Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Universal Remotes.....Part Deux

I thought I should have added a comment about The Nerds not being an authorized dealer but didn't because I haven't seen any competitive prices from authorized dealers. Let us know if you find anything good from an authorized dealer. The whole authorized dealer system/warranty voiding seems to be geared towards protecting profit margins. I once had our company set up a dealer on a line of items where we had to agree not to discount the 300% markup. The nerds had a very good customer rating by the way.

Hi SidVicious,

If you are in Canada, I reviewed the Harmony and two other inexpensive universal remotes for Here'sHow magazine (it's a feature called "Take Control") in the latest issue.

None is perfect, but the function-based Harmony worked well, once it found the codes for my aging CRT set, which was built in Canada by Hitachi. At first, it couldn't find the codes, which sent me into a rage (Harmony is a Canadian company).

If you have other non-techie family members, they'll love it, because you just choose a function, like "Watch DVD," and it does everything. The problem is if you are an inveterate tweaker like me, when you want to go to a sub-menu to choose, say, an optical digital input instead of an analog input, it takes forever scrolling. I end up grabbing the dedicated remote for the component in question because it's faster, which sort of defeats the purpose. But it's great for most others. I even set up a separate command to just "Watch TV News without Surround", which only turns on the TV and the cable box, using the TVs internal speakers.

Regards,

Did we all see that same "cool gadgets" article in Sound and Vision?! I know I've been obsessing about a Harmony 659 since seeing it.

As for where I'm planning to buy it, two authorized dealers are giving special pricing: surfremotecontrol.com and bluedo.com. (Both for $139) Both have had good marks from message boards regarding their customer service. The owner of surf remote control contributes to several boards, like avsforum, home theater spot, and remote central, which is pretty cool.

I'm leaning towards bluedo because at the moment they are giving an additional year extended warranty for free.

Walt

thanks for the tip Alan. The good thing is I'm not much of a 'tweaker' so generally speaking, when I get something set, it's left that way. The one thing that makes me nervous about the Harmony is it's inability to program macros (easily anyways). If it wasn't for that, and the extra cost, it looks like it's hands down the best remote for my purpose. I guess I'll find out soon enough.

In reply to:

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Where did you see the harmony for that price?

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http://www.etronics.com/product.asp?stk_code=harsst659&svbname=31

Mark

I have been using the Harmony 659 for a little over a month now and think it is great. It even recognized my 17 year old Pioneer CD Jukebox. Easy to configure, love the Internet programing....I had a question about a configuration and their Help Desk shot me an e-mail telling me to download the fix they had applied to my profile. Yes, the 758 offers more functionality, but there is a huge price difference there. I wanted to be able to truly use one remote instead of six and with the 659 I am able to do just that. And my partner will now use the system, where before he would not.
And...I was able to purchase it for $130, including shipping.

Mark