I didn’t care much for the Harmony. Not enough bling. 
I ended up ordering a Kameleon One for All 6-in-1. Not quite the ultimate geek remote, but for the price I couldn’t refuse.
I ordered two remotes yesterday: one for me, with 3-5 day shipping, and one for my father, with 2-day shipping (just to be on the safe side). The one for me arrived today! :eek:
I’m hosting poker at my house after work today, so I won’t be able to play with my new toy until the game is over … maybe I’ll go all-in right away… 
Be sure to report back how you like it!
But it does work on a G5 with Tiger?
We loved our 628 so much we bought another one for the bedroom.
I am thrilled to be able to just push “Watch TV” or “Listen to Music” or “Watch Movie” without fidding with all the remotes, inputs, etc.
Plus it controls our air conditioner too apparently! Hubby sets everything up, I just enjoy it.
And the “Help” feature is the SHIT!!! Even I can’t screw things up too badly!
I just spent an hour getting everything set up, and am very happy so far. I wasted some time fiddling with the “favorite channel” settings, so actual setup time wasn’t bad at all. Of course I have tested all of the “actions,” and it is so cool to press “watch a movie” and see everything turn on and change settings! I have to do some tweaking on one or two setups, but I think I’ve mostly got it covered. Even added a custom action. 
I used to work in an electronics store, and the Harmony Rep gave me a free remote like Opal’s, figuring I would reccomend it to others. Damn skimpy! This remote is awesome and highly reccommended. And yes the fancier one is nice, but not really more fuctional. It has the rechargable battery with base, and the color screen. And some useless features like being able to upload pictures to the remote so that it shows pictures while charging. Who wants to display their remote as artwork?
Actually you can change the delay between signal cycles, i.e. how many nudges it sends per sec. You can have it up the volume as fast or slow as you want. Had to change this for channel cycling on mine, as it was slower when the button was held down than on my old remote.
Also, AND THIS IS THE COOLEST THING… You can get features that were not even on your original remote. The Harmony Rep explained that when designing a new TV/Stereo/whatever, the manufacturer lists all the features they want buttons for, and try to fit them on their new remote design. They don’t always have room for them all, so some don’t make it. HOWEVER they still have the “code” they created that the remote would have sent to activate that feature! For instance on my Onkyo Stereo I have a single DSP button that cycles through the various sound processor formats (Stereo, DD, DTS, Pro-logic, All channel stereo, Hall, accoustic, etc.) There are something like 10 or twelve formats to cycle through to find the one you want. I use All Channel Stereo alot for analog signals and wouldn’t you know it, the Harmony has a dedicated button to switch to All Channel stereo, WHICH IS NOT on the original Onkyo remote!
Also, if anyone has a true issue/problem with the remote which is software based (wrong code, whatever) tech will fix it and you can download the correction right away. Not only that, they add the correction to the online database so that anyone with the same model equipment will not have that issue. Consequently problems are rare, as they have probably already been reported/fixed. The Harmony Rep challenged us to find a piece of Home theatre equipment in the store that it would not work with. Couldn’t find one.
This remote kicks butt.
Love my 659!
This is my first home theater set-up, and before the Harmony I had a Sony universal remote (can’t remember the model number). It worked, but not seamlessly. If you wanted to change from watching TV to watching a DVD, first you had to shut everything down, then hit the DVD function. Plus, the Sony remote didn’t play real well with my Yamaha receiver.
Got the Harmony remote, and problems were solved. I’m still tweaking some things based on what functions we actually use. Every couple of months I reconfigure the soft keys around the LCD. Other than that, it is fantastic.
In fact, I love Logitech in general. I think they have great functionality and excellent design. I’m a little unsure of their build quality; I’m on my third wireless mouse and second remote, but every time I have called tech support because of a problem, they have wasted no time in getting a new product to me quickly. Nice people to deal with.
Hmm, now I’m looking at one of these puppies, because our remote situation is totally out of control. I’m trying to decide between the 659 and the 676. I think I like the layout and keys of the 659 better, plus it’s got a $20 rebate right now, so it’d only be $71.94 from Amazon. Logitech’s site says the 676 has special keys for DVRs, and we have a TiVo, though it looks like the 659 should also work with the TiVo. Anybody know exactly what the difference is between the two?
I’m tempted, just for the sheer geek factor. A little.
Oh it’s a must-have for gadget/gizmo geeks for sure.
I’ve now been using the Harmony for several days, and can unequivocally second the OP. In fact, it makes me wish I had a more complex home entertainment system just so that I could see it do more stuff! I’m really looking forward to giving my dad his on Father’s Day.
Kicks ass, donnit?
676 users poll: what color faceplate do you have on yours? I’m using the blue one…
After doing a little more research, I decided to get the 659–if anybody else is thinking of getting one and wants a better idea of the difference between the models, there are big pics and a little more info here. Now I’m impatiently waiting for Tuesday.
I hope you like it Geobabe! The only thing I don’t like about that model vs the 676 that I have is the location of the buttons for ffw/rev and such… seems like it would be hard to hold the remote and operate those with the thumb, which is how I usually use the remote. Other than that it looks very much the same. Be sure to check back in and let us know how it works out!
Yeah, I was a little hesitant because of the location of those buttons, but I liked the layout otherwise, so I hope it won’t be a big problem.
Yeah, when they designed that thing they sure made the remote necessary, didn’t they?
Yeah, but it kicks ass now that I have a remote that works for it!
Got mine in the mail today. So far it has not been perfectly effortless - I’m still wrangling with how to get it to really, deeply understand that my cable box and my DVR are the very same thing, with buttons that are natural to me. I’d like to have just a couple more buttons, I think. And it didn’t like my Mac, so I had to do it on the desktop. Huge improvement over the last universal remote I tried, however.