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 when it works, but...
Summary: 3 Stars
I have used this remote for one and one-half years, and my experience has been good when everything works, but there have been several frustrations.
One frustration has been mentioned by many others, and that is the set-up is not as easy as the company would like you to believe. Navigation is not always intuitive on the web site or with their new interface. You will spend many hours getting a modest system tuned to your liking, and some of that time will be spent with a customer rep doing work-arounds for you. (I must give much credit to the reps; they know what they are doing and are very courtesous, and the phone gets answered quickly. But I never had much luck with e-mail help.) Wait until you've mastered the set-up task before doing much customization.
The database is not completely accurate (one of the workarounds the techs provide). One example that comes to mind is that the codes for Component 1 and Component 2 are reversed for my Samsung HDTV.
Reliability of the hardware (for the 676) has been terrible. I had to return the first one when the screen would go blank often. The buttons are never easy to operate, and you are never certain if they worked. After some time, several of the buttons required extreme pressure and multiple pushes, and as my warranty has expired I guess I'm out of luck. At $200 that's $11-12 per month, about the price of a Sirius or TiVo subscription! (Maybe I'll call Logitech to see if they'll replace it for me.)
On the positive side, I can get my wife and friends to operate my system with only a little introduction.
P.S. Last month (May 2007) I found I can disassemble the remote and clean the contacts with dry q-tips to get the buttons to work again.
Customer Review: If you are a geek obsessed with tweaking needless things, move on...
Summary: 5 Stars
...else, this is a FABULOUS remote. I have a home theater I used for TV on cable and satelite with a DVR, DVDs, radio and CDs. I have a Rotel AV receiver that has a ton of inputs and outputs. I have bought and returned about 5 remotes over the past two months, but this one is a keeper.
You see, I am a total geek. I love to waste my life away tweaking dumb little things that are really quite useless, but I find it fun. Well, with this remote I discovered that something that just works is a good thing. Sure, I WISH I could go nuts with this and program various macros (like a macro to switch between DTS and Dolby Pro Logic between DVD and TV...), but I don't NEED to do any of this! It is a sickness people!!! Please realize this when you read reviews where someone has their BVDs all in a bunch over "the inability to program macros for multiple tone settings based on the source component..." If you are one of those geeks, go ahead and get something else, but if you want the best out of the box up and running universal remote that everyone in your family can use without a training session, this is IT!
P.S. Any review who said the set up was lengthy must be a chipmunk or a humming bird. Even though I had to update firmware and the client (don't worry, it does it all for you), I was up and running with all my devices in about 15 minutes. Afterward I had one problem with the wrong TV input (though I had set it correctly), but the Help feature fixed it in about 15 seconds.
So yea, 10 - 15 minutes vs DAYS of programming a Home Theater Master or Sony AV-3000 only to still come up short in simplicity? Your choice, but I did my best to warn you. Trust me, geeks won't like this because it makes needing to be a geek obsolete!
Customer Review: Harmony 676 remote is outstanding as is the Logitech customer service
Summary: 5 Stars
I am sold on the Logitech Harmony 676 remote control. The 676 works as advertised in totally simplifying using my Comcast DVR, LG DVD, Fisher VCR and Hitachi Plazma set. It is amazing that I can do everything with one remote vs. the old 4. The internet set up is easy but you may have initial set up problems depending on the complexity of your configuration. My Hitachi set has a very screwy 4 button access to various inputs. Once you select the input using one of 4 unique buttons (video, PC, NTSC, DTV) you then toggle through another layer of selections to get to your final set up (i.e. DVI for DVD or YPbCb for Hi Def). Using the internet to set up my remote was easy. However, using the standard set up the remote could not automatically toggle to the correct input to give me the one button access I wanted. So I called customer service. I am even more excited to report that Logitech's support was fantastic. It took about two hours on the phone with a "Real Customer Service Person" that helped diagnose the input uniqueness of my Hitachi set. The customer service person escallated my call to a supervisor who made suggested changes, then sent my problem to a programmer who (GET THIS!) programmed the commands online while I waited, updated my internet site configuration and waited while I downloaded the unique fix to my remote. The Logitech customer service person would not get off the phone until we tested it together, and made sure that my remote was a true "1 Button" set up as advertised. Yes it took a long time, but it was a tricky set up in order to automate 100% of my configuration. If your looking for a remote to do it all...this is the one and it has a great service department behind it to make sure you are satisfied!Customer Review: Excellent mid-level remote
Summary: 5 Stars
I read some reviews talking about how "confusing" or "illogical" the web/desktop software was when it came to setting up the remote. I strongly disagree -- I found it very easy to use, I didn't even have to read the manual. Plus, they give you a choice of walking through the setup in three modes: novice, moderately competent, or expert, depending on your knowledge of your home theater system. It doesn't get much easier than that!
The quality of the remote is excellent, and the hard buttons are much handier than an LCD touch-screen type of remote. When you're watching a movie and the room is dark, you can just feel your way across the remote, where as with an LCD, you have to light it up and hunt for your button on a screen.
This is NOT a "punch in your codes and you're ready to go" $15 wal-mart remote. In fact, I'd say that if you don't have a home theater system with 3 or more components, you don't even need something as complex as a Harmony. But, with a little time spent in setup (it took me right about an hour), you can control every aspect of your home theater system just as good as any $300 to $400 LCD touch screen remote, or just as good as using the 5 or 6 remotes you have that came with your components!
Highly reccomended to families with children or frequent guests. I can't imagine what else you would need in a remote -- this will do it all for you.
*And if you haven't already read it somewhere: if you buy this remote, don't bother installing the software from the CD! Just go online and download the new version. It will make you do that anyway, and you'll save yourself the time and the aggrivation of having to install/uninstall the old version on your computer.
Customer Review: The perfect choice for ANY size home theater
Summary: 5 Stars
This is my third Harmony remote, and just like its predecessors (all of which are still in use in other rooms and functioning perfectly, by the way) it failed to disappoint. There simply is no better universal remote solution for the money. The power offered by all the Harmony remotes is difficult to match in even a lot of the high-end products that cost thousands of dollars.
Universal Remote? Pronto? Sony? All "feh" compared to the Harmony, in my opinion: I like a lot of hard buttons, rather than a touch screen, and I shouldn't have to spend hours trying to decode arcane setup programs. Harmony's web interface works well, and it's also perfectly cross-platform for us Mac users.
These remotes are simple and effective, and make setup a breeze. As previous reviewers have stated, the wizards can get a little old for power users, or for anyone as they're putting the finishing touches on a configuration. However, I look at it this way: if I put a couple of hours into the initial setup, I'll never have to touch it again unless I replace a component or get something new. I hate redundancy even more than the next guy, but the tradeoff of answering the same question multiple times for incredibly straightforward setup is a no-brainer.
So, in conclusion: if you are looking for a really good universal remote to control your home theater, living room, entertainment center, or anywhere else where you have more than a few components interconnected, you should look no further. In fact, the only reason you shouldn't buy this remote is if you prefer the button layout of any of Harmony's other models (what each was designed for is definitely something to consider before you buy). Harmony remotes ROCK!