Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Harmony remotes revisited

My wife said to me the other day, when are we getting rid of all these remotes. Sounds like a good time to stop looking and buy a remote! I'm pretty much decided on the Harmony 676. It has a similar button layout to the 680, the other one I was looking at. I have only ever had soft buttons, which leans me towards the 676, since the 680 has hard buttons.

I've heard surfremotecontrol and bluedo are good places to buy.

Any suggestions about the remote itself or a good place to purchase.

Love my 880. Easy to set up. Wife likes it too.

I like the button layout on the 680 way more than the 676, but hey, it's your call. I just like my transport buttons in the middle, like the TiVo remote. Granted, I've never used either remote, so take my statement with a grain of salt.

I had the 768. Sold it to get the 688, which I like better because it has more buttons. I'm happy w/ it and so is my wife.

IIRC, I got my 688 at bluedo using one of the email coupons. Great deal.

The 676 and 680 appear to be nice as well, slightly different button layout.

I don't have a Tivo, so I don't have that remote as my template to compare to. I was looking at the 680 as well, I just haven't hard the hard buttons so don't know if I'll like them.

Guys, get the new 880, you will be so happy, it is so cool, both functionally and visually! Macros work so good to me, and it is so great to have color logos of 16 favorite channels in the screen to choose from! My media center is complicated (TV, satellite receiver, HTIB, dvd/sacd player, CD player, power amp, pre amp) and I am amazed to see that the remote controls them all at the same time, depending on the activity I choose.

Besides, beginning from july 22, 880 will (hopefully) be available from online retailers as well. I was inpatient and got mine full price, but I am sure its price will go under USD 200 now.

In that case, you might be able to live w/ the 659. There are lots of places that have it for under $80, IIRC.

BTW, shhh, Ray might be listening...

I thought about that, but I will likely have some type of DVR, whether it is Tivo, DVR through Comcast, or a HTPC in the future, so thought the 676/680 would work better long term. I don't want to have to get a new remote once I decide I am ready for that.

659 will still work w/ DVRs, it's the button placement that bugged users.

i went with 676 and button layout is pretty good for me i almost never use the glow button. the only button layout complaint i have is there is only a & b No c which is annoying if you have twc explorer dvr box. but i just progrm the * button as c and it is tolerable.
i got mine from bluedo fine service decent price i picked them because they seem to have a decent return policy if i did not like it.
Jake

I just went to bluedo.com and got the 659 for under $80, with a manufacturer's warranty. Don't have a single complaint, and you can't beat the price.

I stopped at Best Buy on the way home to get a closer look. They only had the 880 and 659. 880 was only in a box, so I couldn't take a good look. I did get to hold the 659 and determined I didn't like play, stop, etc at the bottom. However, the 659 has hard buttons, which were just fine, so that rules out that as any type of deciding factor for the 676 vs. 680.

Taking a closer look at the two, it appears there are the following differences:

676 has: A, B, Guide, Info

680 has: <- (back), Live, Recd, i (more)

Info=I perhaps, so maybe 3 differences, other then placement of buttons of course.

Can anyone shed some light on functional differences here and what I am missing/gaining between the two?

Has anyone bought from PC Connection? This link has the 680 for under 100 after shipping, and they are listed as a authorized reseller on the logitech site.

http://www.pcconnection.com/ProductDetail?SKU=5476139&SC=CI091002&cpncode=11-475522

Hopefully the experience was good. I just bought the 680. It was $99.44 after shipping...couldn't find that price anywhere else, even for non authorized dealers and these guys are authorized. Now, the wait begins.

Please let us know how that goes... I sort of looked there, then pinged amazon on that price, but they haven't lowered theirs yet.

Does Amazon price match if you show them there is a lower price somewhere online?

So far so good with PC Connection. I ordered it about 11:30pm last night and it is already saying it shipped. It is in Ohio on it's way to PA currently. They are estimating that it will arrive on Tuesday.

They don't price match, but they say they'll adjust their price if you show them a lower one. They just don't say how long it will take for them to adjust the price...

bah! must have been a typo on their part cause I can't find it on their site anymore.

That's what I was afraid of and why I jumped on it last night without waiting. I had a feeling it might not be there anymore and it was a mistake, since it was way below other prices I had seen. It doesn't show up as for sale on PC Connection today. I can't find the link on the logitech site that shows all of the authorized web dealers. That is how I found it in the first place.

This thread is going to get me in trouble. I have the MX-700 but that 880 is sure a nice looking remote!

My problem is the wife loves the MX-700 and won't part with it and I don't think I could justify having his and her remotes!

But if she saw how easy the Harmony is to use......

I've had my 880 for about a month or so now and really do like the thing. It's really cool to watch all of the different components do their particular thing while moving from one activity to another with this remote.

The WAF of the 880 is very high. Had mine about ten days. I keep tweeking the display every few days because it's so easy.

The 680 arrived today! It took almost no time to get it setup, and it is happily controlling all of my devices. I just have the basic config done, which is fine for now. I'll have to use it for a while before I determine what if any extra tweaks I want to do. I think I need a discrete on/off for my vcr, but that is the only thing that doesn't seem just right so far.

No problems with PC Connection, and is effectively got here is one day, if you don't count the weekend. I think it officially shipped Monday morning. I ordered Friday night, but nothing much happenned over the weekend with shipping.

Now I just need 4 rechargeable AAA batteries for it, or maybe 8, so I have a backup group. Anyone found good ones for a good price?

BTW...the 680 still has not reappeared on PC Connection last I checked. Glad I saw it and got it when I did. The price made the 680/676 decision easy.

This Harmony remote.... does it vibrate?

That could certainly help increase the WAFs...might not be so pleasant when it is time to use it for it's originally intended function though.

In reply to:

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...might not be so pleasant when it is time to use it for it's originally intended function though

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Thanks, I needed a laugh this morning.

I use the rechargeable NiMH, like Engergizer. Last about 3 to 4 weeks in my 688. YMMV. I have an extra set that I cycle thru, that way the wife doesn't have a cardiac arrest when the remote is "down" during the 3 AM feeding. W/ 2 kids and a bunch of electronic toys, the NiMH batteries have come in handy. I can't imagine how many batteries we'd have thrown away in 3 years.

The one use tweak I've found is to add some minor delay (like 100 ms) between components and input changes in order to give some "slop", especially when a non-techie is waving the remote around when a new activity is started. Although, I've found that the Harmony's IR is pretty forgiving.

ir is pretty forgiving indeed. i put in the lutron ir dimmer and did not realize the tv was gonna be in front of it so i figure i will have to buy a remote extender. but when i got my 676 i just pointed it at the tv and it dims. i was very happy.

Yeah, I have a lutron too. Pretty cool to control it w/ the tv remote.

$1000's of dollars worth of equipment and people are more impressed with a $30 ir dimmer lol