/dev/null/kevin

A while ago I posted a review of the Harmony 880 universal remote.  It's been over two years so time for a follow-up.  In that time, both the physical product and the software have changed slightly.

Summary: The Harmony 880 is a little better now!

In those two years the remote held up very well.  The buttons remained clicky and responsive, and the screen remained unscratched.  The lithium-ion battery did show some signs of wear as the multiple rechargings have taken their toll.  Battery life dropped from about a week to about 2 days.

However, after two years, the IR emitters eventually died.  My universal remote was universally controlling nothing.

I used the night vision on my camcorder to verify that the IR emitters were not emitting any IR signal (actually, an extremely weak one).  A quick web search found that this has happened to other people as well.  Some brave souls replaced their emitters with new ones they bought at Radio Shack.  Others said that Logitech/Harmony fixed theirs (some for a fee).

I opted to call Harmony support and after the usual "install the latest software/firmware" dance they agreed that the emitters were probably bad.  Send the remote to Canada (!) for repair.  They gave me instructions and an RMI number.

It was around this time that my daughter broke her arm (she's fine) so I got distracted and didn't send the remote right away.  Five calendar days passed (120 hours) and I received an automated email telling me that my incident had been closed.  Oh noes!

Fortunately, just replying to that email with "please don't close yet" was all it took to get them to reopen the ticket.  This actually happened several times as my package to Harmony in Canada took over a week for them to receive it.  I guess those Canadian customs officers are very thorough.  It cost me US$15 to ship it, BTW.

Harmony confirmed, again, that the emitters were bad.  The total repair cost would be US$50, $25 to fix, $15 to ship.  Hmmmm.  Decision time.  I'm already out $15.  Compare $65 vs cost of whole new remote ($200 - $250) (and I could get new Harmony One).

I opted to pay the cost of repair.  We'd been forced to live like cavemen, using multiple remote controls, for weeks now.  Harmony also sweetened the deal by saying they would ship a brand new replacement unit rather than repair my old one.  In addition to a new unit there would be a new battery (remember mine was dying) and a new base station.  I think this also saved them time/money by shipping the brand new unit from a center already in the US.

The new unit arrived within 48 hours of payment (done via phone for security).  I noted a few improvements right away.  In addition to the new remote smell, the whole remote had a more textured feel.  The old remote was a little slick if your hands were really dry.  The base station was also slightly improved.  One "con" that I didn't notice for my first review (and which I saw in other reviews) was that the remote didn't always sit well in the base station and wouldn't charge.  It also wouldn't be obvious that the remote wasn't seated properly.  The new base station is cut differently so the remote pops into place perfectly.

The other improvement (which I would have gotten anyway) is the software.  My setup has been stable for a while now so I missed the last few software updates.  The new software is no longer web based and is a little less clunky to use.  The old version had so many PC-only plug-ins that to call it web-based would be misleading.

The new software is cleaner, smoother and snappier.  It follows the same structure but doesn't take forever to redraw complicated button layout diagrams using HTML forms.  There is both a Mac and PC version for the software, but the Mac version isn't working on my MBP.  Technically, the Mac isn't even recognizing that the remote is connected via USB so I can't judge the Mac's version of the software.  That's a problem for another day.

Final Score: 4.5 / 5 stars