/dev/null/kevin

I recently purchased the Logitech Harmony 880, a universal remote tailored for PVR systems like TiVo.

Quick Score: 4/5 stars.

Summary

Good if you can get it discounted. Non-technical people can probably get most features to work. The web site / programming interface is a little clunky, but functional.

Background

My old remote was really worn out and several buttons no longer worked after my daughter got it wet. Since I needed a new remote, and my home setup also included a receiver, DVD, HDTV box, two VCRs and the DirecTV/TiVo combo box, I rationalized that I could spend $200+ on a universal remote.

Price

The list price is $250, but Amazon sells it for $229. I got it for $199 at another online retailer.

Pros

• Plenty of Buttons - The problem with most universal remotes is that most of the special features require drilling down into various menus to get access to those commands. This is just plain inconvenient. The Harmony has plenty of buttons to cover all of the standard commands plus buttons for most special functions found on TVs, DVD players and TiVos. There are also "soft" buttons available via the LCD display.

  All of the Harmony's buttons are also backlit. There is a "rocker" switch that senses when you pick up or tilt the remote and automatically turns on the back lighting. The "glow" button will turn the lighting on or off.

• Fully Programmable - Each of the many "hard" buttons is programmable as are the "soft" keys. The color LCD screen displays 8 soft keys at a time and you can page through them easily.

• Slim Design - One of my biggest complaints about other universal remotes (especially early designs) is that they were too big to hold in one hand. The Harmony is nice a slim and you can get to most of the buttons easily.

• Rechargeable - The Harmony comes with a sleek recharging station. The battery lasts about 3 to 4 days if you don't charge it. The station also has a very bright blue LED on it just in case you can't find it in the dark (not sure if that is a PRO or CON).

• Built in Macros - One thing that a good universal remote is supposed to do is create macros which perform several functions with one button press. However, macro writing/recording can be difficult for most users. The Harmony has sacrificed total macro control for a menu-driven macro writer that let's anyone write macros that should handle 99% of the macros people need. For example, "Watch TiVo" can be "turn on TV, turn on TiVo, set TV to VIDEO1." You can can also control things like "turn TiVo off (or not) if I switch to watch a DVD."

• Context Aware Smart Buttons - What this means is that if I select "Watch DVD" then all of the buttons switch to the DVD context: FF with fast forward the DVD. If I switch to "Watch TiVo" then FF will FF the TiVo, and so on. Each "context" is fully programmable, as described above. Contexts can combines commands from any system. For example, my "Record to VCR" context is for dumping movies from the TiVo to a VCR tape. Thus, this context has controls for the VCR, then TiVo and the TV. The "DVD" context also includes the receiver since I usually watch movies with the full sound system.

  What is also nice is that the Harmony has a Devices button that lets you get to any device's commands regardless of which context you are in. So, if you are watching TiVo but need to turn off the DVD player, you can do that without having to exit the TiVo context (which would turn off the TiVo).

• Upload Pictures - On the useless but fun side of things, the Harmony lets you upload various pictures to it. You can define a background image as well as a set of pictures to display as a slide show while it recharging. Additionally, some of the custom buttons on the LCD screen can have an image instead of text. Being a geek, I made a few common ones for TV station labels. Feel free to download them if you have a Harmony.

• Configuration Website - All of the Harmony configuration is controlled via a web site. While not the best site it the world, it is functional and not too hard to use. The site remembers your settings so it's easy to make changes and adjustments later. Unless you have a "big brother" complex, it's nice not having to worry that all my configurations could be lost.

• Good Help System - The Harmony comes with Help button that does a good job of actually helping. It's possible for the Harmony to get out of sync with the systems it's controlling. If someone manually turns off the TV the Harmony will still think it's still on and won't turn it on when you need it. This type of situation is easily fixed with the "Help" button. It asks you a series of yes or no questions based on the context it thinks it's in and will take the proper action to get back in sync.

Cons

• Buttons Not That Tactile - A truly great remote has buttons that you can differentiate without looking at them. You can just feel which button is which. The Harmony has a couple of "landmarks" but it took a while before I could use it without looking at it (at least it's backlit).

• Not Optimal Button Layout - Along the same lines, the button layout isn't perfect either. This could just be a personal preferences thing, but I would move a few of the buttons around. Yes, they are all reprogrammable, but not relabel-able.

• Website GUI a Little Clunky - I guess my biggest "complaint" would be the web site that controls everything. First of all, it really only works on Windows. The remote plugs into the computer via USB and the web site invokes quite a few local programs to interact with the remote.

  That issue aside, the website itself is a little clunky to use. It was obviously designed by engineers so while functional, isn't very pretty. Certain tasks are a little tedious as well and I had a hard time keeping the order of my "soft" buttons consistent.

• Advanced Features Not Easy to Find on Website - Not all of the features the Harmony offers are immediately available from the website. You need to install the remote with a basic configuration first, then go back and add all of your customization. Even then, not all of the features are available from the top level page. Some advanced features only became available when I selected "troubleshooting" or answered "no" to questions like "is this the set up you want?"

  In the end I was able to get it to do everything I wanted, but it took a little trial and error. Now, for novice user, this is probably a "plus" since it hides the complexity from them.

However, despite these problems, I am very happy with the Harmony 880. I should mention that it also passed the true test of success, the WAF (wife acceptance factor). Both my wife and her father were able to figure it out and transition from the old TiVo remote. Seeing pictures of their daughter/granddaughter also helped.
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January 13, 2006 07:57 AM PST Permalink | Comments [0] |