Harmony universal remotes rock

[arcas]

A week or two I bought a refurb Harmony 880 remote. Overall, it's pretty neat. Want to watch the DVR? Press the DVR button and it a) turns on the TV (if not already on) and sets it to the correct input, b) turns on the HT receiver (if not already on) and sets it to the correct input, c) turns on the DVR. Same with other things like DVD, etc.

I've gone from 5 remotes on my ottoman to just the Harmony. I've had universal remotes in the past but you still had to go through a dance in order to get everything turned-on and ready.

The Harmony's not perfect -- the buttons around the LCD are too small and hard to press and it has some lag when adjusting volume -- but in general it kicks ass.

 

[crab]

I find my 880 to be more of a pain in the ass and we hardly use it

I'm having trouble getting it to work with my AT&T U-Verse reciever, too.

 

[thirdeye]

I too love my 880

 

[Kaido]

I wish they'd make a simple Harmony in the shape of a TiVo remote. Those are easy to use in the dark because all of the buttons are shaped differently. Great remotes overall though

 

[realEZE]

I've gone from from 4 remotes + 1 Xbox360 controller to 1 Harmony remote, and have not looked back.

I've tried 550, 670, 880 and 890.

The 550 was too flimsy and buttons were too small.
The 670 was not as pretty, but was sturdier and somewhat more natural.
The 880/890 adds colour LCD, but really not much functionality to intermediate users.

Overall, I think the 600 series are probably the best value...

 

[vi edit]

Originally posted by: Kaido
I wish they'd make a simple Harmony in the shape of a TiVo remote. Those are easy to use in the dark because all of the buttons are shaped differently. Great remotes overall though

The 67X lineup has the shape of the TiVo, but the button layout isn't the same. It's very similar to my Dish network DVR. Although smaller buttons.

 

[mugs]

I bought one, but it turned out to not be ideal for my setup. It didn't recognize my TV, so it picked a "similar" one. I don't know if that similar TV was just not similar to my TV, or if my TV did not support direct selection of inputs (the remote didn't have the buttons for it, but that doesn't mean it doesn't support it), but for me the only way to select inputs on the TV was to program it to hit the Source button, then hit the down arrow a number of times, then hit enter. Even if that worked it would be less than ideal, but it did not work (it hit the down arrow some number of times between the actual number of times it was supposed to and twice as many times).

 

[vi edit]

Originally posted by: mugs
I bought one, but it turned out to not be ideal for my setup. It didn't recognize my TV, so it picked a "similar" one. I don't know if that similar TV was just not similar to my TV, or if my TV did not support direct selection of inputs (the remote didn't have the buttons for it, but that doesn't mean it doesn't support it), but for me the only way to select inputs on the TV was to program it to hit the Source button, then hit the down arrow a number of times, then hit enter. Even if that worked it would be less than ideal, but it did not work (it hit the down arrow some number of times between the actual number of times it was supposed to and twice as many times).

Can't you do the learing function and train the Harmony to match up to the "source" button on the remote that came with your TV?

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: vi_edit

Originally posted by: mugs
I bought one, but it turned out to not be ideal for my setup. It didn't recognize my TV, so it picked a "similar" one. I don't know if that similar TV was just not similar to my TV, or if my TV did not support direct selection of inputs (the remote didn't have the buttons for it, but that doesn't mean it doesn't support it), but for me the only way to select inputs on the TV was to program it to hit the Source button, then hit the down arrow a number of times, then hit enter. Even if that worked it would be less than ideal, but it did not work (it hit the down arrow some number of times between the actual number of times it was supposed to and twice as many times).

Can't you do the learing function and train the Harmony to match up to the "source" button on the remote that came with your TV?

That's exactly what I had to do.

 

[Linflas]

Originally posted by: Kaido
I wish they'd make a simple Harmony in the shape of a TiVo remote. Those are easy to use in the dark because all of the buttons are shaped differently. Great remotes overall though

That is really my only complaint with mine. The slippery plastic and tiny flush buttons at the bottom combine to make it almost impossible to use with 1 hand.

 

[LeiZaK]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: vi_edit

Originally posted by: mugs
I bought one, but it turned out to not be ideal for my setup. It didn't recognize my TV, so it picked a "similar" one. I don't know if that similar TV was just not similar to my TV, or if my TV did not support direct selection of inputs (the remote didn't have the buttons for it, but that doesn't mean it doesn't support it), but for me the only way to select inputs on the TV was to program it to hit the Source button, then hit the down arrow a number of times, then hit enter. Even if that worked it would be less than ideal, but it did not work (it hit the down arrow some number of times between the actual number of times it was supposed to and twice as many times).

Can't you do the learing function and train the Harmony to match up to the "source" button on the remote that came with your TV?

That's exactly what I had to do.

I have read there is a way around that source menu. I don't remember how or where I read it though.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: LeiZaK

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: vi_edit

Originally posted by: mugs
I bought one, but it turned out to not be ideal for my setup. It didn't recognize my TV, so it picked a "similar" one. I don't know if that similar TV was just not similar to my TV, or if my TV did not support direct selection of inputs (the remote didn't have the buttons for it, but that doesn't mean it doesn't support it), but for me the only way to select inputs on the TV was to program it to hit the Source button, then hit the down arrow a number of times, then hit enter. Even if that worked it would be less than ideal, but it did not work (it hit the down arrow some number of times between the actual number of times it was supposed to and twice as many times).

Can't you do the learing function and train the Harmony to match up to the "source" button on the remote that came with your TV?

That's exactly what I had to do.

I have read there is a way around that source menu. I don't remember how or where I read it though.

There may be if they had my TV in their DB, but I can't teach it functions that my remote doesn't have so there is no other way for me to directly change to a different source.

 

[Izzo]

I like my 880 for the most part. But I wish they would improve the button layout and design.

 

[athithi]

Originally posted by: arcas
A week or two I bought a refurb Harmony 880 remote. Overall, it's pretty neat. Want to watch the DVR? Press the DVR button and it a) turns on the TV (if not already on) and sets it to the correct input, b) turns on the HT receiver (if not already on) and sets it to the correct input, c) turns on the DVR. Same with other things like DVD, etc.

I've gone from 5 remotes on my ottoman to just the Harmony. I've had universal remotes in the past but you still had to go through a dance in order to get everything turned-on and ready.

The Harmony's not perfect -- the buttons around the LCD are too small and hard to press and it has some lag when adjusting volume -- but in general it kicks ass.

Have you tried adjusting the lag using the software?

 

[dwell]

Got the 550 last week and have been tweaking it ever since. It's not perfect. I think the activity thing is hit and miss. It's fine when it works, but sometimes switching activities switches the TV off. There's also time when one component does not turn on switching to an activity and you have to go to devices and turn it on individually, or use the godawful help button.

It also take forever to pop my set into the TV activity. I may need to adjust the timing, but it's annoying when the volume on my receiver is cranked and I go to watch TV and cannot lower the volume or mute for 10 - 30 seconds until the sequence is complete.

That said, it's a much better solution than entering codes into the remote itself. It's going to take a bit more tweaking to get it 100% for me.

 

[LegendKiller]

Originally posted by: athithi

Originally posted by: arcas
A week or two I bought a refurb Harmony 880 remote. Overall, it's pretty neat. Want to watch the DVR? Press the DVR button and it a) turns on the TV (if not already on) and sets it to the correct input, b) turns on the HT receiver (if not already on) and sets it to the correct input, c) turns on the DVR. Same with other things like DVD, etc.

I've gone from 5 remotes on my ottoman to just the Harmony. I've had universal remotes in the past but you still had to go through a dance in order to get everything turned-on and ready.

The Harmony's not perfect -- the buttons around the LCD are too small and hard to press and it has some lag when adjusting volume -- but in general it kicks ass.

Have you tried adjusting the lag using the software?

That's exactly what I was going to suggest.

I have had my 688 for about 2.5 years now. I have changed the setup a lot, new tv, new stereo, new hd-dvd player...etc. The easyness of changing the activities, devices, mapping buttons, learning commands...etc is awesome.

Not to mention Harmony's tech support rocks. They take a few days to respond, but overall they are very good to deal with. The Harmony database doesn't cover IPTV STBs very well yet, my ADB 3800W wasn't there and when I would try and learn the commands it would put it into RAW format, where lag settings wouldn't work. They went into my account and changed the settings, now when I hit one button I get one response, not 2.

While once in a while the activity buttons get out of sync (not turning off or turning on devices properly) I'd say I get that about 5% of the time. As others have said, the ergonomics could be better. Otherwise it's a perfect device.

 

[arcas]

Actually, I was unaware that the lag was configurable. I'll make a note to look into it this evening.