Logitech Harmony 676 Universal Remote Control
by Logitech
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List Price: Our Price: $119.98 You Save: $80.01 (40%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $48.25 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Logitech Harmony 676 Universal Remote Control
Customer Review: The perfect choice for ANY size home theater
Summary: 5 Stars
This is my third Harmony remote, and just like its predecessors (all of which are still in use in other rooms and functioning perfectly, by the way) it failed to disappoint. There simply is no better universal remote solution for the money. The power offered by all the Harmony remotes is difficult to match in even a lot of the high-end products that cost thousands of dollars.
Universal Remote? Pronto? Sony? All "feh" compared to the Harmony, in my opinion: I like a lot of hard buttons, rather than a touch screen, and I shouldn't have to spend hours trying to decode arcane setup programs. Harmony's web interface works well, and it's also perfectly cross-platform for us Mac users.
These remotes are simple and effective, and make setup a breeze. As previous reviewers have stated, the wizards can get a little old for power users, or for anyone as they're putting the finishing touches on a configuration. However, I look at it this way: if I put a couple of hours into the initial setup, I'll never have to touch it again unless I replace a component or get something new. I hate redundancy even more than the next guy, but the tradeoff of answering the same question multiple times for incredibly straightforward setup is a no-brainer.
So, in conclusion: if you are looking for a really good universal remote to control your home theater, living room, entertainment center, or anywhere else where you have more than a few components interconnected, you should look no further. In fact, the only reason you shouldn't buy this remote is if you prefer the button layout of any of Harmony's other models (what each was designed for is definitely something to consider before you buy). Harmony remotes ROCK!
Customer Review: Excellent mid-level remote
Summary: 5 Stars
I read some reviews talking about how "confusing" or "illogical" the web/desktop software was when it came to setting up the remote. I strongly disagree -- I found it very easy to use, I didn't even have to read the manual. Plus, they give you a choice of walking through the setup in three modes: novice, moderately competent, or expert, depending on your knowledge of your home theater system. It doesn't get much easier than that!
The quality of the remote is excellent, and the hard buttons are much handier than an LCD touch-screen type of remote. When you're watching a movie and the room is dark, you can just feel your way across the remote, where as with an LCD, you have to light it up and hunt for your button on a screen.
This is NOT a "punch in your codes and you're ready to go" $15 wal-mart remote. In fact, I'd say that if you don't have a home theater system with 3 or more components, you don't even need something as complex as a Harmony. But, with a little time spent in setup (it took me right about an hour), you can control every aspect of your home theater system just as good as any $300 to $400 LCD touch screen remote, or just as good as using the 5 or 6 remotes you have that came with your components!
Highly reccomended to families with children or frequent guests. I can't imagine what else you would need in a remote -- this will do it all for you.
*And if you haven't already read it somewhere: if you buy this remote, don't bother installing the software from the CD! Just go online and download the new version. It will make you do that anyway, and you'll save yourself the time and the aggrivation of having to install/uninstall the old version on your computer.
Customer Review: Love This Remote
Summary: 5 Stars
I rarely review anything, but I felt I had to put in a good word about this device.
I bought my first one to replace multiple remotes in our bedroom. The online setup was simple and straight forward and the remote worked perfectly. The big bonus with this remote is the "help" button. The first time I had my wife calling me on my cell phone to help her figure out what was wrong with the TV, I told her to press "help" and follow the instructions. It fixed the TV setup for her and she was sold on the remote!
I have since bought two more for our other setups.
The third one replaced an aging Philips Pronto that had started to act up. This setup was more involved as it has a projector and a screen that need certain functions. It was a problem since I didn't have the original remote for either (kids!). I was having problems getting the setup put together the way I wanted and called tech support. I got through to a person right away (big bonus). The person got into my online setup and fixed my first problem right away, remotely. I had to leave, so I called back later for my second issue. Again, I got right through to a support person. She was not sure how to fix the issue without the original remote and sent me on to a senior tech person, again with no hold time (after years of waiting on hold for tech support, just this fact makes me love this company). The senior tech person ran me through some fixes and worked out a way to use the Pronto to teach the Harmony remote (I had tried this myself, but he got me to use a raw capture instead of normal) and got the remote working perfectly.
Good tech support plus a remote my wife is happy using equals a great purchase times three.
Customer Review: Harmony 676 a GREAT remote
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the first time I have every written a review but feel compelled to due so with this product. I was very sceptical when I read everything this remote says it will do. But the fact is that it correctly controls each function with the press of one button.
I wasn't sure it would work with my Mitsubisi 53 inch RPTV because to change inputs you have to scroll up or down to get to the correct input and I couldn't see how this would work on the Harmony remote. After I programed it everything worked just fine. If you have any problems with the setup you can call Harmony and they will walk you through any problem you might have. They are not only helpful, they also have a very positive cheery attitude fixing the problem.
I like this much better than my all in one universal remote due to the ease of operation. I push the DVD button and my remote turns on the TV and selects the correct input, turns on my receiver and selects the correct input and also turns on the DVD player with just one push of a button. What more can you ask?
With the combination of operating as advertised and also having great support this combination is just outstanding.
I might add that I did make a few calls to tech support to fine tune my remote but it does everything exactly like I want it too. One of the reviewers below said that some of his buttons did not work for one of his units. I also had one button that didn't do what I needed it to but after a call to tech support the problem was fixed in a short amount of time.
I highly recommend this remote.
Customer Review: No more special instructions!
Summary: 5 Stars
Overall I'm very happy with the remote. I have a fairly complex system, where 2-4 components (depending) have to be adjusted when I switch sources. The baby-sitters can now operate the system with a few simple button presses!
I got the basic functionality programmed fairly quickly, but did have to spend 3 hours or so tweaking the settings. My Kenwood laserdisc player was missing a lot of commands, and the Tivo settings were not that optimized (for example they had not mapped the "+" key to the logical operation of "clear"). One nice example of flexibility was the ability to adjust the repeat rate (by default the remote sent commands too quickly for my preamp volume-up and down, and too slowly for the Tivo commands).
I'd say the website was adequate, but not great. It was geared towards getting beginning users through the initial setup, and was kind of clunky when I needed to tweak specific things. Towards the end I got fairly efficient using it, but despite the fact that I'm a software programmer I would occasionally go down the wrong path because of non-intuitive sub-menu labels.
Ergonomically, I think this is the best of the current Harmony remotes. It is quite good, and in some ways rivals the Tivo remote (my favorite example of good remote design). It does fall down in a few areas, in particular the fast-forward/rewind and pause/play keys are inconveniently located (see the Tivo remote for how to do it right, although to be fair Tivo does not have skip-forward and skip-back buttons).