Logitech Harmony 550 Universal Remote Control
by Logitech
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Our Price: $175.99 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $70.00 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Logitech Harmony 550 Universal Remote Control
Customer Review: Highly innovative but not perfect
Summary: 4 Stars
Between my TV, cable box, DVD player, receiver, Apple notebook, and Xbox console I have a small pile of remotes I keep around for the rare occasion I need to use one for a special functions of a particular device. My cable remote has universal remote functionality but in a limited capacity. I needed something better, but the thought of tapping in obscure codes for each device into a standard universal remote really turned me off. Then I discovered the Harmony Remote line of remotes.
The idea seemed great. A database of remotes is kept online at Logitech. All you need to do is tell the included software what devices have and the rest is auto-magic. I was able to tell the software what devices I own, including a TV model which has been on the market for less than four months and it all just worked.
While the basic configuration is probably enough for most people I am the type who needs everything to be perfect. So, after everything was working properly I spent a lot of time refining the settings to my liking. This involved juggling devices and activities, tweaking timings, and configuring the buttons on the display. It took huge chuck of time and it is still a work in progress. The cool part is all the settings are stored on Logitech's servers, so I can tweak my settings from any computer (even work!) and just upload the changes to the device when I am ready. Pretty geeky, but very cool.
The design on the remote itself is nice. It has a slick, cell phone like feel to it. My only complaints are: The channel buttons are too small making them hard to tap blind. The hard-click arrow, volume, and channel buttons lack the rubbery tactile feedback as the rest of the buttons have making them seem out of place on the device. I would have also liked to have had a more prominent play button. It's the same size as every other "VCR" button making it difficult to isolate in the dark.
Harmony Remotes are activity based, not device based like other universal remotes. This means you need to stop thinking of your AV equipment as single devices but as collections of devices used in activities such as "Watch TV" or "Play a Game". This is great for technophobes because they need to just tap one button to turn on the TV, DVD player, and set all the line inputs accordingly. It can be frustrating when the sequence of events of turning on the devices fails because an obstacle was in the way (like the coffee table) leaving some devices off or not set to the correct input. There's a help button to fix these sorts of issues but it's frustrating for anyone who does not need everything over-simplified.
Overall it's a great remote, the proof being all of my individual remotes are currently locked up in a drawer hopefully never to be used again. There are a few nuances that keep this remote from earning a perfect five stars from me, but for the price it really beats any other solution out there.
Customer Review: tries to do too much
Summary: 1 Stars
I've got some experience with universal remotes all the way back to a huge programmable one with a timer in the 1980's. In the last few years I haven't needed one because I stopped watching TV but now that I have an HDTV and a DVD player that plays AVI files I wanted to put away the three remotes to keep the living room clean.
The initial software install, device selection and firmware upgrade all went smoothly. One problem though: although the software doesn't display the current or new firmware version so there's no way to tell if you need a firmware upgrade. I'm not sure what the point of offering a firmware upgrade button without telling you what the old and new firmware versions are.
Once I unplugged the USB cable and tried to use the remote, the problems started. Maybe I'm not their typical user because I don't need complex macros or 50 buttons. I just do three or four actions: power toggle, volume up/down, channel selection, or switch inputs. The first thing I noticed is that *THERE IS NO POWER BUTTON*. You have to control the power state of your devices by defining "activities" and the remote helpfully tries to manage all the power states of your devices this way. Unfortunately half the time it failed to turn the DVD player on. So then I have to read the tiny LCD screen and walk through a series of "help screens" that ask if each device is on or off. The whole point of a universal remote is to simplify... so it's very frustrating when I find myself reading little lines of dialog and walking through a wizard-type interface when all I wanted was a power button. Strike 1.
Once I started looking more carefully at the remote, I immediately realized how terrible the UI is. Maybe I'm wrong but I would bet that there's a few buttons that are used 98% of the time: channel select, input select, volume, and the play/stop/forward/reverse buttons. yet there is basically no functional power button, and the volume and channel keys are small and flush with the surface of the remote. Why would someone design a universal remote this way? Strike 2.
To change channels with a digital television (or any television, after February 2009), you need to use a separator in the channel number like 2-1 or 2.1. But there is no separator key. I'm sure I could use my TV remote to learn the key and then map it onto another key on the 550 but there's no obvious buttons I could use for this. So that's strike 3.
I guess the Logitech Harmony has the honor of being the first electronics device I ever return to a store because it sucks. I don't see why it's hard to take the best feature of the Harmony remotes (online database of device codes) and match it with a simple obvious UI.
I bought a $10 sony universal remote instead and it was a hassle to teach it the code for every button but after a couple hours it worked fine.
Customer Review: OK, but worse than the 6xx series
Summary: 3 Stars
I already had a Harmony 628 and two 659's. I am a big fan of the Harmony concept and liked the 659 model with a single big exception: the location of the DVD/VCR play/fast-forward/stop/etc. controls at the very bottom of the remote where they are hard to access one handed. The 628 has those controls located further north on the remote, but it is missing some buttons that are useful with TIVO.
The 5xx series at first appears to be an improvement on the 6xx series. Specifically, the 5xx models feel just a little bit better in the hand and are more stylish. The DVD/VCR play control buttons are better located than on the 659 and the TIVO-friendly buttons are there. However, that is about it in terms of advantages vs. the 6xx series. The rest is all disadvantages. a few:
The buttons are too small and worse yet close to gether. The GUIDE to Prev banks are particularly bad except that you can activate them by pressing just the outer edge of the button which is non-intuitive and probably just lucky.
The black letters on blue background display is pretty, but hard to read in anything other than a very bright or very dark room. The 659 used black on a bright green background and was much more readable. A victory of pretty over practical in the 5xx.
The needless rubber cover over the mini-usb port looks and feels like a cheap afterthought. The cover does not easilly re-attach after programming. It actually resists. I'm sure it will eventually tear off solving the remounting problem.
The directional buttons and OK key make an annoying and noisy click when pressed. No need of the aural feedback as there is plenty of tactile feedback. They fixed what was not broken.
You can re-name your activities with more characters than will fit on the LCD display. This means you can rename on your computer and then upload to the remote and finally find out half of what you wrote does not appear. No warning given. Dumb.
The off button is located top left when for right-handed people top right would be easier to use.
Overall the buttons just do not feel as good nor operate as reliably as the buttons on the 6xx remotes. Sometimes you press and nothing happens.
Styling-wise, the 5xx series is a success. In terms of practicality and intellegent design it is a step back from the comparably priced 659 and even the cheaper 628.
My advice, buy a 659 while you can or save up for one of the higher line 6xx models.
If there had been no 6xx series, I would rate the 5xx series with four stars because the Harmony concept is a great one. But given that Logitech took a step back from the 6xx series in designing the 5xx series, I can only give a three star rating.
Customer Review: Great product - went 5 to 1 controls -- easy to setup !
Summary: 5 Stars
Like other people with several pieces of electronics, I had become frustrated by having to set up and use different control units. Of course, one can sometime get an individual control unit to control more than one piece of equiment (e.g., control your TV off of a DVD control). I had tried to do this when I bought a new Toshiba HD-DVD unit and wanted to set up the DVD controller so that it could control my Sony TV. The problem was, however, that there were about 30 codes you had to choose from listed in the DVD manual to control a Sony TV with no sense which one might work. I mentioned to someone I knew after getting through about half of the list of codes and he suggested I look at getting a Harmony unit.
The Harmony unit is great!! It took about 15 minutes to set up and essentially get all of my common tasks such as playing a DVD, watching a TV show, listening to the radio, watching a video, etc all onto one easy-to-use control. In setting up the control, you link to your computer (and I have a Mac, which offered no problems) and simply enter the model numbers of each piece of equipment you have. You then do through simple menus to set up various tasks such as watching DVDs. The software will ask you some basic questions (i..e, which input on your TV does your DVD unit feed into) and then sets things up so that the one control takes the place of all of the others.
Instead of turning a TV on with one control, then turning your AV unit with another and the DVD player with the third, you simply click one of the activities listed on the screen such as watch a DVD. The appropriate units turn on just as if you had used the three separate controls and the Harmony unit becomes your DVD controller with all of the functions built into it. If you then want to watch a TV show instead, you click the button next to "watch TV" and the DVD player shuts off and the Harmony becomes a TV contoller.
I have found this to be a great product with a lot of nice features, both in terms of hardware and software. Other reviewers have described many of these, but one thing that has impressed me is the "glow" button that lets you light up the various buttons and screen so you can easily use the controller in a dark room. On the software front, it is very easy to make changes in the settings on your controller (e.g., if you switch jacks into which audio sources will feed) -- the inetrfaces are very nicely designed and efficient.
I have never said that a product deserves 6 stars, but this one does. It really helps to clear "control clutter" and makes it a simple task to manuever your way around you home theatre/audio system.
Customer Review: Remote Is Great, Problems With Software
Summary: 4 Stars
I recently purchased this remote for my parents as a gift. I knew there was a relatively simple setup process involved, so i decided to configure it for them myself. I installed the software it came with on my BRAND NEW (less than a day old) iMac G5 running OS X Leopard v. 10.5 and breezed through the setup process. It was simple and intuitive (and as far as I knew) really good software. I then tested the remote (with Sony Wega Television, Bose Home Theater System, Motorolla Cable Box, and an Xbox 360) and it worked flawlessly. I was amazed at how simple the entire process was. However this amazement was short lived, because only a couple hours later I noticed some serious problems with my brand new computer. Copy and paste would not work at all, and more annoying than that, I could not drag (nor thusly drop) any items, on my desktop in finder, or in ay programs such as iTunes or Final Cut Express. They were just not responsive to my mouse. At first I didn't associate it at all with the remote (which worked to perfection and was now at the back of my mind with a brand new broken computer on my hands) but after doing a little google research I stumpled across a group of people claiming to have the sam problems as me, with a recurring trend - all had recently installed the Logitech Harmony software.
Frustrartion and Agravation
Perhaps, I thought, the problem would "fix itself" with a restart. Wishful thinking. After several unsuccessful attempts, I finally found someone online who knew what they were talking about, and after a complicated procedure involving my startup cd and disc utility, I was able to correct the problem.
I've only had the remote for a short while now, but it works perfectly, as I expected, and better. I don't know how I ever lived without it. For the remote I give it 5 stars. However the software really was an unwanted headache, even had me believing I'd have to deal with Apple customer service to replace my less than a day old iMac (which I had been waiting paitnetly but eagerly for for several weeks).
I can't speak for anyone running Windows, but for those of you running Mac OS X, be warned; I recomend finding access to a PC and running the software on that, because it is not worth the trouble you will go through on your cherrished Mac.
Of course, this could very well be a freak 1 in a 1000 situation, which in all likelyhood it is, and it should not discourage you from purchasing this remote. Just be smart, and if your computer does start acting all blewy on you, don't panic, because the problem can be fixed.