Logitech Harmony 880 Advanced Universal Remote Control by Logitech
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Digital camera reviews of Logitech Harmony 880 Advanced Universal Remote Control
Digital camera Review: 5 remotes in ONE
Summary: 4 Stars
This is our second Logitech Harmony remote, we wore out the first one. I orignally got it to easy my wifes pain about rememboring which input the TV had to be on or the stereo to watch TiVo or a DVD or just channel surf. The fact that you program a button for the activity you want to do "Watch Tivo" then when you select that button the remote turns on the device you need and then also set that equipmet to the right input. As an example, when she wants to "Watch Tivo" and presses that button here is what I have the remote programed to do: Turns TV on, turns Stereo on, changes tv to 'Video 1' input, then changes the stereo to 'Video 1' input. Once your in an activity (Watch TiVo) I have the programed the custom buttons even further. Allowing for fast access to features used most often.
I think Logitech has worked with a number of remote/equipment makers and learned a lot of codes for a lot of entertainment equipment. I have pieces of stuff in my home theater: Onkio CD player, Kenwood 5.1 surround sound stereo receiver, LiteOn DVD Player/recorder, Wii game system, and as I've already said Tivo PVR and have not had to do anything special when setting up the remote. Even if there was an issue, Logitech has designed the remote to learn as well. All programing is done with a internet link and a easy user interface program.
Now why I liked the 880 remote, or the pluses.
+) It has more 'Activities' buttons to program, (eight per page) the old one only had three.
"Watch TV" "Watch TiVo" "Play DVD" "Listen to CD" "Play Radio" "Play Game"
+) Has eight(8) programable/customisable buttons per activity, old one had six
+) Color display that can be customised as well
+) Rechargable battery with convent cradle
+) The Oval center navagation is easyer to use (arrows and center button)
Now the negative things about the Logitech Harmony 880 remote:
-) placment of the equipment control buttons (play, pause, Fwd, Rev, etc.) is very poor. It's had to hold the remote and operate things like the Tivo or DVD player. But the features that the 880 brings to the table, make the fact that it's hard to operate these buttons still makes the remote very functional.
Digital camera Review: 5 stars for Combination of Functionality and Price
Summary: 5 Stars
At the ~$150 price point that the 880 is now selling at, I would give this product 5 stars. It's not perfect (I'll get into the areas of improvement in a bit), but it's a very flexible and configurable universal remote.
The pros:
* Able to replace all the remotes in your system: I was initially skeptical that it could really do this, but it did the job in my case. In addition to the TV, I have an HD-DVD player, HD tuner, HD-DVR, receiver, CD player, DVD player, DVD recorder, and a VCR. Even with all of these sources, the Harmony 880 enables me to not have to touch any of the individual remotes
* Ability to configure activities: Using the on-line utility, you can configure the exact sequence of keystrokes necessary to switch from one activity to the other. For instance, using my HD-DVD player, I use the multi-channel input of my receiver, which has to be toggled again to enable switching to another audio source. I've configured the 880 to toggle multi-channel when I enter the "Watch HD-DVD" activity and toggle it again when I exit the activity, freeing up the receiver to receive inputs for the next activity. You can set up to 8 activities, which is more than some of the lower-end Harmony products.
* Ability to set delays on a per device basis: This feature allows you to configure and optimize the remote to the individual IR "receiving" characteristics of your component. Some take longer between consecutive remote commands, some take longer to recover from receiving a command meant for another component. You're able to configure all of these settings to optimize performance of each component in the system.
* Charging base: Recharging the remote in the attractive charging base (with cool blue LED-lit symbol) means you never have to replace batteries
* On-line Utility: A comprehensive library of supported devices enable you to minimize the amount of 880 to original remote learning (pressing key on your original remote so 880 can "record" the IR signal for later use)
Room for Improvement:
* LCD quality: For this price point, the LCD should have been upgraded by now. The resolution is fairly low (120 x 160 I believe) and it's using CSTN technology (you'd find this in low end color-display cell phones). The price of LCD displays has come down significantly and a QCIF+ or QVGA TFT display would look awesome by comparison and enable the slide show feature to have meaning.
* Default activity soft-keys: I found the default soft-key options associated with each activity was too small a subset of the full array of keys available on the original remote. Therefore, for almost all activities, I had to add more keystrokes to support my desired activities. Easy enough to do, but took extra time. With more thought, this could have been more seamless
Caveats to take into consideration:
* Because the activity macros require multiple keystrokes, you have to hold the remote in front of your system for several seconds in most cases to assure that all commands reach their components. Otherwise, you're stuck in a limbo mode where some components are set, and some non-set. And because the remote doesn't know any better, it can't easily recover. You have to manually correct the components that didn't receive their commands to get back "in sync"
* Significant use of soft-keys: Soft-keys are the keys that are labelled on the LCD according to the activities you need. They are not devoted keys like Play, Menu, etc. Therefore, you'll have to scroll through different pages of soft-keys to find what you need (8 per page). This makes things less intuitive than the original remote, but ultimately usable.
Overall, a great product. At >$200, I'd give it 4 stars, but at the current price point, it's a 5-star item.
Digital camera Review: 5 stars with the Logitech Harmony Adapter for PS3
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been using my Logitech Harmony 880 for about a month now, and I really like it. It originally replaced five other remotes, and now that Logitech has come out with the Harmony Adapter for the PlayStation 3, it has replaced six remotes! Now that it controls all of my devices, I can definitely give it five stars :)
The remote is very easy to setup and use. The software steps you through everything needed to control your devices, and allows you to setup various "Activities" like watching the TV, watching a movie, listening to the radio, etc. It's smart enough to ask you which device to use when you have a function, like the volume, which can be controlled by more than one device (e.g. TV or A/V Receiver).
If you use a PlayStation 3, be sure to get the Logitech Harmony Adapter for PlayStation 3 so that you can control the PS3 with the Harmony remote. If you get the Adapter, you won't need to get the Sony BD Remote for the PS3.
I haven't had any of the problems mentioned in earlier reviews, so either they've been fixed, or I just haven't been using my remote long enough :) Anyway, I highly recommend this remote.
Digital camera Review: 880 Harmony
Summary: 4 Stars
FYI: This remote requires a fair knowledge of computers to get set up. Although it does do alot of auto completion formats, it can be a little time consuming to get them all worked out. It is about a 5 to 10 minute process to make a single change due to the downloading process to the remote. All changes must go through a computer and web access is needed. The unit comes with a USB cable to plug into the remote for programming downloads. You CANNOT just teach it from another remote like the Universal RF-20 does. You have to connect it to you computer and then it will learn from another remote just like the RF-20. In other words, ANY reprogramming must go through your computer. You cannot rearrange all screens either. Some are written in stone. You may be able to change thier functions but you can't rearrage all the lists they are in. Overall if you have the time to work with it, it's worth the while, it does alot of neat things but it has some small limitations. If you want a remote that you can name any button, put the button anywhere and teach it anything get the Universal RF-20. This remote 880 Harmaony does not accept RF codes, only IR. One of the nice things is the amazing list of Manufacturers that they have. Once I did the inital programming I was amazed at the amount of commands that were programmed for a given device. It does a good walk through of your devices and askes alot of questions that are relevent to the way you use your remote. I gave it 4 stars due to the limit of rearanging of lists is limited. If it did that it would be a 5 star remote.Digital camera Review: 880 ROCKS!
Summary: 5 Stars
This remote is the finest component I have added to my home theatre system in a decade--even my wife thinks it's cool--AND that is truly an endorsement!
Michael