Logitech Harmony 659 Advanced Universal Remote Control - Refurbished by Logitech
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Digital camera reviews of Logitech Harmony 659 Advanced Universal Remote Control - Refurbished
Digital camera Review: Great buy -- simplified my life at a good price
Summary: 5 Stars
I have had the Logitech Harmony 659 refurb for about a month now. It works as advertised -- does a great job of integrating all my AV devices. Setup was very easy via the Logitech web site. though at first the settings for my DVD player did not operate the player well. There was an update posted to the site about a week later that fixed everything. The buttons for "watch a movie", "watch tv" and "listen to music" make life easy. Push them and all the settings for the devices adjust at once. Just sit back and enjoy. The remote's screen is easy to read and the hard coded buttons logically laid out and easy to use.Digital camera Review: Great deal
Summary: 4 Stars
I already own a Logitech 670, which is a bit nicer/newer than this one. I needed another one for a different set of equipment in another area of my house, but I couldn't find a good deal on the 670. This one does everything the 670 does, as best I can tell, and I am completely satisfied with it. They are very similar. For the price, it's a fantastic deal! The only reason I give it 4 instead of 5 stars is the software, which is a bit clunky/difficult at times, but managable. As another reviewer said, don't even load the CD that comes with it, load the latest software from the Logitech website.
The real benifit of these remotes is allowing the programming of "activities". For example, I have set up an activity called "Watch DVD", and when I press it, it turns on my TV, the DVD player, and my Receiver, then sets my TV to HDMI Input 1 and my Receiver to Optical 2. The volume control on the remote then works the receiver volume while the play/ff/pause/etc. controls work the DVD player.
Digital camera Review: Great for Grandma
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this for my grandmother and it works great. Controls all her TV and Stereo with one button.
I had a bit of an issue getting the stereo set up but figured it out when I let the remote do the work instead of me trying to be smarter than it :)
I did not test out the more advanced features because of not having the need.
I would recommend it to most anyone.
Note - does not control a digital picture frame only mainstream electronics.
Digital camera Review: Great remote
Summary: 5 Stars
It does everything I need, easy to program and use. I have setup multiple command sequences, grouped devices as activities, and customized the setup exactly the way I want it. This remote does a better job of controlling my devices than the remotes that came with the devices did. I would recommend it to everyone.Digital camera Review: Great remote - convinced me to buy 2 more Harmonys
Summary: 4 Stars
I have three different Harmony remotes -- I'm a big fan. In fact, I pre-ordered this remote when I read an article about its upcoming release, because I was so excited about the prospect of a universal remote that actually worked. This remote has lived up to its promise.
First, as I indicated above, I'm a big fan of Harmony Remotes. You can program them to do everything that any of your devices' IR remotes can do. In general, the dedicated buttons on the remote are enough to handle the tasks that you do 90% of the time. Less frequently used functions can be configured to appear on the LCD screen, which displays 4 (or 6 - it's configurable) items at a time, and can scroll. For really seldom-used functions, everything that the device's remote can do is accessible in "Device" mode.
I have never had any trouble with the website's programming applets. Some folks hate them, but I'm not one of them. There have been occasions where I have had to try a configuration, and go back to tweak it, because it wasn't working exactly the way I wanted it to. I would rather do this on my computer, using the website's huge database of devices and IR codes, than to try to program it manually, the way I used to have to do with older universal remotes.
I also do not have the problems that some other folks complain about where the device state gets out of sync. I always program my devices using what they call "discrete codes", where there's a different command for "On" and "Off", instead fo a single "Toggle Power" command, and different commands for TV input selection. I never have to try to find the discrete code settings, even if they're not provided by the device's original remote, because Logitech's online device database already has all of the discrete codes for all of my devices stored and ready for me to use.
The Harmony 659, in particular, is a solid performer. The button layout is a little bit odd, in that the transport controls (Play, Stop, Pause, Rewinde, etc.) are all located all the way on the bottom. This can be a little awkward, but ithasn't really caused me too many problems. Also, they are laid out such that I don't have to think about which button is where - the button I'm looking for is always right where I think it ought to be, even though it's a bit of a reach for my thumb. This model does not have all of the buttons that are available in some of the more expensive models (when I was trying to use this for a DVR, I missed the "Skip Fwd" and "Skip Bkwd" buttons), but where I'm using it right now, it has all of the dedicated buttons I need.
Overall, this is a solid remote, at the inexpensive end of the awesome Harmony line. I've recommended Harmony remotes to everyone who's faced remote problems. If your usage patterns require additional buttons that aren't provided on this model, there's almost certainly a model that has those buttons. For the room where we use this remote, it works great.