Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Harmony 659

I finally joined the Harmony family yesterday. I must say this was the easiest and most user friendly remote I have ever owned. I have tried the Radio Shack Kamieleon. While not a bad remote it it would eat up a set of batteries in no time. Plus it was a device operated remote, not wife friendly. Next up was a Sony RM-AV3000, man this thing is a pain in the rump to program. No matter what I tried I couldn't get it to operate everything exactly the way I wanted. It had a very low waf when trying to play a DVD. The Sony manual is one of the worst manuals to understand. I couldn't for the life of me get all the commands to work for all the components we have.

I received the Harmony 659 yesterday afternoon and I had it programmed and working in about a half an hour. Before I would still have to have a few remotes handy to do all the things I wanted to do while watching a movie. The Harmony does all I need it to do. I really like how it is activity based, now all the wife has to do is pick an activity and press the button, it can't get much easier than that.

I have two separate systems, one for music and one for H/T, this remote handles all the devices now. Plus I was able to teach it some commands for the cd recorder I have. I must say I am impressed

I couldn't agree with you more. I've got the 659 and 688, the whole family loves them. Real wife pleasing remotes

Hmm I may have to check into one of these. My wife hates having 5-6 remotes laying around.

Would they work to operate a Home Theater PC?

In reply to:

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Real wife pleasing remotes

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I knew they had a lot of convenient features, but I didn't know they vibrated as well.

I didn't see that in the activies

You boys are cracking me up! I'd steer clear of this one Peter.
On a more serious note, I have been considering one of these as well.
Do you happen to know if this is the latest and greatest model?
thanks for the grins,
oz

Here is a list of remotes from Harmony.

Thanks Rick,
I guess I was being lazy. It's just that I was at work and didn't want to take the time to google.
you da man

You can do much better than the prices listed on the Harmony site. E-bay seems sell alot of these remotes at good prices.

Thanks Home
I'll check there first.
oz

You can do better for sure, I got mine at Newegg. I wanted to stick with an authorized dealer for warranty purposes

Anybody ever use the Harmony 880? I like the look of the the LCD sceen, but I have heard that it dims over time.

I bought one for my brother here. Pretty good prices and they're reputable.

I'm interested in the ease of use factors well (aka - please she who must be pleased). Home Theater Master MX-700 is the one I'm leaning towards, but also looking at the Harmony brand. Audioholics has a great review of the MX-700. Also check out remotecentral.com and surfremotecontrol.com (Help coming from the link police!)

- Rp

Do a Forum Search on MX-700 for Ray3's enthusiastic recommendations.

Congrats on the remote Rick, I believe you'll really enjoy the it.

>>>> Anybody ever use the Harmony 880? I like the look of the the LCD sceen, but I have heard that it dims over time <<<

I've had an 880 since they have been out and have never ran into a problem with the screen dimming...the cradle and charger have been the Achilles heel of the 880, but I've had my cradle replaced without any further problems.

I've seen the MX700 and Harmony 680 and feel the Harmony is easier to setup and to use. (I own the Harmony)

I had the wife ues the remote for the first time to watch a movie. She says she loves her new remote

I wonder if the 880 is worth the price difference over the 688.

The Harmony can definitely run an HTPC, assuming that the HTPC has IR inputs. It can learn any command taught by another remote.

To me advandage of the 880 vs the 688 would be the battery charger. The Harmonys have a tendancy, like anything else used alot, to eat alot of batteries.