HAVIC
06-13-2005, 11:37 AM
Well I got my Harmony 880 on Friday night. After opening the box I followed the quick instructions and inserted the battery and set the remote on the charging cradle. The first thing that bugged me was that the manual said to charge it until all bars are green. It never said approx 4 hours, etc. Anyway I figured it was going to charge overnight.
Saturday morning I get up and the remote is fully charged. II nsert the CD that came with the remote and installed the software. I then plugged in my remote and it tells me that the desktop software is out of date and I need to install the new version which is a 25mb version. No big deal for myself as I have high speed internet access. After I run the install, the program tells me to first uninstall the previous version. Ok this whole process was a minor annouyance, but what I later realized was the CD they included DOES NOT have any information for the Harmony 880 on it. It only includes the manuals for the previous 2 harmony remotes. I know Logitech was behind on getting this remote out on the market by I was less than impressed from a company I have buying equipment from since the mid 80's.
Well those few issues aside, I ran through the only setup.
The setup went quite well except I could not find a section for Subwoofers. So I decided to select Amplifier and typed in my Subwoofer make and model and PRESTO, it had my IR settings.
So I continued the setup and it wants to set up the Activities on the remote. Activites are macros that harmony setups up for you by asking you a few simple questions. I easily went through this and was able to set everything up, except for the subwoofer as it did not understand that these device needed to be in the macro setup. This was not a major problem as it asked if I wanted to added any other devices to the activity which I said yes. Now it never told me if I needed to send a Power on command to the sub for this activity which I initially figured I would, but I decided not to send a power on command as it never stated that it was doing so for the other devices. But I did tell it to send a sub command for the 1 of the 3 presets for my sub.
I finish the programming and update the remote through the included USB cable. This takes about 1-2 minutes. The remote is now ready to use.......
WOW
Clicked the Watch TV activity and sure enought it turned everything on like it was supposed even the subwoofer, which I wasn't sure if it was going to. I then switched to the watch DVD activity and it shut off my cable box, turned on the DVD player, and change my audio and video input assignments. When I hit off, it shut the entire system down.
Now while everything worked after the initial setup and maybe fine for most users, I was determined to make this remote as "perfect" for me as possible and spent the next 1 1/2 hours tweaking it. I also tweaked it once more in the evening. Things I tweak were button locations for each device and activity. I also had to re-program some of the DSP settings on the Harmony 880 as they were not exactly right.
I have also used the Harmony 688 at my friends house and will make some quick comparisons...
I feel that the 688 has a better ergonomic feel to it, the 880 seemed like it was designed for someone with larger fingers. Both of these remotes have a two channel grove on the underside of the remote to help hold it. On the 688 it fit prefectly. I do not have large hands, but are certainly large than a females, so they may find the 880 remote not to be all that comforatible.
The 880 has a new feature that none of the other harmony's have. This feature detects you picking up the remote and automatically enables the back light. I must say this feature is awesome.
And lastly the Lithium Ion battery. Today is tuesday and tonight I will have to put the remote on the cradle to charge it up. I have not put it on the charger since the initial charge. I am assuming that it is because of all the updating through the USB that has caused the battery life to be shortened. After I charge it up tonight I will know about how long the battery life actually lasts.
In Conclusion...
While I had a few minor inconveniences this is the best universal remote I have ever used.
I had looked at the Universal Remote MX-800 as well and played with it, which was setup in a Magnolia Home theater store (inside of my local Best Buy.) I felt that the MX-800 was way to large of a remote and I like the smart technology of the Harmony 880, knowing which device is on/off. Also the MX-800 was even less ergonomic than the Harmony 880.
Ratings - Based on 5/5 being best and 1/5 being worst
Build Quality 4.5/5
Design/Layout 4.5/5
Value 5/5
Ergonomics 4/5
Tech Support 5/5
Overall 4.5/5
Hope this review was helpfull and it was my first, let me know how I did and if you found it to be helpfull.
Thanks
Greg
Saturday morning I get up and the remote is fully charged. II nsert the CD that came with the remote and installed the software. I then plugged in my remote and it tells me that the desktop software is out of date and I need to install the new version which is a 25mb version. No big deal for myself as I have high speed internet access. After I run the install, the program tells me to first uninstall the previous version. Ok this whole process was a minor annouyance, but what I later realized was the CD they included DOES NOT have any information for the Harmony 880 on it. It only includes the manuals for the previous 2 harmony remotes. I know Logitech was behind on getting this remote out on the market by I was less than impressed from a company I have buying equipment from since the mid 80's.
Well those few issues aside, I ran through the only setup.
The setup went quite well except I could not find a section for Subwoofers. So I decided to select Amplifier and typed in my Subwoofer make and model and PRESTO, it had my IR settings.
So I continued the setup and it wants to set up the Activities on the remote. Activites are macros that harmony setups up for you by asking you a few simple questions. I easily went through this and was able to set everything up, except for the subwoofer as it did not understand that these device needed to be in the macro setup. This was not a major problem as it asked if I wanted to added any other devices to the activity which I said yes. Now it never told me if I needed to send a Power on command to the sub for this activity which I initially figured I would, but I decided not to send a power on command as it never stated that it was doing so for the other devices. But I did tell it to send a sub command for the 1 of the 3 presets for my sub.
I finish the programming and update the remote through the included USB cable. This takes about 1-2 minutes. The remote is now ready to use.......
WOW
Clicked the Watch TV activity and sure enought it turned everything on like it was supposed even the subwoofer, which I wasn't sure if it was going to. I then switched to the watch DVD activity and it shut off my cable box, turned on the DVD player, and change my audio and video input assignments. When I hit off, it shut the entire system down.
Now while everything worked after the initial setup and maybe fine for most users, I was determined to make this remote as "perfect" for me as possible and spent the next 1 1/2 hours tweaking it. I also tweaked it once more in the evening. Things I tweak were button locations for each device and activity. I also had to re-program some of the DSP settings on the Harmony 880 as they were not exactly right.
I have also used the Harmony 688 at my friends house and will make some quick comparisons...
I feel that the 688 has a better ergonomic feel to it, the 880 seemed like it was designed for someone with larger fingers. Both of these remotes have a two channel grove on the underside of the remote to help hold it. On the 688 it fit prefectly. I do not have large hands, but are certainly large than a females, so they may find the 880 remote not to be all that comforatible.
The 880 has a new feature that none of the other harmony's have. This feature detects you picking up the remote and automatically enables the back light. I must say this feature is awesome.
And lastly the Lithium Ion battery. Today is tuesday and tonight I will have to put the remote on the cradle to charge it up. I have not put it on the charger since the initial charge. I am assuming that it is because of all the updating through the USB that has caused the battery life to be shortened. After I charge it up tonight I will know about how long the battery life actually lasts.
In Conclusion...
While I had a few minor inconveniences this is the best universal remote I have ever used.
I had looked at the Universal Remote MX-800 as well and played with it, which was setup in a Magnolia Home theater store (inside of my local Best Buy.) I felt that the MX-800 was way to large of a remote and I like the smart technology of the Harmony 880, knowing which device is on/off. Also the MX-800 was even less ergonomic than the Harmony 880.
Ratings - Based on 5/5 being best and 1/5 being worst
Build Quality 4.5/5
Design/Layout 4.5/5
Value 5/5
Ergonomics 4/5
Tech Support 5/5
Overall 4.5/5
Hope this review was helpfull and it was my first, let me know how I did and if you found it to be helpfull.
Thanks
Greg