Harmony Remote Control

I've had the 880 for well over 2 years now, and I'll relate some of my experiences:

PROS: The website to program this thing is pure genius. It's very flexible and powerful, but at the same time intuitive and easy to use. The unit has proved to be reliable, with no problems.

CONS: The small buttons continue to bother me a bit, as it's easy to press the wrong one if you aren't concentrating. It makes very poor contact to its base so charging it is a 2-minute ordeal to manipulate the base and remote until it finally makes contact. Also, the IR beam doesn't seem that powerful, as frequently my TV and/or cable box doesn't turn on with the rest of the equipment (and all of equipment is together in one stand).

CONCLUSION: It's served me well for pushing 3 years, but I'm going to be looking at a Home Theater Master at some point.

Michael

Do not get a Harmony 1000 it sucks! It never works exactly the way it should, the help button always fixes the problem but it should not have to be used every single time you employ the remote. When I saw Harmony at T.H.E. show in NYC last May they agreed its not a remote that was ready for market, its a $500 waste of money and if I recall Prpixel told me on phone its discontinued, and I say good! I have used other Harmony products and have been happy but this model just missed the mark, and touch screen remotes (which the 1000 is) look great and hi-tech but real buttons you can operate by feel in a dark room during a movie may not look as sexy but waaaaaaaaaaay more usable and appreciated once you try a touchscreen and quickly discover its not so easy to use.

It works but software crashes from time to time and you have to be careful to keep it pointed in the IR receivers direction for about 5 seconds to operate a full HT setup...Cable Box, DVD player, AMP, and TV. The pointing issue is a severe limitation because kids tend to hit the off button and toss the Harmony on a chair any old how....this may or may not have the intended conseequences depending on which way the IR Transmitter is pointing.

I use a Harmony in my second HT setup.

Chad, I agree with you that real buttons are so much more usable than the touchscreen stuff. That's why I'm looking into the Universal MX-900.

I'm not sure why companies think that touchpads or small buttons are what people want to press in a remote control. For me, I want something solid with real buttons that actually work. And that, to me, is one of the Harmony's shortcomings. I have pressed the wrong button many times because they're just so small.

Michael

I tried one and wasnt that happy with the 880, I instead starting using a Nevo Sl and it has been a much better experience.