Logitech Harmony One Universal Remote with Color Touch Screen
by Logitech
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Logitech Harmony One Universal Remote with Color Touch Screen
Customer Review: Expensive but the best I've ever had.
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this device after much on-line research but the deciding factor was that I had need of a remote that could replace my Onkyo receiver's remote - which broke within a month of my using it and would have cost more to replace than buying the Harmony One. When I tried to wait for a price drop on the Onkyo it just became harder and then impossible to find so ...
There are plenty of other reviews here that will answer questions about comparisons to other remote's including Logitech, reliability, what to do for every situation etc. but I will only address the things that make me feel I got my money's worth.
As I already mentioned the overriding factor was the inability of any other remote control to cover for my Onkyo. This is important as many other universal's would do the job just as nicely as the Harmony One and at a significant cost savings but could not replace an Onkyo. I paid $149 for my Harmony One new and with Amazon's excellent free shipping - it came within a week (credit where credit is due). This is the best price I have seen it for the many months I have been watching and I personally believe that paying over $200 would be too much.
The Harmony One unfortunately seems to be marketed with snob appeal in mind. Many of my friends could not believe I would pay such an outrageous sum for a remote. However, it delivers pretty much everything as promised.
The touchscreen is nice and wonderful to look at but as most people would guess not really necessary. The backlit buttons are both very convenient and readable which I think is a necessity. They also turn off after a short period so as not to be a distraction or drain the battery. To get everything back you just give it a little shake to wake it up.
Mine came with a Lithium ion battery which I consider a big plus. And as others have pointed out the remote recharges by putting it back in it's cradle.
The on-line configuration using my computer was simple and straightforward. It took some guessing about how to configure the Harmony to list more than one TV remote but it is nothing more than a normally intelligent adult could handle.
The buttons include a "Menu", "Info" and "Exit" button just like my Comcast remote which makes using Comcast's labryinthine TV Listing at least as easy with the Harmony One as using the Comcast remote itself. The "Menu" button also functions for other devices that use one like my TV. It appears a lot of consideration went into what to put in this device and how to arrange it to be most universal.
The programmable "Activities" button is a great idea for starting/configuring mulitple systems for something like say watching a DVD. In actual use I have found it to be less than a one touch affair. It may be due to the fact that the IR receiver on my 60" Sony and the other IR receivers on the DVD and amplifier are separated by a good 8 ft. I discovered early on that for whatever reason I could not get all 3 devices to turn on and configure simultaneously. In fact at first nothing turned on. However, Logitech has programmed their device so that if you don't get a response on the first attempt you simply press the Help button and then it trys again and asks if everything came on. If you answer "no" it moves on to ask you "Did your TV turn on ?", and for each "no" answer to a device question it reissues the signal until all of your equipment is up and running. This, of course, defeats the purpose of having a one touch Activity but I point it out since the recovery is fairly painless and never failed to work. In the beginning it seemed that I could never get the Activity button to start ANY of my choices - watch DVD, play music - and have it succeed. With time and paying attention to the device placement either I or the Harmony began to learn and now I get about a 60% hit rate without having to resort to "one by one" method. I know for sure that if I'm sloppy about how I hold and point the remote I can expect more failure than success but again some of it may be due to the wide dispersement of my equipment.
Configuring and using the Harmony are pretty much as easy and useful as most other's have mentioned in more detail. And as far as configuring, the list of devices to chose from on the Harmony website is phenomenally large. I didn't see any VCR systems in the list anywhere but I wouldn't be surprised if they had them. I did not attempt to use the "learn from another remote" procedure because all of my devices were in the Logithech listings but I think of that as a plus for Logitech attempting to be comprehensive.
Overall I am pleased with my purchase and though I believe it would normally be overpriced for a remote control, it covered my very particular needs and then some.
Customer Review: Remote is great, desktop software could use improvement
Summary: 5 Stars
In summary, the remote and hardware is great, the desktop configuration software is passable but annoying sometimes.
The Harmony One hardware is fantastic. The remote is well balanced, the buttons are well placed, and it are easy to distinguish by feel alone. I don't particularly like touch-screens, but it is possible to assign the vast majority of the functions to physical buttons and minimize touchscreen usage. The touchscreen itself is plenty bright, the keys are all backlit, and the remote is motion sensitive to trigger both of those features. Personally, I would prefer physical buttons even there (I upgraded from a Harmony 550, more on that later, so I was used to having them). The charging cradle is nice, and it has the nice ability to tune how bright the charger's LED is (High, low, off).
The Logitech desktop software needs a serious refresh. First of all, it has trouble working on MacOSX. Sometimes it comes up, and sometimes it just gives a blank screen. Sometimes the text fields don't work, and it's often slow. Luckily, I also have a Windows box, and it works better there, but is still clunky. They use a "wizard" motif throughout the whole setup process, which is OK, but necessitates You have to create a login to store your remote's data and configuration. The login is only able to handle one remote at a time, so if you buy another Harmony remote, you're given two choices:
1. Replace your old remote with the new one. You will be unable to update the old remote anymore if you need to change configuration (add/replace a component, reconfigure a button, etc). You may also need to re-do some customizations.
2. Create a new login and configure everything from scratch.
I tried doing the latter, but was frustrated and ended up doing the former.
In the software, your first step is to add your components. Most components are already in their database, but you can set it up to learn new IR codes from unknown components. Once you get your components added to the system, the software does a pretty good job of self configuration and setting up logical "Activities" for your components. E.g. mine automatically set up activities for Watch TV, Watch DVD, Play Music, Play Video Games, Show Computer, and Listen to Radio. The most annoying thing is to customize the "additional" buttons on the touchscreen. Moving around those custom buttons is quite tedious and requires many, many clicks of the mouse to get them correct. It would be much nicer if they had a "drag and drop" interface there. For example, in my "Watch a DVD" activity, it had buttons for Disk 1, Disk 2, ..., Disk 5, but my DVD player is a single disk model. Those buttons took up space, but removing them required individually clicking on each button, hitting the delete key, and then manually moving each lower button into the vacated spaces. For those of you familiar with computer science, it's like manually doing a bubble sort.
Once you have everything configured, the remote itself works great, and the activities really work well. I control my TiVo, HDTV, DVD, receiver, and Mac with it and it works nicely. For components that don't have IR remotes (like my Wii), it will set up the activities but not control them. One other minor niggle about the remote itself is that it's not quite as responsive as the native TiVo remote. TiVo's remotes are noted for their quick response and the Harmony One just doesn't send the IR codes as quickly. In the rare instances when I'm trying to enter more than a few words of text on the TiVo, I consider getting out the native remote.
With this activity-oriented setup, sometimes the remote and the components get out of sync (e.g. if someone manually turns off the receiver). Logitech has an on-remote "help" button that will step through possible problems and get things set up again. This is quite useful, and it even works with the thoughtful, global "turn everything off" button at the top of the remote. A related minor niggle with the whole setup is that it's unable to gracefully handle components with a "sleep" mode (i.e. a timed auto-power off) unless you later use the "help" feature to recover. I would suggest to Logitech that they implement a timer feature on the remote itself for it to send the "off" codes after a delay. The touchscreen displays a clock, albeit one that does not keep good time, so it would be possible to implement such a feature.
All in all, this is an excellent remote that is slightly hampered by somewhat annoying desktop configuration software. Luckily, once you get everything set up, it works great and you won't need to reconfigure things with any frequency.
Customer Review: Might be more than I needed, but still awesome
Summary: 4 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
UPDATE!!!
I dedicated an additional hour to the set-up of the remote - and I worked out all of the "glitches" in the remote. As I thought the problems were all operator related. In fact, I am amazed at how much power Logitech has built into the remote. With the extra time I devoted, I was able to tailor the Harmony All-in-one to my specific needs.
Final Score:
5 stars for functionality
4 stars for ease of set-up (while they made the set-up as easy as possible -it is still beyond the abilities of the technologically inept). It is more difficult to program than an old-school type of VCR.
My adventures with the Harmony all-in-one remote has left amazed at the power of the device and curious if it is more than I actually need. I have two rooms in my hours that I use "multiple remotes". First I tried by living room.
In my living room we have:
- A Tv
- A Tivo
- An Apple Tv.
- Total remotes needed for my day-to-day operation - TWO
While the Logitech Harmony was able to integrate my TV with Tivo (however my Tivo remote does the same thing). However, I had mixed results controlling the Apple TV- my gut feeling is that I did something wrong during the set-up. Regardless, I knew that using this high-powered remote to control only three devices was a complete waste.
Next I decided to use the remote in our Media Room where we have:
- A Tv (10 years old)
- A Tivo (3 years old)
- An Onkyo amplifier/receiver (relatively new)
- A DVD recorder (Relatively new)
- A DVD Player (5 years old)
- VCR (Also 10 years old)
- Total remotes... many (one for each). Total number that are used with any frequency Three.
Again, I was able to get each device programmed into the remote. Previously, my Tivo remote would power on the TV, change channels and adjust the volume on the Onkyo receiver (Although it would not turn the Onkyo on or off). I would need separate remotes to change the settings on the Onkyo (such as selecting the audio source as "DVD"), and for each of the peripheral devices (DVD players and VCR). It was a bit of a hassle to fumble for the DVD remote when I wanted to watch a movie, but for 90% of my TV viewing the Tivo remote worked great.
The Logitech All-in-one remote seems to have solved many of the problems, but I still have some glitches. Again, I am associating most of the glitches with my ability to set-up the remote. For example, when I press "Watch Videos" the remote powers up the TV, DVD player, and the Onkyo but it does not select the correct audio source for the receiver... again there is probably a way to fix this in the set-up... but I have yet to find it.
Speaking of set-up, it really is not too hard to do the basics. You install the software and (IF the program asks if you are setting up a Harmony 1000 remote make sure to select NO... this is a long story, but it will end with you contacting the very friendly Logitech support personnel). Next you select the devices that you want to control, and the program asks you a few simple questions. For many people I suspect that this is as far as they will need to go. Logitech gives you the ability to customize the remote to help make it more "harmonic" with your entertainment system. The settings are powerful, but are not necessarily basic and it will take time for you to get everything "just right" as I am finding.
The remote itself is a marvel. Really it is something to see. The buttons all seem to have been designed for your system and your system only. In fact, I find some of the button placements better than the Tivo remote that came with the Tivo! Logitech has also incorporated a very nice touch screen to help you navigate through windows. These windows greatly help to simplify the remotes abilities to control your media devices. Again this is a very impressive piece of engineering.
Another impressive feature is the rechargeable battery pack and charging station. The charge holds for several days of usage, and the charging station is designed to look attractive.
Final thoughts - this is a great remote that will take time for me to master. I also get the feeling that it is much more than I need. My recommendation - if you have a very modern entertainment system that uses many brands of multiple remotes... this is very likely your answer.
Customer Review: Fantastic Remote: Simple to Program, Even Easier to Use!
Summary: 5 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
A year ago, I purchased the Logitech Harmony 880 Advanced Universal Remote Control and have liked it so much that I had determined to buy a second remote this year in order to have one upstairs and one downstairs. Although both the Harmony 880 and the new Harmony One each control many devices (I currently have 14 devices configured on each), it became tiresome to have to go to a different floor of the house to grab the remote for the other level. Then Amazon Vine received the Harmony One remote from Logitech for review, and I was thrilled to be able to review it.
The Harmony 880 and the Harmony One are very similar in functionality and programming. Both are programmed using a USB interface to your PC and the Logitech Harmony Remote Software. Both can handle multiple devices with considerable ease, allowing for most users to configure every remote-controlled device in their home. Both remotes can `learn' from the original remote if you are not able to configure a device using the model number. Both of these remotes enjoy a rechargeable dock.
Where the significant improvements are in the Harmony One over the Harmony 880 are the feel of the device in the hand, the improved backlit hard buttons that are easy to see in the dark, and a dock that cradles the remote much better (making it more difficult for your cat to knock the remote out of the dock! LOL). Also, with significant spaces between buttons on the Harmony One, it is easier to feel your way around the remote without looking.
If you are replacing an older Harmony remote, the Logitech Harmony software offers the opportunity to `replace' the currently configured device with the newer device, transferring your device setup for all the TVs, VCRs, DVRs, etc. to the new remote with little effort. As I did not want to replace, but add a new remote, I didn't use this function myself.
For those of us who are adding a new remote, I was a bit disappointed in the Harmony Remote software. You cannot have multiple remotes under one Logitech account. Instead, you must set up a separate ID for each remote. Many people use the same ID for most computer programs and online sites requiring one, and this requirement may cause some trouble for us in the future. I can easily imagine that the next time I need to program this remote I may have forgotten the ID I used to set it up with. While I keep pretty good track of my IDs and passwords, it will be hard to remember a year from now that I had to use a non-standard ID for this one. I would like to see the software revised to allow for multiple remotes in one account, and the ability to copy configurations from one to another.
On the bright side, the software really does make it easy to configure your televisions, Tivos, DVD players and more. If you have the model number of that device, this is the simplest method of configuring it, and with an extensive database of model numbers - including some very old tvs and the like (judging by my own setup), it is a pretty sure-fire way to set up your Harmony One Remote quickly and easily.
Of course, there are times when you simply cannot find the model number for a device. My bedroom television does not have a model number anywhere that I can find it. So, I used the `learn' function on the Harmony One Remote to teach the Logitech device the correct codes, using my original remote from the television. Even if you haven't the original remote, the remotes are still easy to configure using the brand name and the device type (i.e. Sharp TV) in the Harmony software.
Programming custom buttons for devices is very easy. I like to control the volume on my television while the remote is in Tivo mode, so I simply used the TV remote to program the volume buttons on the Harmony One Remote for the specific TV I will use. This procedure is as simple as lining up the two remotes and clicking the button you are configuring, then letting the Logitech software do its magic!
So far, I have configured a variety of devices with this remote easily: TVs, TiVos, DVD players, VCR, Cable Boxes, and an A/V receiver. None were problematic, and all work very well. I highly recommend the Harmony One Remote for anyone who wants to combine all their remotes to one and prefers ease of configuring. Oh, and it looks pretty sharp, too. Especially with my own photographs downloaded to run a pretty screensaver!
Customer Review: At Last...an All-in-One Remote That Works Beyond My Expectations
Summary: 5 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
This all-in-one remote control really knocks me out, although I have to admit it took me a while to install all the devices into it properly. However, even before facing that daunting task, the first thing that struck me was its state-of-the-art ergonomic design. It's a beautifully thoughtful remote, very light and easy to handle with one hand. The second impressive aspect is the 2.2-inch full-color touch-screen, in which you have at your command all the media activities in your home theater, whether it's watching TV, watching a DVD, listening to a CD, or playing a game. The degree of activity customization on the remote is quite impressive, and you can apparently incorporate the functionality of up to fifteen remotes. Luckily, I only have four, so the capabilities are more than enough to meet my personal needs.
The layout of the buttons below the touch-screen is intuitive, no accident since Logitech apparently spent six months figuring out the optimal pattern to locate the keys based on extensive usability testing. I can acknowledge that after nearly a month of constant use, I don't even need to look at the remote anymore to know which keys I'm hitting. There are three discrete sections to the remote. On the bottom are the manual channel entry keys where they are just out of the way enough, ideal for me given that I infrequently use a keypad to access channels. I am used to my onscreen programming guide to allow me the flexibility of surfing.
The center section is where you find the record, play/pause and other DVR-related keys. They get the most frequent use when I play a DVD or CD. The keys are the easiest to navigate, and the record button is fortunately recessed so that I don't hit it accidentally. Right above these buttons are the keys for volume control, the channel up/down button, and right in the middle, the navigation D-pad for surfing the programming guide and the menus on the components. Just above that is the page up/down function critical when I need to scroll the guide quickly, as well as the keys for the onscreen Guide, Exit, Menu and Info. This is the area where my fingers get their most intensive workout.
Because there is so much functionality being coordinated, the set-up can be a bit laborious, although it seems a small price to pay in hindsight. To be best prepared, you need to make note of the model numbers of your devices, and if it doesn't exist in Logitech's sizable online database, you have to manually place it close to the remote while it's plugged into your PC with the USB cable provided. My TV is a bit old, a conventional Sony KV32V42 set, so it required some guesswork on my part as to which model it most resembled in their database. The rest was much easier to plug in since both my AV Receiver and DVD Player are newer Sony models, and my Digital Set Top Box is pretty standard in my neighborhood, a Motorola DCT-2000 provided by Comcast.
The one slight annoyance is sometimes the oversensitivity of the remote when I aim it at my devices for my desired activity. I notice that I may find myself out-of-sync where only two of the three devices are on, even though I have executed the command correctly. This happens most with the TV settings perhaps because of the advanced age of my set. What I find particularly helpful about the remote is that when I face such a problem, I can either hit the help button right below the touch screen on the remote, or use the help menu displays on the touch screen. There I am asked simple questions to get my activity working correctly. The questions include basics such as whether the TV is on, the AV receiver is on, and so forth. I simply hit "no" until the input is correct and then hit the "yes" button when everything is operating the correct way.
From a convenience standpoint, I really like how the buttons are backlit, and of course, I can see the touch screen in the dark. Batteries are not needed since recharging of the remote is done by leaving it in a charging cradle when not in use. The cradle is backlit as well in case I forget whether the power is on or not. I really can't say enough good things about this remote. Because I can be as much of a technophobe as the next consumer, the set-up was intimidating initially, but once I recognized the flexibility in programming and switching activities, I felt I was able to reap the dividends immediately. The Logitech Harmony One Universal Remote makes me feel I have easy and direct access to a consolidated home theater.