Logitech Harmony One Universal Remote

[Fairweather Pure]

I narrowed my choices between the Harmony One ($249) and the Harmony 1000 ($499). I decided on the One for several reasons, but the user reviews highly influenced my purchase. The other major factor, other than price, was that I didn't want to have to look at my remote everytime I used it, so the 1000 was out based purely on that preference. Now that I have my One and it's programmed, holy fuck is this thing bad-ass. Yeah, I know it's just a remote control... but damn! Color me impressed!

First off, when idle, it shuts itself off. Pick it up or move it and it jumps to life. Second, the touch display is fantastic. Bright, vibrant, and completely customizable. I DLed someone's high-rez channel icons for mine, including music channels too. Very, very nice to look at.

I realized that whenever I want to do anything on my TV, I have to juggle 5 remotes, switching to the proper HDMI, and turning all the components on. It's kind of a pain in the ass, especially when company comes over and they can't figure out how to do anything. With the Harmony One, I set up action commands. So, I have a label on my touch screen called "Listen to MP3s", complete with a custom icon. When the button is pressed, the TV turns on and selects the 360 input, reciever kicks on, and my Xbox turns on and goes right to the screen with all my music displayed. The remote now has all the functions of my 360 controller and I can select and play music at will. This does the same for TV watching, DVD, or my DVR. When it comes time to turn everything off, just hit the power button and all units in the current action mode will shut off.

The software is amazing and easy to use. You just need your unit model #s and an Internet connection. You can even put pictures on the remote and they cycle through them when in the docking station.

To top it off, it fits the had perfectly, is light, and it's a real eye catcher. It's like the cherry on top of my home theater sundae.

I highly reccommend the Harmony One.

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/remot ... 8&cl=us,en

[Aslanna]

I see this topic twice!

[Aardor]

I have the Harmony 890 (which is the 880 + RF extender), and I absolutely love it. Seems to have the same features as the One, but just an older model with a slightly lower resolution screen. The software is great and easy to use, but sometimes a devices needs specific controls (timing between signals), which may be confusing for some to set up. That's not really the softwares fault, but more the piece of hardware, especially since there is a way to fix the problem.

Highly recommend this to anyone that's trying to use many devices like a receiver, tv, cable box, xbox 360, etc.

Edit: Oh, the One has a touch screen, and the 880/890 just has a screen with buttons next to it.

[Fairweather Pure]

I have the Harmony 890 (which is the 880 + RF extender), and I absolutely love it. Seems to have the same features as the One, but just an older model with a slightly lower resolution screen. The software is great and easy to use, but sometimes a devices needs specific controls (timing between signals), which may be confusing for some to set up. That's not really the softwares fault, but more the piece of hardware, especially since there is a way to fix the problem.

Highly recommend this to anyone that's trying to use many devices like a receiver, tv, cable box, xbox 360, etc.

Edit: Oh, the One has a touch screen, and the 880/890 just has a screen with buttons next to it.

The big difference is the button layout between the two, and of course the touch screen which has a higher resolution. If you already own an 880, then I personally wouldn't upgrade. However, for an entry level remote, I don't think there is a better/cheaper remote on the market. There's a good discussion on the avs forums about the two remotes and overall the people that upgraded to the One from the 880 seem genuinly impressed.

I think the One looks better, but really, that's just getting picky.

[Funkmasterr]

The thought of spending that much money on a remote is beyond insanity to me. I am fine with a 20 dollar universal remote that will operate most of my stuff (I don't need/want a remote for my 360). To each their own I guess.

[Fairweather Pure]

The thought of spending that much money on a remote is beyond insanity to me. I am fine with a 20 dollar universal remote that will operate most of my stuff (I don't need/want a remote for my 360). To each their own I guess.

I understand that view. Not too many years ago, there was a time when spending $20 on a universal remote was crazy to me! Things change though.

A remote like this is considered entry level for home theater enthusists. Although, I can't imagine anymore features that I would want/need.

[Canelek]

I don't personally have one, but certainly see the benefit! Good purchase, Fair.

I really wouldn't go higher-end for my uses, unless I owned a home and wanted to control my lights as well as multiple rooms of electronics. Seems like the One covers your immediate needs, plus fun bonuses.

[Syenye]

What's the learning curve for it? I mean, if I bought my dad one of these, how many times a day would he call me and ask me how to use it? (Assuming that my father is tech-oriented yet extremely lazy)

[Aardor]

What's the learning curve for it? I mean, if I bought my dad one of these, how many times a day would he call me and ask me how to use it? (Assuming that my father is tech-oriented yet extremely lazy)

My primary reason for buying the Harmony (after the RF extender) was because I had 2 technically inept roommates who weren't able to function the TV, Receiver and cable box. The setting up of the remote (which you could do for him, since he is lazy) is the only learning curve part, and it is extremely easy. You first select the components of your entertainment center, from Logitech's gigantic database. Then you add "activities," these are such things as "watch TV" or "play xbox 360". The menu system runs you through the set up very easily (selecting input on TV, what devices need to be turned on, selecting input of reciever, etc).

Once you have that set up, you plug in the remote, update it, and you're good to go. The learning curve of the remote itself is basically non-existent besides learning where the buttons are, since the software mapped the buttons to control the correct device (volume buttons control the receiver, channel buttons control the cable box, etc)

[Fairweather Pure]

What's the learning curve for it? I mean, if I bought my dad one of these, how many times a day would he call me and ask me how to use it? (Assuming that my father is tech-oriented yet extremely lazy)

In this situation, I would install the software on my laptop, take the remote and laptop to my dad's place, and set it up from there. I'm controlling 5 units and the entire process took about 30 minutes. The settings are saved online.

Of course, I continue to tweek actual device functions here and there and mess with some of the more advanced functions weeks after the initial setup, such as events and the like. For Instance, now when I hit the mute function, it mutes my TV and Reciever, pauses a DVD if I am watching one, pauses a game if I am playing Xbox, or pauses TV with my DVR. There are a couple more events I plan on setting up that are similar to that. I also set up the remote to operate my lighting and ceiling fans since it can control anything with a remote signal. The customization is really amazing.

Btw, I was impressed that it had all the fucntions for my Pioneer reciever, which is over 15 years old. I lost the remote for it at least 8 years ago, so having a means to control it now is heavenly.

[Winnow]

The Tivo Peanut shaped remote is the best I've ever used. With remotes, it's all about key placement, shape of the keys and balance of the remote. Tivo "peanut" remotes have an excellent design. I learned the value of this when I switched to a Cox Cablebox HD remote. Button placement is all wrong, the remote doesn't sit well in your hand and feels like it's top heavy, and the buttons aren't differentiated enough to be able to "feel " for them without looking.

The Harmony looks like it's well designed but it would be nice to get a feel for it before actually buying it.

The odd thing about my current setup (projector) is that my home theater rack is within arm's reach of where I sit at the back of the living room. I use two remotes. My projector remote, which is very small and used to switch sources (360, HDTV, PC, and eventually PS3 once I drag it back out) I have a remote for the 360 and (eventually) PS3 but never touch them as the 360 controller is a remote, turns on/off the 360 and controls everything. I don't watch DVDs or HD/Blu Ray yet. All of the multimedia is handled through my PC which I'm sitting at or swivel around to watch movies/etc on the projector. At most, I can roll out of the comfortable PC chair and into an even more comfortable Easy chair. I really should weigh 400 pounds because I don't burn any calories moving around much after I'm settled in to multimedia central.

On the flip side, while I know how to operate my HT Receiver, it's not easy enough for guests to use without me showing them. A few years back, my parents were visiting. They get up way before I do on the weekends so my dad tried to crank up DirecTV to watch the news. He couldn't understand why he wasn't getting any sound and my volume only takes a about a quarter turn (love big volume knobs over lame two-button volume) to be really loud so he had it cranked up really high and finally hit the right source button to switch to the DirecTV TOS source. I don't know how my Paragon Speakers survived but I wake up to a 10++ blasting of CNN. I think a circuit breaker kicked in to save my speakers.

An example of a poorly designed remote and well designed remote:

PS3 suckage:



The PS3 remote looks so bad I haven't even opened the packaging.

Excellent remote design:



Big, uniquely shaped buttons placed on a well balanced/shaped controller. if I had to guess, I'd say the Tivo remote was designed (or tested) by blind people while the PS3 remote was thoughtlessly designed by engineers trying to efficiently jam a lot of buttons on a remote.