Logitech Harmony 676 Universal Remote Control
by Logitech
|
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 |
|---|
Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Logitech Harmony 676 Universal Remote Control
Customer Review: Brilliant design
Summary: 5 Stars
A flexible remote that truly allows you to get rid of your other remotes in the house. The best part is the activity buttons that take care of all the commands necessary to turn on/off needed components and do the right switching for a given task such as playing a DVD with sound through the receiver. The PC interface is awesome for setting things up. It is a little intimidating to any computer novices. For the advanced user the sky is the limit on customization of your remote down to the sequence of commands displayed on the LCD. Downside is it may take a while to tweak everything.
The online database for devices is immense. Even less than common devices are on it (I have a roku hd-1000 for displaying memory card images in HD and a 12 year old yamaha CD changer-both in their database!!). If it's not in the database, the remote has learning capability. You can create your own macros to control all your components. Can even control the speed at which commands are send from the remote! Best of all you can create a backup of your remote's programming to store on your PC/Mac in case of catastrophe!!
For the price you can't beat this remote.
Pros: Immense flexibility and programmability via PC/Mac online connection, button design and layout, a novice can operate it (when set up correctly!!), price
Cons: Set up can be tedious and intimidating to computer novices, could use next AND previous buttons for scrolling through LCD display commands.
Customer Review: Great once it is setup
Summary: 5 Stars
I have had this remote for 3 weeks now and am loving it. The first day I had this remote I was considering returning it as I couldn't figure out how to do some of the customizations to it that I wanted. Amazingly it all came to me on my second visit to the website a couple days later.
This remote does take a long time to setup, assuming you (like me) have a lot of varied equipment and want to fully utilize this remote. If you don't then I don't understand why you're looking a pricey remote. As I'm sure is mentioned in most reviews all this setup has to be done via the web. This has its perks like gaining access to remote codes that others have painstakingly entered for you, but also has the negative of having to hook the remote to your pc to change any of its settings not to mention logging into the Harmony site. I have high speed internet and found the Harmony site worked well for me. Still it took me HOURS to setup this remote.
The beautiful part is now that it is setup it works great. It's the first remote that can control my Sony Tivo from any distance. I can finally sit at my dining room table and fastforward through commercials!! I was never able to do that with the original Sony remote nor with my last wonderful (until now) Sony universal remote.
The other great thing about this remote is with it being task oriented my Mother can figure out how to utilize my entertainment center when she visits.
Customer Review: The best of the bunch
Summary: 5 Stars
many others have covered what's so great about this remote.
i agree. i've dealt with all sorts of universal remotes, from the sonys to advanced crestron systems, and for the money, this is the best you can do.
once you get it setup, it works. initial setup is fast. then you can tweak it as much as you want. i set this up for my brother-in-law and sister. my brother-in-law gets frustrated with remotes easily, and the only way he could find to not get this one to work was to fail to actually point it at the IR receiver in the wall. you can't fault harmony for that... ;) my sister has had zero problems.
while playing with it for a few days, I found myself thinking: "this is good, but I wish it could do this." only to find out from the website that you CAN do that!
I'm now buying one for myself, and I also convinced my cousin to get one, and get the 676 over the more expensive color screen 880.
as for why this is the best Harmony so far? button layout is just the most logical and easiest to deal with, it's not overdesigned, and it is at a good price point. they all setup the same way (so features are common among all of them). this one is just a great design, good in your hand, and the TRANSPORT buttons are in a good place and easy to understand, important in today's TiVo and DVD centric world.
Customer Review: Your Last Remote Control
Summary: 5 Stars
Over the last several years I have purchased four high-end so-called universal remotes. All of them sort of worked but not really. There was always some function that was not supported that I would have to drag out the original remotes. I found one two years ago that I was able to teach how to control the mish-mash of components in my entertainment system. It took weeks to program everything into it and to get every function covered. Then I discovered that it had an huge appetite for batteries (At lease once a month I had to replace the six AA batteries it took to keep it running.) My brother-in-law put me on the track of the Harmony 676 when I was grousing about having to reprogram my remote to control my new TV set. Harmony's web site had all my components listed and it took one setting at the computer to setup the perfect remote control. I've now lived with it for eight months and still love it. It's so easy to use that even I can get our system to do what ever I want it to. (I used to have to ask my husband to set it up to do anything other than watch TV.) Battery life? By the time the low battery display comes up I've forgotten the last time I changed them. The $199 list price is steep but worth every penny for the ease of use and to throw the six remotes it takes to control my entertainment system in a drawer and forget about them.Customer Review: Perfect remote
Summary: 5 Stars
It works perfectly. I love this remote and once you get used to the software it is real easy to program. I have it running 6 devices and set up programs as HD DVD, where it gets my AV receiver, TV, and HD DVD player on and on the right channel and speaker set up. Just one touch when it took 3 remotes in the past. I have it connected to my blu-ray player and comcast DVR box. Speaking of Comcast DVR box, it allowed me to set a 30 second fast forward button, which comacast has taken out of all its remotes backing down to advertisers. Now I can fast forward in 30 second increments and back up in 10 second increments. No more commercials ruining a good show that I just DVR. This is my favorite feature that I use everyday. Great remote. One minor point is the light only last about 10 seconds and the glow button isn't in a great spot, so if your watching movies you can hit a wrong button. Very minor, once you get used the buttons it becomes second nature. I wish the glow button was on the side, like another remote I had, but this one is so much better. And the price on Amazon was AWESOME. I was a gold box purchase. Best remote I have ever had and I spend $200 on another that I never liked. This one is the one. I am waiting for another sale to get another for my Family room entertainment system.