Comments on: Remotemania, What Is It and What Can We Do About It?

By: Al West

Al West — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 20:51:47 +0000

I picked up a Harmony 525 second hand on UK eBay for £20 in perfect working order. So they are not hard to come buy – and it still has all the features when it comes to programming than its bigger brothers. Certainly the best buy in my entertainment system.

By: buzzword

buzzword — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:37:30 +0000

You make the statement that “Universal Remote, RTI, Nevo, Pronto all produce significantly superior” in what ways? You provide absolutely no basis for the statement other than your own subjective opinion, not to mention the products mentioned are geared toward a wholly different market, AV geeks and tweakers.

I have a Harmony One I’ve been using for the last two years or so and it works perfectly, controlling a Pioneer Elite AV receiver, Series 3 HD Tivo, Sony flatscreen TV, DVD player and XBox 360, it was expensive but certainly not out of reach, I consider it money well spent, *and* my wife loves it.

By: jody

jody — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:06:58 +0000

The harmony does support the PS3 with the addon –

http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalog?hl=en&am…

By: Quint

Quint — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:09:00 +0000

Sorry … I don't need to be personally insulted for stating what it pretty much accepted fact. At Remote Central, at Digital Home Canada, at AVSForum, etc.

Harmony has a couple of good products (the One and the 900) but they are not price competitive with similar offerings from URC or Pronto. Nor do they provide anywhere near the "flexible programmability", or "detailed activities" of a URC, UEI, RTI, or Pronto remote. As for "accurate state memory", URC's activity based remote (the MX-810) has that too, and every model above it can be programmed using variables with better state accuracy than any activity based remote. RTI, UEI, and Philips all make remotes that handle variables. I will admit that programming variables is more challenging than wizard based remotes, and that's a fair argument.

The One could be a fantastic product, but at that price point, no RF is inexcusable. The 900 is close to being a fantastic product, but is limited by the web-based platform Logitech uses. A stand-alone editor capable of unleashing the potential of the 900 without being married to the limitations of 5xx, 6xx, 7xx, and 8xx remotes might do it … but Logitech won't go that route.

Although the ergonomics of the One/900 are pretty good, can anyone truthfully say that the ergonomics of an 880/890 are good? Even decent? How about the teeny, tiny, little buttons on the 520/720?

Build quality on Harmony remotes is decent, but not better than sector. Actually, quite poor on the 880/890 and certain other models … quite good on the One. Very inconsistent.

For less than a Harmony One, you can buy a URC MX-810 which supports RF, has amazingly good ergonomics (maybe the best of any wand style remote) and much more power than any Harmony. It also has rock solid state memory, detailed activities, custom graphics, flexible programmability, and killer WAF.

My point is that it is aggravating to see an article purport to arrive at the solution for the "right" remote after playing with two Harmony products. When it comes to WHS, I view WGS as an authority. If it is going to stray into other niches, it should strive to apply the same "authority" standards. Otherwise, the quality and reliability of WGS as a resource for WHS becomes suspect because I look at the substance of this column and the associated comments and conclude but one thing: these people don't have a clue what they are talking about.

This wasn't a forum post. This was an article on the main page. That carries with it the reputation of WGS and it detracts, in my view, from that reputation.

Sure if you want to spend less than $100, there is no better product than Harmony. But, you don't have to spend $400 to get into a product that is substantially better than anything Logitech has offer.

As far as my personal experience goes, I have used/played/reviewed (yes reviewed) remotes over the years including: Marantz RC2000MKII, HK/MS Take One, Pronto TSU500/TSU9200, Harmony 550/720/880, URC MX-700/900/810/980/5000. Some are expensive and required a certain degree of programming skill, some are outstanding value.

By: Tom Wilson

Tom Wilson — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 23:11:38 +0000

I have another idea, as well: the usb-uirt. You can think of this as "a universal remote plugged in to your computer. With that, a free program called "EventGhost", and ANY PC remote (I prefer the Gyration Media Remote), you can essentially roll your own remote to control any IR controlled device near your computer. I have mine programed to set up my TV and home theater receiver for games, on-line video (with my computer), DVD's, and even my old VHS VCR.

By: firewater88

firewater88 — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:37:42 +0000

I actually have (2) harmony 880's. I bought my first one when we moved into the new house. I loved it. We where broken into a few years back, they pulled everything out of the media center but only took the remote (and charger) and speakers off the wall (I have since upgraded the home theatre). I claimed it on insurance and got a new one a few months after. Just before I got the new one, a friend bought us a refurbished one (I think i converted them over to it and they felt bad that we lost ours). Now the refurb one is in the basement and the new one is on the main TV. I control a Toshiba 46", PS3 via ir2bt, Yamaha receiver and a Motorola cable box.
I love the web interface for set ups. The way you can program things is great. Even my 6yr old can use the remote pretty good. The one thing I wish I did was go with the 890 that has RF, but it was too expensive at the time. I will say this for Logitech, when I bought the new one the Enter button kept popping off after a week of use. I called and within 3 days I had a new one on the doorstep and was able to keep the defective one. That means that I have a spare charger and new battery for standby.
On a side note, when I called Logitech to remove the stolen remote from my account and add the new one, she lead me to believe they could track when that remote was plugged in and activated. But there was some stipulation or time frame on it.
I recommend a universal remote, my pref is the Logitech line, there are many out there and certainly one that will fit your needs.

By: Jim_Clark

Jim_Clark — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 01:21:40 +0000

hmm. Me thinks I need to learn more about Universal Remote Control. That is one nice testimonial! Thanks for sharing that.

And I (and WGS) have no intention of competing with Remote Central. IMO, Univeral Remotes are an integral part of the digital home and deserve a bit of exposure on WGS.

By: Buddy

Buddy — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:04:11 +0000

I would buy it again in a heartbeat!

Next question… It would be fun to have a spot to talk about remotes but really I have alway gottem my info from Remote Central. It is going to be hard to compete. I would rather see a section just devoted to extenders. There is so much disjointed info about them but no primary clearinghouse about them.

I'm happy with anything you guys do, I really enjoy the site!

By: KTMFactoryRider

KTMFactoryRider — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:03:19 +0000

In the past nine years it has run three different TV's, regular and HD/DVR cable boxes, regular and HD DVR satellite boxes by Dish and Direct TV, two different surround systems, runs the component stereo, an old 400-disk CD player and two remote A-B switches! It will shut down everything to change to the PS3, just not make it work. Just push a button, it works and works great. Even my wife loves it. Now with everything done with color displays, I wish the display was a little larger and the display was in color.

Matter of fact it worked so great that they stopped making it and whoever made the IRClone stopped making or distributing it. I have mine and don't know what to do the day it craps out. I guess I'mm have to look at one of these new fangled ones you guys have.

By: Buddy

Buddy — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:02:13 +0000

We got our first HD TV in 2000, it was a 54" RCA. We already had a Cablebox, a DVD and a VCR. When we got the TV a few weeks later we got a Sony surround system to go with everything else. I was over at a friends home a week or so later and he had a HomeTheater Master MX-500 sold by Universal Remote Control. I was blow away the way it ran everything and he told me that the remote was just a cheap remote, I think it was $100 bucks, but what made it work so well was an add-on that you could buy called a IRClone-MX. This was a IR receiver/programmer that hooked by a USB to your PC with some software that make programming the remote a breeze.

By: Dave

Dave — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 21:47:05 +0000

I started with an original Microsoft IRIQ remote…
Then switched to Harmony and have never looked back. Currently I use a Harmony One to control the following – Yamaha RX-V661 as a pre-pro (Emotiva UPA-7 amp), PS3, Toshiba A2 HD-DVD player, DirecTV HD-DVR, HTPC, and a HDMI switch from Monoprice.
Whole family loves this setup.

By: mykie

mykie — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 20:27:28 +0000

Just as with any popular item like the Harmony remotes, for every 10 fans, there's one steadfast curmudgeon that lends credence to the old adage "You can't please everyone."

For my two cents, I've tried a variety of Prontos, RCAs, and Universals, only to come circling back to Harmony for its high WAF, detailed activities, flexible programmability, and accurate state memory.