Any Harmony Universal Remote Users Here?

[jeskibuff]

I tried 2 of the Harmonys: the 659 and the 768. I didn't like the layout of the 659 - I like a remote that I can control by feel and you constantly had to LOOK at the Harmonys to find common buttons like Play, Pause and Mute. The 768 was especially flimsy, but I couldn't pass up the $50 price to check it out. My sister got one too. Mine had intermittent operation because of the poor design of the case, but Logitech replaced it with a 676 because they had discontinued the 768 (REALLY, I wonder why?). The 676 was promptly sold on eBay, mainly because I didn't like the button layout, I could claim it was "brand new/box never opened", and I wasn't thrilled at all with Harmony's setup process. I just didn't like the inability to tweak the control the way I wanted plus the way the devices would get out of sync with the remote (whether they were currently powered on or off).

My sister's 768 got a couple years of use before it started to malfunction. The scroll wheel started to work intermittently. I found a Home Theater Master MX-500 on eBay for just $40, shipping included! It was like brand new and a much nicer layout. The construction is far superior to the Harmonys. Although the setup is not as automated as Harmony's, the remote can be setup precisely the way you want it. There's no fussing with the automatic power-on fiascos, but it takes a few more button pushes to turn on what you want to turn on and turn off what you want to turn off.

I've had my Home Theatre Master MX-850 for about 3 years now. It's like an enhanced version of the MX-500 my sister has. Although I didn't get such an incredible deal on it that we got that MX-500 for, I've been totally satisfied with it. I would never go back to a Harmony. My sister (and brother-in-law) are "technologically challenged" and they both like the MX-500 much more than that Harmony.

Their Harmony still works (the scroll wheel just doesn't always register linearly) and is still in decent condition, complete with manual, CD and PC cord. I'm sure they'd part with it for $5 + shipping if anyone wants to try a Harmony on the cheap!

[Groundbeef]

All of the missinfo you spew on a daily basis?

Got any links for that? Or are you just drooling in your cup again?

[pixelthis]

Got any links for that? Or are you just drooling in your cup again?

Sorry, but the grays repoed my 500 teraflop per second machine, and I have a life, so others will have to dig into that.
However I will do research in my spare time, between supermodel boffing and world saving,
etc

[f0rge]

Play Dreamcast

you still have your dreamcast!

i miss mine, when i moved home from univ is broke somehow

i still have like 300 games for it, at least i think, they might have gone in the trash in the last move.

[L.J.]

you still have your dreamcast!

i miss mine, when i moved home from univ is broke somehow

i still have like 300 games for it, at least i think, they might have gone in the trash in the last move.

Yeah, I have a bad habit of taking care of all of my stuff. Everything we own seems to last forever. My kid gets more use out of it than I do. But yeah, it still works just fine. We have a Nintendo that works too but it's boxed up.

My original PS1 finally died a few months ago but my PS2 is still going strong.

[f0rge]

it was tied for my favorite system of all time with my super nintendo.

[filecat13]

I've had a Harmony 880 for several years, and it's been a lifesaver for the GF. It's easy to set up, and easy to use once you get past the goofy ergonomics of it. All of the buttons and their descriptions are too odd, small, and impossible to read. But once you know what is where, it's pretty easy. The small screen helps with the big actions, like switching everything on to watch TV.

However, some of the buttons were weak even when new, and now they require too much pushing and messing around to get them to activate. The volume control works fine going down, but is a major pain to get going up.

I also have a Harmony 1000 touchscreen remote. It looks very cool, is easy to set up, and has a large amount of customization with the touchscreen-based controls. There are still some hard buttons, too, like volume, channel, mute, etc. The only downside is that the software is unreliable and it sometimes freezes or fails to complete its routines. This can be humiliating when you're trying to show off.

Both remotes suffer from the dreaded out of sync issues. If one of your components is on and the remote thinks it's off, then everything goes to heck pretty quickly until you manually fix it (or push help and go through a number of steps to help your remote get back on track while your GF nags you about how it was supposed to be easy).

[Rich-n-Texas]

I couldn't find the Harmony 880 thread that I had asked some setup questions in ( ) so I'm just going to piggyback on Klingon guys thread instead...

Can someone with a Yamaha 2700/3800 receiver tell me how to setup the remote so I can put the receiver into Internet Radio mode as well as change stations? What's throwing me is the switch that has to be made from "AMP" to "Source" on the Yamaha remote. Is this done with a "sequence" on the 880?

[L.J.]

I couldn't find the Harmony 880 thread that I had asked some setup questions in ( ) so I'm just going to piggyback on Klingon guys thread instead...

Can someone with a Yamaha 2700/3800 receiver tell me how to setup the remote so I can put the receiver into Internet Radio mode as well as change stations? What's throwing me is the switch that has to be made from "AMP" to "Source" on the Yamaha remote. Is this done with a "sequence" on the 880?

Rich, I'm not completely sure what your trying to do(I haven't messed with the network radio in awhile), but you may have to "learn" whatever your trying to do from the Yammie remote. Since your gonna be in "AMP" mode, learn the "SOURCE" commands you want to use and put them on your main screen.

I've had to do this for a few different things. I also have my zone 2 set up as a completely different AVR since it can be turned on/off independently from the main system.

[pixelthis]

I programmed a 550 yesterday for a friend with no net access,
and was very impressed.
I am sure I missed a lot, but it seems like automation was a
tad too intensive.
Also no pictures in the device mamager, I want pictures, dang it.
PLEASE tell me you can configure this thing a little more precisely?
My pronto has to die someday, and I will need a replacement

[frenchmon]

Walked into Tigerdirect last week and found the 550 for $49. Talked the manager down to $43. because there was no software, instruction book or usb cord.

The software and instuction book is down-loadable, and the usb cord is universal...I have lots of them.

Got it all set up...aint bad at all, considering for 43 bucks.

frenchmon