Logitech Harmony Remotes Owners

[ixlegitballinxl]

RF= Radio Frequency.... instead of using IR ( infrared ) or line of sight.. you can send out a RF.. which means you can control components without having the remote pointed at the unit to operate it.


Heck, you could be in another room and still control your gear using RF.

[tilapiah6]

Originally Posted by crackinhedz

speaking of my dad, I just got off a 30 minute phone call trying to explain to him how to install the Harmony Remote software onto his computer.

I feel you man. I just finished a phone call with my dad about the black bars and why they have to be there..... and why his new Sony Bravia surround in a box won't do lossless audio. Poor guys. It's a good thing they have us to keep them in the loop.

[ixlegitballinxl]

LOL

On Sat, I spent 2 hours on the phone with my dad... installing his 1000 software and programming... I had him install the software..create account.. then i'd log in, program remote, log out, have him log in, update remote..

had to do it 3x's

plus it took him 20 minutes just to figure out how to install the cd :X

he was shocked when I programmed it online, then when he updated the remote, seeing all his gear under Devices and Activities lol

[Bizdady]

LOL I Have an ex brother in law that lives in a different state. Try explaining stuff over the phone when they dont listen to you lol

[olds403]

Just upgraded from the 520 to the One. It is awesome. I even downloaded channel icons for favorite channels to display on the touchscreen. Love this remote.

[Purplegrasshopper]

The 880 and the One are the same price on Logitech's site. I'm sure prices will vary at different retailers.

Since they are the same price, why get one over the other? (no pun intented)

Other than touch screen on the One, can't see a difference.

[joegs300]

id love a logitech remote but i cant justify spending hundreds on a remote when i can just press power on three seperate remotes for free. =[

[kpkelley]

Originally Posted by joegs300

id love a logitech remote but i cant justify spending hundreds on a remote when i can just press power on three seperate remotes for free. =[

You don't have to spend hundreds, you can get a Refurbished Harmony 520 for $40.

[crackinhedz]

Originally Posted by joegs300

id love a logitech remote but i cant justify spending hundreds on a remote when i can just press power on three seperate remotes for free. =[

you do not need to post in this thread if its of no interest to you. Thanks.

[Go Blue]

I set up my first Harmony remote last night (720) and love the customization and control. The only thing I do not like it the loud "clicking" of certain buttons. Unfortunately, the buttons that do this are ones that I use all the time (volume, channel, up, down, left, right, enter). That leads me to a couple questions:

1. Is there a Harmony remote under $100 that does not have these type of buttons?

2. I bought my 720 from J&R, but I paid Amazon. Who would I contact about returning it for another model?

[My_Two_Cents]

Originally Posted by schultz

I set up my first Harmony remote last night (720) and love the customization and control. The only thing I do not like it the loud "clicking" of certain buttons. Unfortunately, the buttons that do this are ones that I use all the time (volume, channel, up, down, left, right, enter). That leads me to a couple questions:

1. Is there a Harmony remote under $100 that does not have these type of buttons?

2. I bought my 720 from J&R, but I paid Amazon. Who would I contact about returning it for another model?

Clicking? Seriously? I love my 880, and have not noticed any type of clicking that would cause me concern. Whether they are the same buttons or not, I couldn't say. My previous 670 had "softer" buttons, but I never liked the dim backlight (couldn't see the keys) or the B&W LCD screen. As far as a return, I'd start with Amazon. You'll pay for return shipping, but why keep something you're not happy with?

[Go Blue]

Originally Posted by Ricshoe

Clicking? Seriously? I love my 880, and have not noticed any type of clicking that would cause me concern. Whether they are the same buttons or not, I couldn't say. My previous 670 had "softer" buttons, but I never liked the dim backlight (couldn't see the keys) or the B&W LCD screen. As far as a return, I'd start with Amazon. You'll pay for return shipping, but why keep something you're not happy with?

Its not that it is that bad, but it is annoying. Typically, when I watch movies, I am all over the volume, turning it up and down throughout the movie, because my daughter is sleeping. I just don't think I want to hear "click click click" throughout the movie. I guess I am looking for a remote with the soft buttons. The 720 does have soft buttons to control the DVR playback and for the indivual 0-9 #'s, but the rest are all hard click buttons.

[Sonny]

I'm addicted to Harmony 1000 touch screen remotes !! I love um For the people who think that it's a "waste of hundreds dollars".... Don't get that it's the glue that brings all your gear together & syncs them in perfect "Harmony" !

[Go Blue]

Originally Posted by Sonny

I'm addicted to Harmony 1000 touch screen remotes !! I love um For the people who think that it's a "waste of hundreds dollars".... Don't get that it's the glue that brings all your gear together & syncs them in perfect "Harmony" !

If I had all your gear, I'd probably get one, but for my modest setup, I don't think I need to go that far. The 720 I have now is probably a bit of overkill.

[taipan70]

Originally Posted by Infrared Sight

I have a Harmony 676 and I have loved every minute of it. The remotes do have a learning curve once you get it because it is not like anything else. Once you do get the curve, you can program it to do mainly anything you want. Get one now. Run don't walk.

I really like my 890 though I do wish the buttons were arranged a little differently. The Harmony One looks very nice!

[Johk]

Hey guys, just got my new remote last Monday and it's really great!

So here's a quick "review"...

The remote is a refurbished unit. I doesn't come in the original packaging but rather a smaller carton box. However inside everything is neatly packed and sealed and all items (specially the remote itself) were in perfect condition (everything new without a scratch).

Out of the box, the battery had enough power to try the remote without having to charge it before hand. Programming the remote, I was upgrading using my configuration for the 550 (I will replace the 520 with the 550 in my other setup) and it worked great! The software did update the firmware of the remote and after a while, I was ready to go.

Starting activities was similar to what I'm used to with my previous harmony remote but with some additional sound effects. Push "Watch TV" and every components start up and go to the determined inputs. I'm using a Scientific Atlanta 8300 PVR to watch TV. While everything was working properly, the "List", "A", "B" and "C" buttons were greyed out. I was not surprised about this since I already read on some forums that for that activity to work properly you had to create a new activity manually and select the something that was like "watch TV (PVR)" (sorry I don't remember the exact name but it seems that the software might be making a difference but using the DVR to watch TV as a opposed to using the DVR to watch TV and watch recorded programs). Anyway, I set up the new activity and while I was at it I created my "favorite" channels and creating some icons for some Canadian stations in the process (which is really easy to do using photoshop, the template from iconharmony.com and the .png channel pictures from lyngsat-logo.com. Updating the remote once again and now the PVR functions were working properly. The main page (Play/Pause) (or layer) for the PVR featured the "List", "A", "B", "C" buttons on the left, the "Menu", "Guide", "Info", "Exit" and the center featured the "Play", "Pause", "Record", "Fast forward", "Reverse" and "Instant Replay" if I remember properly. There is a layer (#) to bring out the numeric pad to enter the channels, a layer (star) for custom buttons and finally a layer (heart) for the channel favorites. Now the favorites are really nice, allowing to program 3 pages of 8 favorites a small icon of the channel and a short description. Without the favorites entering the channels with the numeric pad layer would be actually a downside from having less buttons per screen. Finally the hard buttons worked great with the directional arrows performing essentially the same function as the arrows on the standard remote. Another activity that I had was "Play PS3". For this function I use an IR dongle (blu-wave from Niko) since the Harmony 1000 has no bluetooth capability. As with the 550, the PS3 has to be powered on manually but after that I can basically control the PS3 as a normal player. On the main screen, I have the standard play/pause/stop/skip/ff/rw as for other players and just to the right of it I set the "square", "triangle", "circle" and "X" buttons of the ps3 controller on the main screen. This allows me to control video playback and to navigate the XMB could use to control the video playback on the ps3 which is basically what I need.

Now, about the remote itself. Out of the box the screen was really bright (I guess you could call it "torch mode"). Pressing on the tools icon on the first page allows to reduce the brightness to a more normal level (for me at the minimum setting) and to adjust the delay for the screen to shut down. There is also a calibration menu for the screen were you basically point to the 4 corners and to the center of the screen. Using the touchscreen is really different from using hard buttons and takes some getting used to. The sensitivity of the screen is good as it won't activate something if you barely touch the screen, instead you need to press a bit on the screen. The buttons layout are great even if they are not customizable (the functions associated to the buttons are but the overall layout isn't). This would have been a plus for this remote since one of the main advantage of a touchscreen instead of hard buttons would be to display basically the button layout you want. Anyway this is not a problem for me since the layouts associated with the components I used work really well. The range of the remote also works great for me (from a distance of 6' 3/4"). I don't use or plan on using the rf adapter so I can't comment on its abilities. The z-wave compatibility would have been great and if they kept it I would have probably bought a z-wave dimmer (since my dimmer is not in line of sight). But since Logitech decided to pull the feature I guess that if I really want to use it sometime, I will have to by an IR to RF device. The horizontal layout of the remote fells different and requires two hands to operate, this is a little bit different than a wand remote and in a way it can be a bit slower to use.

From other reviews, I heard people had some problems with the RF and the sequences (and maybe other bugs in the interface). Since I'm not using RF and sequences, I guess I'm not concerned by those glitch but I think Harmony has also come a long way from the launch of the remote.

In conclusion, the Harmony 1000 is a great remote. It works well and has a great interface. At a 240$ CDN price point, I think it's a great deal. However at the normal price of 500$ CDN, the Harmony One (going for 280$ CDN) would be in my opinion a better choice over the 1000. In fact, if you don't need the RF-extender or if you want a more ergonomically one hand solution, the Harmony One (or another Harmony for that matter) would be a better choice over the 1000. That being said, the Harmony 1000 is a great remote. Users will find it easy to use with the big touchscreen display and the simplicity of the controls. However users who prefer one-hand operation and more hard buttons to work with will be better off with the Harmony One or another less expensive model like the 550.

[crackinhedz]

I wonder if anyone can help me with this dilema. A Harmony Remote challenge if you will...

Im trying to set up my dads harmony one, but am confused on if this is possible.

Ok, heres the situation:

My dad wants to watch tv and have audio playing through the tv and sometimes just the receiver. Problem is, if he has connected via hdmi for audio, the optical port does not work. (unless you manually go into the cable box settings and switch back and forth)

He has cable box connected directly to the TV via HDMI. (this is not an option to change). So what I am thinking is also connect an optical cable to the receiver. But I need to be able to somehow switch his cable box audio setting back and forth between the HDMI and Optical.

Here is what I am thinking?

two "Activities".


1. Watch TV
2. Wacth TV + AMP



watch tv, is simply HDMI cable to the TV with both audio and video. For use late at night when he doesnt want to turn the receiver on.

but what is confusing me, is how could I set the "Watch TV + Amp" to use the optical cable? in other words, how do you get the remote to go into the cable box settings and toggle it to optical audio instead of the hdmi audio setting?

The cable box is a Scientific Atlanta 8300HDC.

Theoretically this should be possible, because not everyone can use HDMI for audio so there has to be a way to enable the optical. But when going through setup, I don't see an option.

Perhaps the Harmony needs to "learn" a command? ...but im not sure what that will involve.


Thanks to anyone who can crack this case for me!

[Johk]

Originally Posted by crackinhedz

I wonder if anyone can help me with this dilema. A Harmony Remote challenge if you will...

Im trying to set up my dads harmony one, but am confused on if this is possible.

Ok, heres the situation:

My dad wants to watch tv and have audio playing through the tv and sometimes just the receiver. Problem is, if he has connected via hdmi for audio, the optical port does not work. (unless you manually go into the cable box settings and switch back and forth)

He has cable box connected directly to the TV via HDMI. (this is not an option to change). So what I am thinking is also connect an optical cable to the receiver. But I need to be able to somehow switch his cable box audio setting back and forth between the HDMI and Optical.

Here is what I am thinking?

two "Activities".


1. Watch TV
2. Wacth TV + AMP



watch tv, is simply HDMI cable to the TV with both audio and video. For use late at night when he doesnt want to turn the receiver on.

but what is confusing me, is how could I set the "Watch TV + Amp" to use the optical cable? in other words, how do you get the remote to go into the cable box settings and toggle it to optical audio instead of the hdmi audio setting?

The cable box is a Scientific Atlanta 8300HDC.

Theoretically this should be possible, because not everyone can use HDMI for audio so there has to be a way to enable the optical. But when going through setup, I don't see an option.

Perhaps the Harmony needs to "learn" a command? ...but im not sure what that will involve.


Thanks to anyone who can crack this case for me!

If the SA 8300 does not have a direct remote command to switch to optical (and I think it doesn't), you will need to create a sequence. However sequences are limited to 5 commands. Here is a the information from Logitech on how to create a sequence : Mapping a sequence of commands to a single button.

So the sequence to change the audio output from HDMI to Optical and vice-versa is 5 commands long or less you should be good to go. However if the sequence is more than 5 commands, it may be more tricky. Like described in the RC forums, you can learn a "sequence" of buttons and then make a sequence with the learned commands. It looks a bit hard to do since you need to repeat the sequence of buttons so that the remote confirms the command.

Just a thought, have you tried to see if the optical is active when the HDMI is active (just to be sure, both outputs could be active). Also if your tv as an optical out, that might allow you to get things done more easily.

I hope this helps!

[Marine Mike]

Do these Harmony Remotes also control cable boxes other than powering them on? I have a Time Warner cable box and the remote has a lot of funky buttons on it specifically for it. Would any of these remotes be compatible with it?


It looks like this:

[My_Two_Cents]

Originally Posted by Johk

Also if your tv as an optical out, that might allow you to get things done more easily.

That was going to be my suggestion, as well, but I'm sure the AV master has already thought of that. I had/have a similar dilema. I do not have my HD cable box routed through my AVR because most of the time the family only wants sound through the TV (don't get me started). To do that, I would need to switch the HDMI audio out to 'yes', but then have to switch it back when I want to listen to HD audio or 5.1. I've tried to program manual keystrokes into my 880 without any luck, but I think it's because there are so my menu pages to get through in order to get to the HDMI audio out setting. If the commands are simpler on the sat box, you may have beter luck than me.

Originally Posted by Marine Mike

Do these Harmony Remotes also control cable boxes other than powering them on? I have a Time Warner cable box and the remote has a lot of funky buttons on it specifically for it. Would any of these remotes be compatible with it?

It should. I've found that all of the common commands from my Motorola HD DVR cable box are replicated in my 880 (though I still find it easier to use the box remote for some obscure commands).