I’m ready to splurge on a good universal remote. Heard great things about Logitech’s Harmony One, and when I started researching I found they’ve put out an updated model, the 900.
The 900 looks pretty much identical to the One, and seems to work pretty much the same way. But they’ve added a few Blu-Ray specific controls, which seems like a good thing (though I don’t currently have a Blu-Ray player, I’m sure I’ll get one eventually), and it has RF capabilty in addition to IR. Cnet.com calls the 900 “hands down, the best universal remote control we’ve ever tested.”
Then I started reading the reviews. Pretty much all of the user reviews for the One are glowing. It’s the greatest thing since sliced bread, everybody loves it. But the 900 has been absolutely trashed by techie nerds for what appears to be one reason only: No macros.
You can program the One to perform a series of functions with a single button-push. They took that feature away on the 900. This has caused a flood of one-half and one-star ratings, skewing the overall user rankings for the worse. Most of them are along the lines of “NO MACROS!!!11!!!1! THE 900 SUCKSSS!!!11!1!1!!!” Only one reviewer actually offered an example of using a macro: he didn’t have to push the FF button 3 times in a row to get his DVR to fast-forword at the highest speed; one button did the job. To that I say: big fucking deal.
What’s the real scoop? Is the One really better than the 900 because of macros? Are there any other reasons the 900 is inferior? I’m leaning toward going for the latest model, but not if it isn’t truly a step up.
Well, I’ve got a 890 and I like it a lot. The set-up software is pretty cumbersome for a company like Logitech, they can do batter. The buttons are starting to wear out now after about 3 years and that’s a major disappointment, you wouldn’t think it’s be so hard to build a more durable remote when the clowns at Motorola and Comcast managed to.
Still, it’s a huge upgrade over any typical universal remote for anyone with a modern theater set up. I wouldn’t get too worked up about the reviews knocking the 900. First and foremost this is a modern piece of hardware that requires software and firmware updates. In due time many of the hiccups will be ironed out. But, that said I wouldn’t pay extra for a new product that has features you’re not likely to use right away. These remotes wear out and don’t last forever. I’d suggest saving a few bucks and buying the Harmony One unless you need the Blu-Ray controls and RF right now.
FTR, the lack of Blu Ray controls should be meaningless. They can be programmed onto the One’s soft buttons and are almost certainly built into the software. I’m not sure if you are referring to anything besides the colored buttons, but I don’t think those are Blu Ray specific, but obviously having additional hard buttons could be useful but they shouldn’t be a deal breaker unless you need them for something very specific right now.
Yes, I was talking about the colored buttons. The video review on cnet said something about them being a “perfect match” for your Blu-Ray player, or something like that. So I assumed they were meant specifically for that. Later I saw a user review on Amazon who said he used those for his X-box, so obviously they can be whatever you want.
I guess I don’t really don’t need those, and I don’t need RF now either (though my wife sometimes complains that she has to turn her arm in a funny way to get our existing remotes pointed in the right direction from her side of the couch). Supposedly the 900’s touch screen is higher resolution and a bit more user friendly, though I have nothing to compare it to right now.
Still waffling as of now. I’m using a Christmas bonus gift certificate thingy from work to buy it, so it won’t personally cost me anything regardless. I’d just have more left to use for other stuff on Amazon if I go with the cheaper one…
I haven’t played with many BluRay players yet, but presumably they have added features other than the typical menu and scan buttons for a regular DVD. Alternate camera angles, in-movie supplemental content and zooms maybe. For most people I’m going to guess you won’t be using those bells and whistles often enough to make having them mapped to soft buttons cumbersome. If you have an XBOX 360 or a PS3 that you use as a media extender frequently or a TV that comes with some built in widgets and internet connectivity then maybe those unconventional hard buttons will be handy.
But, are they $150 handy?
Also, I’m guessing that most standard equipment won’t use the RF unless you specifically buy equipment that supports it or buy RF repeaters to retrofit older stuff. Don’t assume that the RF will solve any of your problems unless you know that your system specifically supports it. As I’m sure you noticed the RF signal on the 900 sounds like it’s lacking in power and range, so if RF is your primary desire maybe the 900 isn’t a great choice. I don’t know enough about the hardware to know if the issues reviewers are having with RF are likely to be isolated or if they are likely to be aided by future firmware updates.
*Note: I just noticed that the 900 comes with the repeater as part of the package, I suppose you can disregard the first half of that paragraph. I wonder how many new devices support RF natively and if the 900 would be compatible with RF devices when it’s not using it’s own repeater. *
As you can tell, if I were shopping for myself I’d be opting for the One to replace my 880*.
When I bought my 880 the One was brand new to the market, if I remember right I’m not sure of the dates, but I remember spending a lot of time thinking about the touch screen. I decided that having a touch screen was pretty low on my list of needs, they tend to be less reliable and less tactile than hard buttons and the Logitech software didn’t capitalize on the flexibility of a LCD enough to compensate with versatility. I also worried about battery life compared to the regular color LCD. It was a solution seeking a problem. I had similar worries about the color LCD of the 880 versus the regular monochrome of the 500 and 600 series. I ended up buying the 880 because of the extra hard and soft buttons but battery life has been an issue for me, I can only assume the color display has a lot to do with that.
Obviously between the 900 and the One this should be a moot point since they share a display, but depending on the scale of your home theater you might find one of the lesser Harmony models more ideal. Hell, you might save enough money to buy that BluRay player by downgrading from the 900 to a 670.
Long story short, think it through. These things don’t last forever so buy for what you have now, not for what you might have in 2 years.
The Harmony One was a bit expensive for my tastes, and so I asked my wife for the Harmony 700 for Christmas. The biggest difference (besides $60 price difference) between the two appears to be that the 700 doesn’t have a touch-screen; it has actual buttons around the edge of the screen whose functions correspond to the on-screen data. This seems preferable to me, since I tend to hang onto the remote while watching TV; if the touch-screen is as sensitive as other touch-screens I’ve used, it seems like it would be too easy to accidentally push a “button” while sitting there.
Other difference: 700 uses a USB charger cable, One uses a clunky cradle.
It’s going to be either the One or the 900. I was hoping to find someone who’s used them both and can give me an opinion on how they compare directly to one another. But I suppose that’s too narrow a request, even for the Dope.
I’m leaning to the 900. The difference is $80 (not $150), I have enough gift points to cover it, and I’m not really craving anything else on Amazon right now.
If it turns out the differences are negligible for my purposes, I won’t be upset. But if I get the 900 and end up wishing I had the One instead, I will be upset. So that’s kind of what I’m driving at here: is the newer model actually worse than the older one?
I’ve had the Harmony 676 for several years now. Macros appeared in a firmware update a couple of years ago after people had begged for them for years. People are understandably pissed that they took them away from the 900 with no explanation and no substitute. That said, I have used exactly two macros on my remote and I wouldn’t miss them if they were gone. Unless there is some action that you absolutely need a macro to perform, I wouldn’t let their lack affect my decision.
I want to comment, but I also want to add I am not a home theater geek. I’m strictly a consumer, so I may not use the correct terms. I don’t even watch much TV, but my SO does. I will also add that we don’t have Blu Ray.
I bought my SO the One for Christmas last year. He loves it! If by macros you mean touching the menu item “watch TV” and the tv and receiver both come on, or press “watch DVD” and it switches the feed to [whatever the DVD channel is on the tv] and turns the DVD player on and switches the audio over to the DVD player (but the receiver may do this on its own, IDK), then that is one of the best features of the remote and I wouldn’t buy one without it.
I so rarely watch TV that I don’t memorize how to set it up to watch a DVD, but for when I do want to this remote makes it foolproof. I love the macros. But, people who are more tv savvy may not need them.
The 900 does this as well, as far as I can tell. What’s different is that previously you could program your own macros using any of your remotes’ functions. This would be of limited value to me, I think.
That capability is called “Activities”. You can program the remote to perform a series of actions when selecting an activity. However, once you’ve selected the activity, each button can only perform one action unless you set up a “sequence” (Harmony-speak for macro). The 900 supports activities (all Harmony remotes do, as it’s the main selling feature) but lacks the ability to use sequences.
I’ve had a Harmony for four and a half years now and have been quite happy with it except for the issue several have mentioned; that the buttons wear out after awhile causing you to have to push harder and harder until they eventually fail altogether. I’m curious, will either the 900 or the One allow you to easily transfer the settings you have in your old Harmony to a new or do you have to program it from scratch? I’ve seen some universals that “learn” from the original. If it can, does it require that all the buttons be in working order?
Thanks for starting this, Wheelz. Tis the season and it makes narrowing down the decision easier.
I have an older model Harmony remote, but I’d never buy one without macros because AV component makers sometimes hide important options in menus.
My original use for macros was to handle my projector. The projector had a very simple control that didn’t include things like adjusting the aspect ratio. In order to do that, you needed to go into the menu, press a handful of buttons, etc. I made a single button to switch the aspect ratio by doing the following: “Menu, Right, Right, Down, Down, Enter, Left, Left, Menu” It took less time than it would take for me to click through it, and it was a single button push.
I’m currently not using a macro (tv replaced that projector), but who knows if some future hardware I buy will have some important option hidden away in a menu, and I want a single button for it.
I’ve got a question on these when it comes to the “activities” sequences:
How does the remote determine if a component is “on” already when selecting an activity?
For example I want to watch a dvd the sequence might be:
TV power - TV DVD input - DVD player power - Receiver power - Receiver DVD source
That’s all from a cold start. But what if I’m watching cable and decide I want to watch a DVD? Won’t hitting the “watch a dvd” activity button turn the power off on my TV and receiver?
I have a Harmony 880, which I love. As far as I can tell the remote keeps track of what’s going on. When you select an Activity it doesn’t just go through a list of commands. It goes through and makes sure everything is set correctly and if it isn’t it changes it. Here’s an example of how it works for me.
Starting cold I select “Watch TV” the remote…
Turns the satellite receiver on.
Turns the TV on.
Sets the TV to Input 1.
From there if I select “Watch DVD” the remote…
Turns on the DVD player.
Changes the TV to Input 2
Turns off the satellite receiver.
If there is a problem along the way, say the DVD player does not turn on, I hit the “Help” button on the remote and it asks straight forward, yes/no questions. e.g.
Is the Television on? Y/N -Select Yes
Is the DVD Player on? Y/N -Select No
-Remote attempts to turn the DVD player on
Did that fix the problem? Y/N -Select Yes
At the very least, the RF function should allow me to hide my unsightly TiVo box (which currently sits on top of the TV cabinet because it doesn’t fit in any of the compartments) and its forest of cables out of sight. And I already have a couple ideas about what to do with those extra buttons.
On the macro issue, I think I’m in the “probably wouldn’t use them much anyway” camp, so I’m not too worried about that. Time will tell if I change my tune later.
Estimated delivery date is Monday. I can’t wait to get my hands on this thing! Thanks to everyone who offered advice. I’ll be back to tell you if I made the right decision.
Okay, I got my 900 a week ago today, but was out of town for 5 of those days so I’ve had minimal chance to play around with it yet.
So far, my thoughts are:
It’s definitely a fine piece of technology and the remote itself works quite well. I’ve got the basic setup down so that switching from cable to DVD or TiVo requires only a single button-push instead of scrolling through inputs and turning various devices on/off. That’s way cool. The button configuration is really handy, especially for TiVo; it’s taken almost no getting used to.
But the setup program is not nearly as intuitive as it should be and has proven to be quite frustrating. For instance, on the “Watch TV” activity, it defaults to TiVo for the channel-changing function. I don’t want this. I want to change channels directly through the cable box. The only way I can do this, or to display the channel guide, is to push the “Watch TV” activity, then “Devices” then “Cable Box,” and I have not yet figured out how to remedy this. I’m sure I will, but the setup screens are of surprisingly little help in figuring it out. As user-friendly as the remote itself is, the programming side is exactly as unfriendly.
I surely could have gotten by with the One rather than the 900 for my purposes, but since I have it, I’m looking forward to setting up the RF, which will allow me to rearrange my components into a much more attractive setup, rather than making sure the IR ports are pushed all the way to the front. The TiVo box is destined for the floor behind the cabinet, and my wife could not be happier about that.
So, my review is mostly good, and likely will get better once I become more proficient with the clunky setup screens. If anyone’s still interested, I’ll update again later.
