was out of sync when you started the "Watch DVD" activity. You had to step through a really poor "help" system, and my wife gets impatient because she just wants to watch a movie not answer a bunch of "help" questions, it just got ugly from there.

If the activity is set up correctly and the devices all have discreet commands, it's hard to get out of synch. If it does, all that's needed is to press the desired activity button again or use the Help button. If it's in the Cable TV activity, assuming is set up the way it should be, Ch +/- will do exactly what they normally do. The Help system works well if allowed to and the user doesn't become irrationally angry. Not saying anything against your wife- it's easy to become angry when a remote doesn't do what is wanted. The activity is usually shown in the window.

I have a couple as customers with a daughter who was 3-1/2 when I finished their system and if she wanted to watch TV or a DVD, she picked up the Harmony 1000 and pressed what she needed. They never call with problems and I added a lot of extra commands that Harnony told me wouldn't work.