Harmony 880 - $99.00 free shipping at buydig

Y23KC

Golden Member
Mar 19, 2001
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I picked up one of these during the holidays from Circuit City at this price.
 

AllThingsEnd

Member
Oct 16, 2006
49
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Which ones better the 880 or the Harmony One? I keep finding them both around the same price and the only difference I see is the touchscreen.
 

JameyF

Senior member
Oct 5, 2001
845
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76
Originally posted by: AllThingsEnd
Which ones better the 880 or the Harmony One? I keep finding them both around the same price and the only difference I see is the touchscreen.

This is a good deal for the 880, but I think I'd rather have the 550 for under $50 from best Buy. Show me the Harmony One for under $100, and I'd buy it. IMO the Harmony One is a better remote. The button layout on the 880 and 890 make it hard to tell what button you're pressing without looking at the remote. To some that wouldn't be such a big deal, but to many it would make the remote much less effective.
 
Dec 8, 2008
506
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Originally posted by: JameyF
Originally posted by: AllThingsEnd
Which ones better the 880 or the Harmony One? I keep finding them both around the same price and the only difference I see is the touchscreen.

This is a good deal for the 880, but I think I'd rather have the 550 for under $50 from best Buy. Show me the Harmony One for under $100, and I'd buy it. IMO the Harmony One is a better remote. The button layout on the 880 and 890 make it hard to tell what button you're pressing without looking at the remote. To some that wouldn't be such a big deal, but to many it would make the remote much less effective.

What do you mean by that? While I certainly have my qualms with my 880 the button layout and finding them definitely isn't one.
 

SupaDupaPan

Golden Member
Jun 1, 2004
1,071
0
76
If you don't mind waiting, occasionally, amazon will have deals on the 880 for ~$70. Great remote though! The price isn't so bad, but just a heads up that it can and has gone for lower.
 

mugs

Lifer
Apr 29, 2003
48,920
46
91
Originally posted by: Deviant Grasshopper
Originally posted by: JameyF
Originally posted by: AllThingsEnd
Which ones better the 880 or the Harmony One? I keep finding them both around the same price and the only difference I see is the touchscreen.

This is a good deal for the 880, but I think I'd rather have the 550 for under $50 from best Buy. Show me the Harmony One for under $100, and I'd buy it. IMO the Harmony One is a better remote. The button layout on the 880 and 890 make it hard to tell what button you're pressing without looking at the remote. To some that wouldn't be such a big deal, but to many it would make the remote much less effective.

What do you mean by that? While I certainly have my qualms with my 880 the button layout and finding them definitely isn't one.

He's probably referring to the play/stop/ff/rw/etc buttons being in a 4x2 grid instead of a more Tivo-like layout.
 

AllThingsEnd

Member
Oct 16, 2006
49
0
0
I can get the Harmony One for $125.

I've done some research and apparently they dont have that many differences besides the layout and the touchscreen. The one big issue that I see a lot is that there is a charging issue with the 880 because of the design of the cradle. So in my position I guess the more reliable cradle, the better layout, and the touchscreen is worth the $25 extra.
 

Alto101

Member
Jul 8, 2005
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0
66
Originally posted by: AllThingsEnd
I can get the Harmony One for $125.

I've done some research and apparently they dont have that many differences besides the layout and the touchscreen. The one big issue that I see a lot is that there is a charging issue with the 880 because of the design of the cradle. So in my position I guess the more reliable cradle, the better layout, and the touchscreen is worth the $25 extra.

Where can you purchase the Harmony One for $125?
 

JameyF

Senior member
Oct 5, 2001
845
0
76
Originally posted by: mugs
Originally posted by: Deviant Grasshopper
Originally posted by: JameyF
Originally posted by: AllThingsEnd
Which ones better the 880 or the Harmony One? I keep finding them both around the same price and the only difference I see is the touchscreen.

This is a good deal for the 880, but I think I'd rather have the 550 for under $50 from best Buy. Show me the Harmony One for under $100, and I'd buy it. IMO the Harmony One is a better remote. The button layout on the 880 and 890 make it hard to tell what button you're pressing without looking at the remote. To some that wouldn't be such a big deal, but to many it would make the remote much less effective.

What do you mean by that? While I certainly have my qualms with my 880 the button layout and finding them definitely isn't one.

He's probably referring to the play/stop/ff/rw/etc buttons being in a 4x2 grid instead of a more Tivo-like layout.


Actually, I just don't like the whole feel of the 880/890. I have the 1000 touchscreen, and I wanted to like the 880, but I couldn't even consider it after feeling it in the store. The 550 was only $42 + tax at Best Buy. I like the button layout and feel better of the 550, expecially at half the price. It's a cheap spare remote for me anyway. Hopefully it will work out, and I'll end up using on another HT system away from home.
 

AllThingsEnd

Member
Oct 16, 2006
49
0
0
Originally posted by: Alto101
Originally posted by: AllThingsEnd
I can get the Harmony One for $125.

I've done some research and apparently they dont have that many differences besides the layout and the touchscreen. The one big issue that I see a lot is that there is a charging issue with the 880 because of the design of the cradle. So in my position I guess the more reliable cradle, the better layout, and the touchscreen is worth the $25 extra.

Where can you purchase the Harmony One for $125?

Employee discount
 

onemo

Senior member
Feb 28, 2002
947
0
76
Originally posted by: AllThingsEnd
I can get the Harmony One for $125.

I've done some research and apparently they dont have that many differences besides the layout and the touchscreen. The one big issue that I see a lot is that there is a charging issue with the 880 because of the design of the cradle. So in my position I guess the more reliable cradle, the better layout, and the touchscreen is worth the $25 extra.

IIRC, the cradle charging issue has been fixed. That was why there was a massive amount of refurbs available at Amazon and others a few months ago. I got in on a price mistake and got a new one for the price of a refurb.

Biggest issue with the 880 for me IS the button layout as previously mentioned, but with a touchscreen remote you would have the same problem.
 

Jenova314

Senior member
Dec 3, 2000
792
0
76
I got in on the 880 deal from amazon for like $80~90AR (forgot exact amount) a few months back. It's working fine now, but not before a lot of painstaking troubleshooting.

Did anybody else have problems getting it work with moderately complicated home theater setups? I had trouble getting it to turn my TV/receiver on and switching the inputs properly. A firmware update fixed it temporarily before getting messed up again. A major issue seemed to be the signal timing/delay, but problems persisted even after they were properly configured. I finally got things to work properly, even though I wasn't sure how.

The Logitech program used to customize your remote is a PITA to use. Every little change requires going through at least 4-5 screens of "are you sure you'd like to change this? ok. please review the setup. ok. please review the setup again. please make sure the other devices seem ok, as well. great. would you like to save these results?" Well, that's exaggerating a bit, but not too far off from reality. Maybe my setup is too "complicated," but c'mon... a receiver, TV, Media Center remote, is it that bad?? Is there another program that can work with the 880? Using it for prolonged periods makes me borderline homicidal.

Edit: To those who are having trouble mapping keys properly for a Vista/MCE remote. I paid for a Intelliremote license from melloware.com, and thought that it was a good addition to the remote. It has made using the 880 with Media Center much easier.

Edit 2: The cradle charging issue has apparently been fixed. I never had any problems with that at all.
 

compcons

Platinum Member
Oct 22, 2004
2,268
1,339
146
This is a pretty good deal that comes around often enough. I will grab one at the $70 price point whnever I can get in on one of those.

I agree that the software is a bit cumbersome, but for giggles, try to accomplish the same things with a universal remote (be it a $30 cheapie or a $500 Pronto). You will soon go back to enjoying those inane questions Logitech asks you...

EH

 

NogginBoink

Diamond Member
Feb 17, 2002
5,322
0
0
Originally posted by: Jenova314
I got in on the 880 deal from amazon for like $80~90AR (forgot exact amount) a few months back. It's working fine now, but not before a lot of painstaking troubleshooting.

Did anybody else have problems getting it work with moderately complicated home theater setups? I had trouble getting it to turn my TV/receiver on and switching the inputs properly. A firmware update fixed it temporarily before getting messed up again. A major issue seemed to be the signal timing/delay, but problems persisted even after they were properly configured. I finally got things to work properly, even though I wasn't sure how.

The Logitech program used to customize your remote is a PITA to use. Every little change requires going through at least 4-5 screens of "are you sure you'd like to change this? ok. please review the setup. ok. please review the setup again. please make sure the other devices seem ok, as well. great. would you like to save these results?" Well, that's exaggerating a bit, but not too far off from reality. Maybe my setup is too "complicated," but c'mon... a receiver, TV, Media Center remote, is it that bad?? Is there another program that can work with the 880? Using it for prolonged periods makes me borderline homicidal.

Edit: To those who are having trouble mapping keys properly for a Vista/MCE remote. I paid for a Intelliremote license from melloware.com, and thought that it was a good addition to the remote. It has made using the 880 with Media Center much easier.

Edit 2: The cradle charging issue has apparently been fixed. I never had any problems with that at all.

Yes, the configuration is a PITA. The Harmony remotes are wonderful, if you have the patience and the fortitude to get past the setup. The Harmony is a wonderful product that's just killed by such godawful execution. The Logitech engineers who designed the setup system oughta be shot for producing such low quality software, IMO.
 

Y23KC

Golden Member
Mar 19, 2001
1,517
0
76
I had some issues with the software at first such as selecting coax signal when it should have been on optical signal, but I got it all sorted out. I have a TV, receiver, HTPC, and an xbox that I control with this thing. Even my wife likes it, she presses a button, it switches to the HTPC, selects videos in windows media center, and she plays baby einstein for the little one.
 

AllThingsEnd

Member
Oct 16, 2006
49
0
0
I just got my Harmony One this weekend and have been messing with it. It only took about 30 minutes to do the initial setup and have everything working the way its supposed to. I have been tweaking little things like creating sequences and it's not that bad or hard to use. I just wish there were some extra customizable hard buttons that weren't already assigned to things so I wouldn't have to use the touchscreen for custom sequences.
 

gr1

Golden Member
Nov 20, 2002
1,207
0
0
please pm me if there's anywhere we can get the harmony one for $125
 

marcplante

Senior member
Mar 17, 2005
687
9
91
I had problems getting my Harmony to work properly, then a little after the year warranty expired, the IR element failed, so I threw it in the trash. My wife also doesn't have the patience to hold the device still while macros execute, so she'd end up with the system half synchronized and there'd be hell to pay.

If I could get a deal on the 890 with RF, I'd consider it, but I've simplified my HT setup to the point that my philips/verizon remote does the job.