Logitech Harmony 676 Universal Remote Control
by Logitech
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Logitech Harmony 676 Universal Remote Control
Customer Review: Good news - it works. Bad news - Updating is cumbersome
Summary: 4 Stars
I'm still on my first set of batteries after several months, so that's a bonus - and that's even with all buttons turning on the backlight for the longest time available.
No remote is perfect and even if you think it is, you are probably in the vast minority for any given model. I have a fairly complex setup, and I couldn't find any remote that could macro-run a setup for Movies, TV, or Tivo when that involves a fairly complex TV remote, a receiver for the DVD, etc... Of course everything is a different model and the TV has 5 dedicated buttons for each video input and 2 more for the 2 antenna inputs!
Okay, so this thing works and by itself that gets me to a 3 since nothing much cheaper will get you there (I've tried). It get's to 3.5 because of the quality of construction and - if I'm being honest, and sadly that's a big if - ease of INITIAL setup.
Yeah, the USB setup and configuration is nice and fairly straightforward for the initial setup. In fact, everything worked pretty much after that first setup when I knew literally nothing about what I was doing. Strangely, the model I had needed several updates, so that took some time, but nothing worrisome.
The keys should all be like the center "OK" button inside the 4-way switch, as the glossy finish gives your finger some traction and a great tactile feedback. Not every button needs the tactile feedback, but they should all have the traction!
Changing anything or doing any Power-user engineering setup is tedious, time-consuming, and not straightforward. Logitech, if you are listening, PLEASE make a local client that can download or check the database in real-time. Waiting for the internet setup is like watching your wife walk into the shower 3 minutes before you have to go knowing it will be 30 before she's dressed and has her hair done. They NEED a power-user interface and to allow a user to select between it and the wizards.
I'm rounding up to 4 because it's logitech and it does a great job of accomplishing it's purpose in life. I wish the bottom half wasn't "fat" and that it was about an inch longer (a common lament, I'm sure) so it would fit in the hand a bit better. The Media button should be programmable (Tivo Button anyone?!) and the downloadable TV Schedule thing doesn't seem to work right (at least for me). But it was a neat feature to see where I could browse my remote for current tv listings! I don't think it's user error on this one... seems buggy. Given the number of updates I had to go through, I expect it will be fixed.
Customer Review: Simply Awesome
Summary: 5 Stars
I have a very complicated A/V system, with 9 devices in it - includinga Mac Mini. The web site knew most of them completely - includingcommands that weren't on the manufacturers remote but the devicesunderstand. I had to train it on a few commands, and one completedevice (the Apple Remote for the Mac). That was a little bit more timeconsuming than other learning remotes, but not bad in total.The one thing to understand is that this is an *activity* orientedremote. If you treat it like a conventional device oriented remote,you'll be unhappy with it, because accessing commands via the devicesis clumsy. You'll also be missing the best feature of this remote: theactivities.The device configurations are all well and good, but you shouldn't beusing them very often. If you find yourself hitting the device buttonto get to some command a lot, reconfigure the activities you use it onto add that command to those activities. You get *three* completeremote configurations for each activity: the main one, which cancontrol everything, one to control the device that displays thepicture, and one to control the device(s) that play sound. While ittakes some imagination, I can usually find a way to get a command intoan activity.For instance, I like to pause a movie or tv show to check imdb ortv.com for information on it (usually something like "Where have Iseen them before?"). To do that, I pause the show, switch the TV tothe Mac input, and then use the Mac to hit the web. All my activitieswith picture output now have buttons to switch the TV input to the macand then back to their proper input, just to help satisfy this quirkof mine.The one downside is that the configurations are shared in some strangeway, and can create confusing results. For instance, I like to use theTV "Display" command from the DVD, so I assigned it to an unusedbutton. It showed up on the PVR activity, where the button issued boththe TV and the PVR command. I called tech support, and they had memove it to the Picture configuration. This works fine with the DVDactivity, but is slightly more work. It doesn't interfere with the PVRactivity, but if I forget that I'm in Picture configuration, I'll getboth buttons again. On the other hand, setting the same function onthe Mac activity worked with no problems.All in all, it's simply awesome. Configuration is usually straightforward, tech support has always solved the problem, or provided awork around. The web configuration seems a little convoluted, butmakes very complicated things much easier. The activity orientationis simply wonderful, once you "get" it.Customer Review: Outstanding product and customer service
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this remote 11 months ago. It is everything everyone mentions and more! I had bought some of the cheap universal remotes and they died quickly, were a pain to set up, and never had quite enough buttons for the features I needed. I took the plunge into the higher price range and haven't regretted it. In fact I'm trying to justify getting a few more entertainment system items in my other room just to buy another remote, pathetic I know.
This past week the LCD screen stopped working. The light works, but no text. I called up tech support and got through in no time. I spoke to a great customer service rep who was very quick and helpful. He recommended a firmware and software upgrade and also let me know that I had about 30 days left while it was still under warranty and that if that didn't work I should call back and they'd replace it. Skeptical, I upgraded everything and it still didn't work. I called back today and they are going to send me a new one. Unfortunately they no longer sell this model so they're sending the 670 which looks almost identical but the DVR buttons have been flopped with the ffwd, rec, etc buttons. Hopefully it will be just as good.
Pros
- Excellent customer service reps and no hassle replacement
- Everything handled online so customer service knows software, firmware, OS information and you don't have to bother supplying all that info
- rugged, dropped on a wood floor many times with no issues. No, a drop didn't cause the problem I encountered.
- rubber buttons, easy to use
- Incredibly easy to program
- Makes turning on any combination of options a one touch operation and no additional buttons need to be pushed to control the different components. On most remotes you have to constantly push Receiver, DVD, and TV buttons when watching movies and trying to adjust volume or skip
- built in help is incredibly easy to use and always solves the problem from the comfort of your couch
Cons
- number buttons on the bottom of the remote make it a bit difficult to hold in one hand and hit the numbers. Takes some getting used to.
- Center select button ring can sometimes go in the wrong direction if not hit perfectly. minor gripe
Bottom line is you can't go wrong if you're using this with your system and a DVR. I am tired of watching my parents and in-laws tape their remotes together so I think they will each be getting one of these for Christmas.
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Customer Review: Close to Perfection
Summary: 4 Stars
I just received my new Harmony 676 remote control today, and I am impressed.
Set-up:
It was relatively simple, with the directions being straight-forward and the whole process taking just over an hour to complete. Although Harmony says set-up is around 30 minutes, you will need extra time to work out the kinks, and add more activities (if you need them.)The only kink I haven't been able to fix yet is my Panasonic HTIB, is having trouble switching to AUX for watching TV etc., it stops at Front Music Player, which the original remote, had you press twice to get to Aux. Thanks for the music port Panasonic! However, I'm going to call support tomorrow, since from what I hear, they are very helpful.
I added activities for:
1.)TV
2.)DVD/Surround Sound
3.)CDs and Radio
4.)Xbox 360 (works flawlessly)
5.)PS2 (need DVD remote to program, at least thats what I think it told me, but you can set inputs and surround sound)
6.)Wii (not compatible due to bluetooth, can only set inputs and surround sound)
7.)Computer (need to create a generic activity, then change name. I think they should have a preset activity for using TV as monitor by now.)
Ergonomics:
Very well-built remote with soft silicon keypads and high-quality rubber (reminds me of VW dashboards) which covers everything else. Button placement is good, but the numerical keypads I find are a tad too small and low for channel surfing. There are also finger holds on the bottom, which hold your hand in an ideal position for using the multi-direction fob, but nothing really below it.
Oh yeah, and those removable faceplates are very high-quality as well. The grey matches my wireless Logitech keyboard and mouse, but as we speak, I am rocking the burnt red (just in case you were interested...)
Conclusion:
It's not perfect, but pretty darn close.
Go buy one, and free yourself from the traffic jam that is your coffee table full of remotes!
Update 8/8/07:
Fixed Aux problem myself after going through menus, and input to Rear instead of Aux. Support was pretty useless on the phone, they dragged me through a 1/2 hr. of the usual tech support idiot-checks then said they were forwarding to lvl. 2 support. After listening to an hour of classical music on speaker phone, I hung up. This support might be atypical, but I just want others to know.
Customer Review: Great Remote...almost 5 stars
Summary: 4 Stars
I just bought the harmony 676 last week and so far it is a great remote...The reason why I bought this remote was to eliminate the tedious task of hitting mulitple buttons on multiple remotes to change the different products I use as part of my entertainment unit. Just to give you an idea, if I want to watch t.v, the remote will do the following when pressing the tv button: Turn the t.v on, change the tv input to cable, turn on the home theatre, change the home theater to DBS, change the TV display mode to Widescreen, and turn on the Cable Box. If I decide to play xbox 360, all I have to do is hit that button and it: turns off the cable box, turns on the 360, changes the tv input to xbox, change the home theater input to xbox. All in all, it is doing multiple steps at once in a short period of time.
The remote is also great because it will perform my cable box functions, but also be smart enough to change the volume on the home theater system when I use the volume buttons. The only downside I have found is that the LCD screen contains the other buttons that are not assigned to the remote (you hit next to cycle through). I use page up and page down buttons for the cable on screen guide which is not an assigned button to the remote. For me to use this, I have to choose the device button, choose the cable box and use page up and down off the lcd screen. This is not a big deal, but now that I hit device button, the remote thinks all I want to do is control that device (cable box). So hitting volume button would now try to change the volume button on the cable box. So far, I have not found a way to cancel the device mode once I hit the device button. This is truly the only complaint I have with the remote.
Setup was easy enough, typing in model numbers into the pc. Only other thing I could of asked for was to make minor config changes on the remote instead of connecting to the pc everytime.
All in all I am very happy with this remote. I like the layout of the 676 and the only buttons I miss are my page up and down on for the cable. However, the software does allow you to re-assign buttons, so I need to play around with that and try to move page up/down to the remote instead of lcd. I definitely reccomend this remote.