Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Anyone have a Harmony One remote?

Glad to hear it, again make sure to be lifting with one hand and then the other to keep symmetry up.

I had an MX700 for years and also upgraded to a Harmony One. IMO there are significant pros/cons each way.

I don't like how slow and laggy the Harmony One is. I've experimented with all the delay settings, but it's still sluggish. Long term, the buttons aren't as comfortable as the MX700.

OTOH the Harmony One is much easier to program, especially the initial setup. However I think Universal now has better programmer tools than the MX Editor program used on the MX700.

The Harmony One charging cradle is well designed. The motion-sensitive power up is nice. Their device code list is extensive. It's the only remote I've ever used with enough accurate codes to operate a fairly complex HT system with no custom programming.

While the INITIAL Harmony programming is easy, advanced work requires a fair amount of tweaking. The Harmony system invisibly does things "under the covers" to try and offload programming complexity. This is fine to a point, but for detailed work I often wonder "why did it do that?". By contrast Universal's macro-oriented approach only does what you tell it.

The Harmony system encourages (virtually forces) you into their "activity-based" approach. This is fine for some things but not others.

It's like a car with an automatic transmission vs manual transmission. Automatics are getting better all the time, and the Harmony is like an excellent automatic. Unfortunately I prefer manuals.

My wife likes the Harmony One so I'll keep using it. If I could do it over, I'd probably pick an updated Universal Remote for the faster performance and more manual, macro-oriented programming style.

I have similar feelings about my Harmony 890. Love the remote, especially the IR/RF functions, but wish they would take the child locks off and let me open it up a bit. Worth the trade off. My last remote was a Pronto Neo and it was great for tweaking, but a bit of beta test product in the long run.

Joe - thanks for the informative reply. I've got the MX-800 remote and was wondering how it stacks up to the Harmony One. Your note gives a very good perspective. Given how much time I've spent getting this one to work like I want it to, it doesn't sound like there is any huge benefit to making the switch.

Jason

Good comments above.
I agree. If I have a non-technical friend, I advise going with a Harmony. They can do wonders for people struggling with multiple remote systems. If they are technical and will eventually want to tweak everything, the Universal remotes definitely have the advantage. You can make things work the way YOU want them to. As long as you are willing to put a good bit off time into them.

I'm fairly technical (well, that's putting it mildly I suppose) but I have never programmed a remote in my life - other than punching in the codes on the cable remotes.

When I first held the URC MX900 (in my hands), it felt like a nice remote. It just felt very nice in my hands (no wise cracks from the peanut gallery please).

The MX900 programming software has drag and drop capabilities, ability to test things prior to downloading to the remote etc. I was up and running in a very short amount of time.

I have the Harmony 890 as well. The button layout - to me - was engineered by someone who obviously never used it. They let marketing dictate the design spec, that's the best way I can describe it. It looks nice, but ....

If I have to recommend a remote to someone who can't connect a DVD to a receiver, I recommend the Harmony. To anyone else, I recommend the URC. The ability to do whatever I want (turn on sub titles, change the aspect ration etc) is too much for me to give up.

2 friends of mine have the Harmony 880. It doesn't sit in the cradle as well as you would like. I personally do not like the ergonomics and look of the remote.

I have the Harmony 720. It sits in the cradle very well.

I bought the 2 Harmony One's, 1 for my brother and 1 for my parents, for Christmas. It is a very nice remote. It sits in the cradle very well. It is a nice combination of touch screen and hard buttons. Combine that with the icons you can get from http://www.iconharmony.com and this remote looks great. Only major drawback is the lack of RF control. If this is not an issue for you, the Harmony One is a great choice.

If you need RF, I would recommend a URC remote. Check out http://www.remotecentral.com if you need any help with anything.

I've never had any cradle issues with the 880 and I've had mine for 1.5 years. All of the buttons look as good as new as well. I use the remote lots and really enjoy it.

if you google for 880 or 890, you'll get a lot of hits about the base going bad (not the battery). So apparently, my HT reseller was right. He mentioned that he had a rash of Harmony's that went bad on his customers and now refuses to sell them. I have the 890 and URC MX900 and for me, URC is *VASTLY* superior. However, 890 is *MUCH* easier to program. If you don't do anything fancy, Harmony may be the way to go. If you are slightly technical, URC is the way to go. Anyone that can use Excel or Word should be able to figure out how to program URC remotes.

BTW, having looked at Harmony One's physical layout, I'm glad Logitech decided to replace the idiotic buttons on the 880/90. Those buttons are annoying hard to find and press.

The 880 sits in it's cradle ok. My 2 friends haven't had issues with their cradle either.

Now compare it to how the Harmony One sits in it's cradle and it is a big difference. The Harmony one sits very snug and would not be jarred loose even if you bumped into it. I believe most complaints were of this nature as well as the contact points not charging the remote correctly.