Logitech Harmony 1000 Advanced Universal Remote (Silver)
by Logitech
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Logitech Harmony 1000 Advanced Universal Remote (Silver)
Customer Review: The epitomy of convenience.
Summary: 5 Stars
If you have more than one electronic component for your home entertainment needs, then you need a Logitech Universal Remote!
I'm guessing that if you are the one who set up your home entertainment system you have gotten a call from your spouse or significant other. During this call, their voice likely sounded extremely frustrated and their question may have sounded a lot like this: "All I want to do is watch my favourite show, how in the %!&$ do I work this stuff?!"
While you may be savvy enough to set the TV to "Input 1", the receiver to "Video 2" and so on, your loved ones find it infuriating. Trust me on this one.
The answer is a Harmony Universal Remote from Logitech.
These remotes take the complicated combinations of inputs & outputs and reduce them to a simple one-touch button like "Watch TV". When the user pushes the button, the remote takes care of turning on the appropriate devices and setting each one to the right inputs. It really is that easy.
Now for the usual questions...
Q: "How does the remote know what settings to use?"
A: This will take a little of your time, but it is EASY. You will spend about a half an hour setting up the remote the *first time* you use it. The easy-to-use software loads on your PC and asks you what gear you own and what your configuration is like.
Q: "What do you do when it doesn't work?"
A: Every now and again you will hit the "activity" you want but maybe the sound doesn't come on. There is a convenient HELP button on the remote that will ask you a short series of questions. All you do is answer a few "Yes or No" questions and it will fix the problem 99% of the time.
Q: What if I don't want to spend $300 on a remote?
A: If the price for the Harmony 1000 is a little high for you tastes, then look at one of these: Logitech Harmony 890 Advanced Universal Remote Control or Logitech Harmony 880 Advanced Universal Remote Control.
The 890 is essentially the 1000, but with a smaller display and shaped like a "normal" remote. The 880 is the 890 without the RF feature included in both the 1000 and 890. The RF feature allows you to control your gear without direct line of sight- behind a cabinet door for example. Bear in mind the RF feature requires an RF Extender: Logitech® Harmony® RF Wireless Extender
In conclusion, this product is so amazingly useful that I think everyone should own one. Any issues others may describe are insignificant next to the benefits you will reap.
My wife, who just doesn't understand our A/V system at all, got acclimated to this remote in about 45 seconds. Since purchasing the remote I have never had to answer one of those "How do I work this thing?" calls.
Do yourself and your loved ones a favour and buy this remote right now.
Customer Review: Harmony 1000
Summary: 5 Stars
The Harmony 1000 is the most simplified and advanced universal remote I have EVER experienced, yet, it is much more! First, with most universal remotes you have to program in all your devices and then select each one individually to do your business such as watch a DVD. With the Harmony 1000 you click to watch a DVD, it automatically knows what room you are watching it in and turns on the speakers or surround sound system for that room, it turns on the receiver if one is hooked up, and it turns on the TV to view the DVD - just one button turns it all on and all off when you are finished. And surprise, it will also adjust the room lighting to what I like when watching a dvd, yes, still with only the one button on the remote!
Next, the Harmony 1000 is different from most universal remotes in that it does not requires line of site as most remotes do. For example, I may want to listen to the speakers in my bedroom with the receiver located in the living room. With the Harmony 1000 I can turn on the receiver in the living room, (mind you, a few walls in-between) and my Harmony 1000 has turned on the receiver and is allowing me to change the stations and volume etc as though the receiver were in my bedroom and directly hooked up to the speaker there. In addition, Yes, it will also allow me to control the lighting in my bedroom so I need not get up to flip a switch or dim it accordingly, - it is amazing this Harmony 1000. Oh, yes, I am using it with new speakers in my bathroom now as well, but it will not light my candles, hmmm, I actually discovered a flaw, lol.
Next, oh my goodness, look at it, feel it, - no other universal remote is as attractive, functional, and sooo sleek. It almost looks and feels like the smallest laptop computer ever made which essentially it is, ergo the higher cost to do all these things. Also looks like an iphone and actually had the touchscreen with icons before the iphone came about.
Oh, you might ask, will it also make coffee for me? YES, it does by turning on your coffee pot when you awake, again by pressing one button on the Harmony 1000. Plus, it will turn on the heater for you as well so you do not have to get up and walk over in the cold to your wall thermostat. Now even though it is a bit pricey, try to beat all of this with anything else and add to it how small and convenient it is to easy carry around with you to control everything in your home if you like, or have a couple of them around!
Hmmm, with all the technology available today, and how small some rooms are, have you ever thought about placing your receiver, dvd, vhs, cd player, cable box etc, etc, in a closet and yes, the Harmony 1000 knows where they are and will turn each on/off or adjust them as needed for your convenience! You no long require a nice fancy cabinet to place all your components in, but you do need electrical outlet in your closet. Personally, I feel this is what we will all be doing rather soon, or at least I may if I can find an empty closet, hmmm, mind you a woman is saying this and the odds are against me, I may have to move... - Jessica de Bosson
Customer Review: Here's the real opinion
Summary: 5 Stars
I know what it's like looking around for a review that actually speaks to you. You try your best to avoid the ones that babble on about the technical aspect of something you are interested in. Well here is a simple man's review for a great universal remote. I have like, 7 remotes on my coffee table. We looked around at a lot of Christmas gifts for other people, and I had no idea what I wanted for me. I personally don't care that I have a bunch of remotes, but my wife has no clue how to turn on a DVD. So I looked into all these universal remotes to clear the clutter, and I came in on the top 3 of the Logitech models: the Harmony One (the long one in black), the Harmony 880 (the long one in silver, which was my intention at the time), and this Harmony 1000, which was marked at $500 when I saw it, then $400 at Best Buy..and now it's at a great price. Anyway, after doing my research I bought this one. And there were so many people complaining that it doesn't work on a Mac, and it takes so long to configure, and all these things that I got kind of skeptical. Well, let me honestly tell you that this is the sweetest thing I have ever bought for my wife and myself. It's tiny, and fun to play with. You open the box it comes in and connect it to your PC, Mac, whatever. The only work you have to do is look at your TV, Blu-Ray player, DVD player, Cable box, whatever you have, and write down the model number and brand, which are usually all on the front. When this goes to setup on your computer you just enter in your products and model types. There's no fishing around for what you think you have and having to search through long lists of companies to maybe or maybe not find your stuff around the entertainment center. It asks you what settings your TV/receiver need to be on for your stuff to work and confirms it with you. When you try it out, it couldn't make life easier. With one touch you press "Watch a DVD" and the TV turns on the setting or input it needs to be on, turns the DVD player on, turns the receiver where it needs to be. Some people might laugh and say, "DUH", but I had no clue these things are that well-designed. I was worried there would be things it couldn't do that my Cox Cable remote could, but nope. DOES EVERYTHING! You still go to the software on your computer to add favorite channels, and do whatever else you want. The only disadvantages are: this model compared to the 880, (long and silver), is that the other one doesn't need the RF extender, which is what you use if you want to control your TV from somewhere else in the house. But why are you going to use your TV remote from the master bathroom? I don't know, some people like that. The other is that this does not control the Wii or PS3, because they both use bluetooth technology and ALL universal remotes are incompatible. But it does work with the Xbox 360. By the way, I have had zero problems...even after the girl at Best Buy put a hex on us because I didn't get the Best Buy warranty for it. So at the end of the day, who wouldn't want a touch-screen remote that is easy to use and makes everyone happy???Customer Review: 5 Star - Despite Challenging Setup and "Quirks"
Summary: 5 Stars
Fantastic but not perfect unit. Living with this remote for over three weeks, I love it and, with qualifications, recommend it. It is a delight to use and has completely simplified my HDTV setup. Amazon's great price means that it costs under $400 to get the H1000 and the crucial Logitech® Harmony® RF Wireless Extender. Please don't buy this unit without the extender. Because the H1000 sends 4 or more different commands to all of your components every time you use it, without the Extender its very likely that one or more of your components will "miss" a command from the H1000 because of the way you pointed it when you used it. This will force you to manually repeat the missed command.
In practice, you find a point in your room (or even inside your stereo cabinet with the included optical cables) where the extender always has clear Line Of Sight to your components. When you use the H1000 to switch from cable to apple tv , for example, it doesn't matter where you point the H1000. Suppose initially everything was off. With a single button press, the H1000 turns on your tv, cable box, and stereo amplifier. Then it switches your tv to the cable input source and the stereo to the cable input source. To switch to AppleTV, a single button press on the H1000 turns off the cable box, switches your TV to the Apple TV input source and the stereo to the Apple TV source. You can see why it would be confusing if one these commands got missed.
Quirks: (a) it's not an "appliance" - one person in the house needs to like computers to be successful with the computer based setup program. This takes several hours. The device downloads take 60 seconds before the progress bar shows any movement which is initially confusing (b) the 2007 H1000 infrequently hangs (firmware memory leak?) and needs to be rebooted by removing the battery pack. This happens so rarely that if you know about it, you won't be bothered by it .
If you use an Apple TV consider purchasing the CE Labs Sw104Hd Hdtv/Component A/V Remote Switcher and 3' Component Video cables which worked well for me. Also remember to "unpair" the AppleTV with its remote when you use the Apple Digital Music Server settings or alternately use the iPod settings and "Learn" command to add in the necessary keys ("menu", "direction up,down,right,left).
I think the unit is great if you like computers and it solves the problem of multiple video and audio sources. The nearest competitor is the Pronto which is significantly more expensive and probably even less easy to program.
Customer Review: It works! Really! HA!
Summary: 5 Stars
Okay let's break it down.
People have had problems with this remote.
I haven't.
It is great! It took me the 30 minutes to set up the remote. The directions RECOMMEND 30 minutes. It was e-z. The software connected to the Logitech site was easy to use. The software KNOWS all of the possible ways a product can be used. It KNEW that my TV had several inputs. It KNEW that my sound processor had lots of ways to listen to sound. GREAT!
My wife can't understand all of the ways to turn on the plasma, sound processor, and Blu-ray and cable box. She would rather watch any other TV than use the 'good equipment' when I'm not around. Well those days are gone! Press 1 button. Everything comes on that needs to come on! The settings for all off the equipment are correct too!
I posted this so that it's clear to those wondering if this will work. IT DOES! :) I should have gotten this a long time ago.
Edit 2/25/2008:
There are a couple of other themes I see running through the negative reviews. Let me try and clear them up so you aren't turned off from this remote.
1) Complaints that the "remote power runs out when you try and program it".
My answer: Did you charge the newly opened remote for EIGHT(8) HOURS like it says in the documentation? If you did....I GUAR-UN-TEE you would not run out of power when you are programming it. My remote has been off the charger for several hours and it has yet to run out of power.
2) "It's too difficult to program"
My answer: The basic programming was a snap for me. I simply told the remote what I had and buttons were set up. IMPORTANT: I had to add some addition functions to the Harmony 1000 which were not set by Logitech during the initial setup. Basically I had to add some Sony Blu-ray buttons. Not difficult.
3) "Logitech is evil and they don't help you if you have a problem".
My answer: Well that's interesting. I did have to call the help line and they helped me very quickly.
Why did I call them? I was using the 'learn button' function on the remote (yes the Harmony 1000 can learn any command from any remote if you point it at the Harmony 1000 while it is in 'learn' mode) I didn't pay attention and I pointed the remote which the Harmony 1000 was learning from towards the top of the remote. The remote which the Harmony is learning fromn must be pointed at the BOTTOM of the remote! I misread the instructions.
ANYway...this remote STILL ROCKS!