Logitech Harmony 670 Universal Remote
by Logitech
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Our Price: $159.99 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $50.00 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Logitech Harmony 670 Universal Remote
Customer Review: Security for these uncertain times
Summary: 4 Stars
The world economy is in turmoil, our leaders have failed us, and the future is a fog of uncertainty and fear.
So why am I so happy? Because I just got a Logitech Harmony 670 universal remote.
My set up includes a television, an AV receiver, a Mac Mini-based media computer and Sirius satellite radio. The 670 controls them all.
Setup wasn't too complex, though it did take me a few minutes to figure out how to properly set up the "activities", chains of actions the remote can execute to make, say, watching a dvd or listening to Sirius through my stereo a one-button operation.
I traded in my old Tivo for a Mac with DVR software (EyeTV 3), so the faux-Tivo peanut look appeals to me.
I give it four stars and not five just because the design could be slightly more elegant (there just seem to be too many buttons) and set up could be a bit more streamlined, but overall I'm quite pleased.
No, the 670 won't allow me to fix world markets, but at least I feel I'm in control of something.
Update 10/16/08 -- I would add a fifth star to this review now (if only I could figure out how) due to something that happened over the weekend. Like many couples, I'm the gadget obsessed nerd and my wife likes things that just work. The other night she came home late after a work-related shindig and I was already asleep. She had a few drinks in her and decided she wanted to watch a little teevee before bed. As she told me the next morning, in her sodden state she couldn't quite figure out how to use the remote to turn on individual components in the entertainment center, but had a vague memory that if she pressed the red button marked "watch tv" it would work. She pressed it. Nothing happened. Now I don't know if she was aiming it in a strange place or what, but all I could think was "this is where things start going to go badly for me", since I was the one who convinced her we should dump Tivo and set up a media center pc (and I could make it as easy to use as a Tivo). But the Logitech Harmony stepped up to save my reputation.. She noticed another button marked "Help". She pressed it, and a little message popped up on the backlit LCD screen. "Is the Television on?" it asked her. She pressed "no". Suddenly the teevee turned on. "Did that fix the problem?" the remote asked. She hit "yes" and watched her show. She was so excited telling me the story she was almost giddy. And now so am I.
Customer Review: Simplify Audio/Video/Home Theater Operation
Summary: 4 Stars
This thing really works! Shuffling remotes became a thing of the past for my wife and me, once I programmed the Harmony 670.
Quick Hits:
Pros: It works! Simple to use; programming covers all basic operations. Even a visitor in the house can now use our Audio/video system without my instructions or coaching.
Cons: Still have to customize it, programming additional buttons to command the receiver's advanced functions.
I simply followed the instructions provided in the accompanying software and website. It took two hours to gather and enter the information about our equipment:
Yamaha AV Receiver
Sony VCR
Toshiba DVD/CD player
Direct TV receiver
Sony TV
Most time consuming was mapping the systems connections, so as to tell the computer program which inputs and outputs should be used for each operation, such as "Listen to music" or "Watch TV."
Once all the information was entered, the computer programmed the remote in a few minutes, which I confirmed with a test in just a few minutes. Our first glitch showed up right away: You must turn off all equipment before starting to use the remote, otherwise it can't keep track of what's on and what's off. Since most of our equipment has powersaving modes, we never turn most of it off. That confused the remote; it turned off the Direct TV receiver while turning on the TV when we pushed the "Watch TV" button. Once we turned everything off and started over, everything was synchronized; now it is working as designed.
The original remotes, except for the Yamaha receiver, have now been put away; we just don't need them. Other multi-component remotes I've tried couldn't do this. Some didn't recognize some of our equipment; others could command only one unit at a time, requiring us to use a selector switch to first select the TV and turn it on, then select the Direct TV receiver to turn it on, then select the AV receiver to turn up the volume. On the Harmony 670, all that is done by clicking one button: "Watch TV."
We still need the Yamaha AV receiver remote to control advanced features such as surround mode, music processing mode, etc.; I just don't have the time now to teach the Harmony 670 all those details by manual programming. If it could be programmed by the computer database to do all that I'd give it a big "5" rating. We're keeping it and getting another Harmony Universal Remote for the upstairs system.
Customer Review: Bit of a disappointment
Summary: 4 Stars
This is my third Harmony remote and I have LOVED the other two (550 and Xbox 360) - this one is a bit of a disappointment. Admittedly it is especially configured for a DVR which I do not have, but one big drawback is that the other two have keys below the window so you can scroll forward and backward through the additional functions on the device. If there is a back, I have yet to find it because all I can see is a NEXT button.
Positive - it does control my Panasonic TV/VCR built in 1995 - the on/off button and gets me to watch TV.
Downside - Out of the box, I cannot program the VCR, set the sleep timer or on timer or really get into the TV menu system.
However, I'll be keeping it as it was a good price and I expect to be upgrading the TV soon.
Added December 13- I've changed my rating from a 3 to a 4 and hopefully what I've discovered will be informative to others
The most difficulty I had with the Harmony remote was in the TV Menu and the VCR Program - and the fact that the menu that you scroll through had a lot of items that were not in the Panasonic remote.
Then I discovered the Learn Option. You put the two remotes together and go through a menu items and click keys on the old remote and the new remote learns. However I still had some fine tuning as when I had it in learn mode the first time, I did 2 clicks on the wheel (just to make sure it was receiving). Well, that was a disaster because it did 2 clicks on the TV. The only way I could undo that was to "Custom Learn" and "Learn Raw".
There were a few buttons on the remote that did not have any functions assigned so I customized those to be the popular ones I used on the Panasonic remote (e.g. sleep timer and the ^ and v arrows to be select up and down).
I have already mentioned that the scroll menu only goes one way and the items were not in the normal programming cadence with the TV set so I removed all of the items I didn't want and moved things around so they were in an order that I liked.
After fiddling and much trial and error, I have it matching the Panasonic remote. And considering the TV is from 1995 and I have tried other universal remotes with it, that is saying quite a lot. Just be prepared if you have very old equipment that you may have to do some fiddling - and be patient.
Customer Review: Amazing universal rermote!
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm very happy with my Harmony 670! I have a DVR, so the grouping of buttons specific to DVR users was important to me. What's even better is that I finally have a TRUE universal remote, and the very first one I haven't had to return out of exasperation.
You can't go wrong with the Harmony line. Their customer service can't be beat, their products are amazing, and if you buy yours from Hi Def Lifestyle on Amazon Marketplace, you'll be paying way below retail! The 670 lists for $149, and that's essentially what it sells for unless you're lucky and find a sale price of around $135. But I got mine for $78 from Hi Def Lifestyle's shop in Amazon Marketplace, and the item arrived quickly, and brand new in a sealed package without a single problem to its name. I can't help but highly recommend both the Harmony 670 AND Hi Def Lifestyle!
All you need to do is enter the model #'s of the various electronics you'll be controlling (including such items as room fans and air conditioners), as well as which inputs they use for various functions (such as which input your TV uses to see the DVD player on, or which input shows you satellite tv), and before you know it, you'll be pusing one button for functions that used to take several remotes and a boatload of button pushing! I never dreamed that I'd consider paying more than $20 for a remote until I found out what the Harmony remotes can do, and how much grief they save you! For awhile, I kept all my old remotes out, fully expecting to need one or more of them to be able to watch tv or a DVD, but not once have I needed to pick up an old remote to get one of my electronics turned on. But now I've put away all my remotes and don't care to ever see them again. I won't even need them if the Harmony loses its programming! All I need to do is plug in the USB cable and voila! It's programmed properly again.
I had one small itemm of confusion when I first got my Harmony, and I called customer service, and I had mentioned something that I wanted to fix later, but didn't have time to fix with her right then. When I returned home later and plugged in my remote, the first thing I noticed was that the customer service rep had done it for me! What a sweetie! I wish I'd gotten her name!
I honestly do not believe you can go wrong with the Harmony line!
Customer Review: Nice remote but be careful who you order it from!
Summary: 5 Stars
While the Logitech Harmony 670 is an excellent universal remote and I'll write a full review on it later, this posting is a warning about the third tier Amazon vendor ANTOnline. Yes their prices are better than many but their customer support is a joke. Two weeks ago on Monday March 10th I ordered this remote as well as six AV cables from ANTOnline through Amazon. The only reason I didn't order direct from Amazon was that the Logitech Remote had a shipping estimate of 2 to 5 weeks but ANTOline had it as "in stock". Two days later on March 12th I logged in to my Amazon account to check the status of my order. It was gone. Vanished. Nowhere to be found. A short time later I received an email from Amazon informing me that my order had been cancelled. After two lengthy phone calls to Amazon customer support (now handled by an offshore call center by the way) all I could find out was that ANTOline had cancelled my order without explanation. My credit card was good, all the items were in stock but they cancelled it anyway. One of these call landed me at ANTOnline "customer support" which turned out to be nothing more than an answering service. "No we can't look up an order number, no we can't reinstate your order, we just answer phone for ANTOnline. And no they don't have a real contact phone number. They are an e-commerce site so you'll have to email them." Not a good sign. So I did email, asking "why did you cancel my order", noting that the turn around time for support emails was 24-48 hrs.
48 hours later no acknowledgement of my email, no answer, nothing. So mid day Friday I emailed them again. Still nothing. It must be noted here that shortly after I sent the first email I ordered only the remote from their dedicated site with expedited shipping, as I needed it to save me from 7 remote juggling hell. Luckily I did receive the remote on a timely basis. But at this point I've sent them three emails about the original order. Only the last one generated a system auto acknowledgement but not a single actual reply. So, unless you're a gambler, my advice is stay away from ANTOnline because if anything goes wrong you'll be out of luck and possibly money. The contact phone number on their website is just an answering service instructed to tell you to email support, which won't respond to your email. Nice.