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

not wanting to hi-jack Mark's thread, I thought I'd toss my own questions in the ring on this subject. I've been looking at Universal remotes, and have it narrowed down to two (based on user opinions and reviews):
Home Theatre Master MX-500
The Harmony SST-659

The 2 most obvious differences are the price (the MX500 being much cheaper) and the ability of the Harmony to program using a PC. Does anyone else have any feelings on this topic that has used either of these remotes or looked into them????

thanks very much
happy holidays!

Different types of remotes. MX500 is button based, 659 is function based. Harmony does take a little getting used to, but once you do, it's more intuitive.

My father-in-law has the MX500 and I hate it. Could be the way it's programmed but it's too much button mashing for me.

The web programming of my Harmony 768 is quite powerful. Can be easy, but I've opted to do some XML programming to incorporate some macros. Very happy w/ it.

I have, and Love the MX-500. It took very little time to program all 5 of my remotes into one. All major functions are one "button" affairs. a remote could not be much easier than that...As for the PC program, I will bet that I was able to program the MX-500 without pre-reading the instructions befor the PC program was installed...IMHO

I have heard the Harmony website is pretty slow but that's about the only negative comment on the SST-659. I ran through the 'mock' installation and it was extremely easy. That alone has swayed my decision towards the Harmony, but it's still a lot more money than the MX-500. Does anybody else have any comments or critiques of these two remotes?

How much is the MX-500? I've seen the Harmony for $129

Mark

Mark,
I was able to find the MX-500 for $90 USD, so about $40 USD diff.

Where did you see the harmony for that price?

Here is a link to one for even less: http://www.thenerds.net/productpage.asp?un=181552&s=5

Try bluedo.com, they have an online discount. If you get the Harmony, I strongly recommend making sure that the warranty is valid.

http://www.bluedo.com/bluedocgi/product.cgi?model=SST-659

thanks for the link Mark, but thenerds unfortunately aren't an authorized dealer which worries me a bit. Oldskoolboarder, bluedo is where i've been checking most of my prices. They seem to be the best priced net retailer and they are authorized for both HTM and Harmony. That's where I'll be ordering from if I can't get my B&M store to come down a little more. Future Shop/Best Buy are the two locals and I think I'll pay them a visit today...maybe I'll have a new toy tonight.

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