Let’s face it, in today’s day and age you need a universal remote. You need something to make your life easier, more efficient. You’d be amazed how a little device can go a long way. For many years I had been using Home Theater Master’s MX-700 series remotes. I truly felt that these were the holy grail of universal remote controls, and left it at that. I was able to customize my discreet IR codes, modify my labels, devices, macro behavior and more. The amount of memory and macros the MX-700 has was a limit I knew I would never reach. But wait a second, what if you just didn’t have the kind of time to do all this. What if you didn’t want to learn a new programming language and devote hours just to get your home theater functioning. What if you just wanted that new DVD player to “work” with all your macros, and just integrate straight into your life, within say 5 minutes?
Welcome to a life in Harmony. The founders of Intrigue Technologies and the creators of the Harmony remote had a great idea. Let’s create a database of all the IR codes for all home theater devices (including interior lighting, video games systems, etc), preconfigure the necessary macros, and download it to the remote over the web? This idea was… brilliant. So brilliant that in 2004, Logitech purchased the privately held Canadian company and the rest is history.
OK, enough with the history lesson, why am I telling you to buy yet another universal remote that will just gather dust alongside all the other failed attempts? Let me give you an idea of how the Harmony works and why it’s different. Go get a Diet Coke and do this, right now. Go to www.harmonyremote.com, this will redirect you to Logitech’s product page (natch). Once you’re there you’ll see a Member Login on the top of the page. Create a new account; you don’t have to buy anything just yet. Add all your devices (by part number) into the website. You do have them all memorized, right? Once the website sees you have a DVD, TV, Cable Box, etc it will offer to set up your available activities. You’ll have to answer a few more question pertaining to how you cabled your home theater (DVD on HDMI1, TV on Component2, etc). Guess what? You’re just programmed your remote control! All the codes, macros, labels, and activities are ready and you haven’t even purchased the remote yet! Once you get home with the new Harmony, you just plug it in to your PC, it will download all this info right to the remote via the included USB cable. If anything is not working properly, wrong input, for example, the website will prompt you to fix it and won’t leave you hanging until you’re satisfied.
The fact that the remote is “Activity Driven” means that anyone can use it. It also offers interactive help to get you up and running in no time. Say you press “Watch a DVD” and someone walks between the remote and the DVD player while the remote is doing its magic. Uh oh, the DVD player never turned on. Don’t get up! Click the Help button and it will ask you a series of questions to try and determine what went wrong. “Is the DVD player on?” it asks. You select “No”, the DVD powers on and the problem is solved. It’s important to do it this way, because the Harmony will keep track of the current “state” of all your devices. The reason for this is so that when you hit Power at the end of the night, it doesn’t turn “On” the devices which were already off. I can’t tell you how much or a pain it can be to program this behavior manually on other more powerful remotes. There are still many devices out there known as TOADS (Toggle Only Actuated Device). An example of a TOAD would be a TV that only accepts one power command, and, depending on the state of said TV, turns it on if off and off if on. You can see how this presents a problem when designing macros in a home theater. This issue gets even more magnified when mixed with Non-TOADS which actually do know when they are on or off. Listen, I can go on and on about the headaches of macro programming, but you get the point, the harmony does all this on the web site, and then send it to your remote, within seconds!
I actually had a problem with a device not turning on in the proper order. I wanted the remote to wait a bit longer before powering on the cable box. (Let me just interject here with the fact that this remote, although catering to beginners, has a ton of advanced features hidden within, you just have to pull back the covers a little bit.) Anyway, even after digging I could not find how to modify the macro on my own. I called Logitech/Harmony and got to a support rep rather quickly (on a Saturday night, so you can imagine how many frustrated home theater owners could be calling at this hour!). She asked for my login ID and had me verify two of my devices. From there I explained the problem, and although she didn’t understand why I wanted it this way, she knew what had to be done. She says give me a minute. While waiting, I’m half expecting her to come back and tell me what arcane codes I’ll need to enter into the remote to do this. Not a chance, she gets back on the line and says, “You’re all set, plug the harmony back in to the PC and let it update.” Sure enough, the changes were there. She fixed them on her end, and gives it straight to the remote over the web. Now we’re talking!
All of this praise doesn’t come with a few complaints however. I’ve never been a fan of the Harmony remote design and fell and layout of the buttons. It seems too much attention was paid to the Wow factor and not enough was paid to the functionality of the button layout. My father couldn’t even locate the Volume buttons because, well, they don’t look like buttons! They are blended into the curves of the remote and made of hard plastic. They aren’t even raised up a little to give a tactile feel. I also don’t agree with the USB plug placement in the front of the IR transmitter. It couldn’t be on the side? All in all, this is the most ergonomic they’ve gotten thus far. I’ve used a previous remote of theirs in the past, and trust me; it was even more an experiment in designer fashion that today’s models. But, they are improving. The coolest thing is, just as you have the ability to change out your home theater components with ease, you can also upgrade your harmony remote, and all your settings will move from your account to the new model. It’s a nice peace of mind knowing all your settings are stored offsite and safe from harm.
Logitech Harmony 550
MSRP $149.99
Pros
+Up and running in minutes, even faster if pre-configured
+Change your home theater, and all your macros are updated
+Great support, can fix problems directly on remote!
Cons
-Look and Feel, too much chic, not enough click
-USB port placement seems impractical
-Harmony Web Updater not Firefox compatible (minor issue)