Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater New Harmony Remote

Anyone tried out/read anything about the new Harmony SST-688? I made the mistake of hooking the TV direct to the TiVo while I'm recabling the entertainment center, and my lovely wife made the "Just one button! It's great!" comment (ie, she didn't have to turn on the receiver and the TV, or fiddle with anything, just turn on the TV). So I am once again on a quest for a good, (very) easy to use HT remote. It looks like the 688 solves my only complaint with the 659 (just based on having looked at the two) in that the transport controls are in the middle of the remote, not hanging off the bottom.

Nice gratuitous boobage on that link.

The remote looks pretty cool, too.

Yeah, but I just read some forum postings on it over at remotecentral.com, and it doesn't look so great. Buttons are hard to distinguish and too close together. Sigh. Back to the drawing board.

au contraire...

I have had the 768 since last year. It controls my Panny plasma, HD D* receiver, D*Tivo, VCR, Denon 2200, Pioneer 45TX, and Gamecube. LOVE IT. BUT...because of the fewer buttons, you have to move to different modes because the number buttons are shared w/ the transport buttons. Is it a pain? For my wife it is, for me, I get used to it. The great advantage is that it's VERY programmable, I even learned some XML. It's very good w/ building macros. Yeah, I know, the MX 500 and similar can do it as well, maybe even cheaper, but they don't have the "cool" factor that Harmony has.

Almost went w/ the 659, but didn't like where the transport buttons were placed. Saw the release of the 688 and bought it for a good price at surfremotecontrol.com. Less programmability than the 768, but now I get the WAF. My wife now agrees to use it and likes it. I REALLY like it, much more intuitive than the 768. It's nice to have direct buttons for each activity.

Are the 688 buttons a little close? Kinda. I have to sometimes look at the remote to press the right buttons, but I still like it. But I can still program it how I like. When watching HDTV, listening to DVD, 2 channel CDs, multichannel SACD/DVD-A, the 688 can set up the correct video input, aspect ratio, sound field, etc. Very powerful.

AND, their customer service is Axiom-like. (Boy the Canadians are sure beating us Americans at customer service... Yes, I know Harmony was bought by Logitech). There is a danger of having a $200 remote and a 2 year old. She dropped it and cracked the LCD. Called Harmony, and because it was bought by at an authorized reseller (important), they are taking it back. I got an RMA, bought a new one online, w/ the promise that I send the broken one back in 30 days. And no charge to me.

I've played w/ the MX500 and I HATED it. I think the 688 is a VERY good option, heck you can even try it for 30 days and see for yourself. Just like speakers, only trust your own judgement. Good luck.

Didn't realize there was a 30 day on it. Do you know if that applies to the remote when purchased from resellers?

Ech, I should probably just find a brick and mortar that stocks both the Theatre Master and the Harmonys and try them out. Or rather, have her try them out.

I looked at one of those sometime ago and it did look sweet. I didn't like the button layout however so I went with MX-700 and so far have not looked back.

Is there a list of devices they have in their database?

A MASTER REMOTE.. that will be my next purchase. unless i can get my 701 remote to learn tham all..

bigjohn

They update the database all the time. As for an actual list, I don't think so. If you want to have a peek at what they have in there at this moment, the best thing to do is download the software and have a look.

Here is a list of all the updates:

http://www.urcmx.com/mxeditor/update/updatehistory.html

Curtis,
i think they have a "TEST DRIVE" on their webpage where you can run through the setup of the remote. It will list all the components there.