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Which Logitech Harmony?

S

spice weasel

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jul 25, 2003
1,255
9
I'm getting tired of having to juggle my five remotes and am thinking of picking up a Harmony. I don't want to spend a ton of money, but want to get a good model that will suit my needs. My current setup consists of:

- a Toshiba LCD HDTV
- a Sony DVD player
- a Yamaha receiver
- a Comcast/Motorola DVR
- an Apple TV

I'm tech savvy and don't mind getting geeky with my stuff to get it tweaked properly. My girlfriend, on the other hand, is decidedly not. She would need something pretty simple to operate.

Suggestions? Thanks.
 
The Harmony 880 and the Harmony One are my two recommendations. Both have a color screen and are great remotes. The Harmony One has a little nicer screen and is touch screen. In my house I have a Harmony 550 two 880s and am buying a Harmony One soon.
 
I have a Logitech 560 (or is it 580?) that works just fine. There's actually a setup for the :apple:TV now; you don't have to trick it into believing it's talking to a MiniMac anymore
 
The Harmony 550 works well for me and can be found for a very good price (less than $50) if you look around. You give up the color display and WOW factor, but the functionality is there.
 
lharvest said:
The Harmony 550 works well for me and can be found for a very good price (less than $50) if you look around. You give up the color display and WOW factor, but the functionality is there.
Click to expand...

The 550 is a great remote if you don't want the color display. All the same features and works great. I've had it for about 2.5 years now and the motion sensor is broken, but thats the only downside.
 
Ditto - 550

Ditto on the 550. It even worked on a little magnavox dvd player I got from my grandmother as a random gift.
 
Thanks for all the input. I'm leaning towards the 880, only because it is on sale at Amazon for $80. How long do they take to set up?
 
I think all the Harmony remotes are great. Which one you get shouldn't so much depend on the buttons, or even the screen, necessarily, but on your entertainment setup and the level of convenience you're after.

If you just want a very functional, programmable remote that works well with Apple TV, then the Harmony 670 is a good choice with specified buttons for everything you'd want to use it for (TV/DVR, DVD, Music and "Other" [Apple TV]) plus a customizeable monochrome LCD display.

A step up to the 880 gets you a rechargable battery with charger, a larger screen for more customization if you get more devices (not really necessary in your case), plus it's color (not that big of a deal, really).

A step up to the 890 gets you RF capabilities which means your equipment can be hidden behind a wall or behind solid cabinet doors and you'll still be able to control it all, plus you have the capability for home automation with Z-Wave.

The 1000 gets a humungo touch screen, though I wouldn't recommend it as it's nice to have more physical buttons for things like changing channels or navigating content.

The One gets you a big touch screen and style, but it lacks RF capabilities.

I'd be tempted to recommend the 670 over the 880 if you don't need RF, but the current closeness in price makes the 880 a great buy!

The only thing I'd recommend for consideration is whether or not you'd want RF capabilities, in which case I'd recommend the 890.

The 890 is actually the remote I own, and I love it! I have my LCD TV wall-mounted, then all my AV equipment in the storage closet behind the wall. It's very clean looking and keeps my baby daugters from getting into the equipment!

Incidentally, I recently had my 890 replaced under warranty (the screen went out, but Logitech hardware support is a dream to work with [America-based, 1 minute hold times, no run around on getting a replacement out]). They don't just send out the remote, however, they send a whole new package, so if anyone needs a Harmony RF receiver, I have a spare I can sell for cheap (they retail for about $90)!
 
spice weasel said:
Thanks for all the input. I'm leaning towards the 880, only because it is on sale at Amazon for $80. How long do they take to set up?
Click to expand...

The 880 is a great remote! The buttons are laid out nicely, and have great feedback. My problem is the screen. It just plain sucks. Think back to the first color screen on a cell phone, and that's the one you get in the 880/890. Great remote. Terrible color screen.
 
chadamorrill said:
The 880 is a great remote! The buttons are laid out nicely, and have great feedback.
Click to expand...

Actually, one of the biggest problems with the 880 is its button layout. I've had an 880 for a couple of years now and, on the whole, have been very pleased. However, the key layout is pretty bad. If you do some research you'll find that this is a pretty common complaint.

I just received a One and expect it to be a big improvement (haven't had a chance to set it up yet).
 
I have the 670, because it said it was designed specifically with a DVR in mind. I have no complaints with it. I have it working with my Samsung LCD, Sony Receiver, Apple TV, and PS3.
 
Capt Crunch said:
+1. I can't justify spending up to 4x more for something that adds no functionality.
Click to expand...

For awhile, the 880 was about as cheap as the 550 on Amazon!

I think what you get with the 880 is more room for activity/custom action customization (you have 8 activity buttons instead of 4), you have a rechargable battery with a charger, and I suspect that the 550 doesn't automatically light up when you move it like the 880 does.

That said, I'd pick the 550 or similar (670) over the 880 if the choice came down to those two and I didn't have more than four "activities" to worry about (e.g. 1. Watch TV, 2. Watch DVD, 3. Watch Apple TV, 4. Play Stereo).

I ended up getting the 890 (which is the 880+ RF capabilities) just because I needed RF for my situation.
 
BoulderBum said:
For awhile, the 880 was about as cheap as the 550 on Amazon!
Click to expand...

When I first posted my question, the two models were the same price on Amazon. I waited until the next day to make up my mind, and alas the 880 went up to $137. Since I don't really need the remote right away, I'm probably going to just wait it out to see if it drops in price again. If not, I'll either get the 670 or a refurb 880, since both sell for the same price.

Thanks for everyone's input.
 
Even though there are cheaper models that do the job, the Harmony One is a newer and nicer device. Slick, attractive, easy to set up (fine with a Mac), easy to add and delete devices, nice screen.

I couldn't find any refurbs for this model, too new I guess, but I spent the extra and don't miss the money now.

You are going to live with this device for a long time, so I wouldn't be too cheap about it.
 
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