Customer Reviews

Harman Kardon TC 30 Activity-Based Remote Control

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was an early Harmony 880 customer who loved the concept but was always frustrated by the ease of pushing the wrong button and the too-frequent instances where nothing happened after pushing the right button. The TC30 is a clearly superior device design that uses better button placement and spacing to operate all of my home theater equipment the way I want without requiring me to wear my glasses to see what command I'm implementing. The design of the software user interface could be refined a little, but it's still very intuitive, absolutely complete and vastly superior to programming software on other universal remotes. The TC30 also has a more forgiving IR sensitivity that executes commands with less-than-perfect line of sight alignment.

This is my first activity-based universal remote. Even after a bit of research, I didn't know what to expect. Any doubts that I had vanished within a day. The remote was easy to set up. Any of the AV equipment that wasn't in HK's database could be learned by the TC-30. The remote is incredibly intuitive, so that there is almost no learning curve. The layout is very natural, very well thought-out, almost anticipating your next move. The selection of the activities, like "Play DVD" or "Watch TV," is common-sense, building around typical activities in an average AV setup. Buttons are nicely mapped, so the most common functions are readily available. My kids figured it out right away, and the grownups are happy that now it only takes one button to have the TV come on complete with surround sound.

While the size, shape, and function of this remote is nice I have to say that it is best to stay away from it. HK has horrible support and has taken the programming software off their website and now charges for it ($10). Seeing how Logitech makes frequent and free updates to their software, I feel this is outrageous and warrants a poor rating. Long term you do not get the same programming and software updates as do the Harmonies. You are always behind in firmware and software and now you have to pay to upgrade. Customer Service at HK is a nightmare I had to redial a long distance number (no 800#) for 30 minutes to get past constant busy signals. Once there I had to wait 40 minutes to talk to someone that just passed me to a different dept. which then passed me right back and so on and so forth until a bad transfer disconnected me. Do yourself a favor, get a different remote because if you ever have a problem HK does not stand behind their products without a fight and a charge.

I did a tremendous amount of research of universal remotes prior to purchasing the HK TC-30. My home theater system is not too complex - an older Sony RP tv, a Yamaha RX-Z1 Integrated Amp, a Denon DVD player, a Yamaha Laser Disc player, a Sony SVHS VCR and a Sony Super Beta VCR. The HK TC-30 handles all of it very well. With the exception of the Sony VCR's, setup via the HK website was a breeze. My Sony VCR's are both older. If you are familiar with older Sony devices, they had the option of using three different sets of IR codes VTR1, VTR2 and VTR3. To keep both VCR's from powering on and off, one needed to be set to a different VTR than the other. That presented a bit of a challenge to program but is "do-able" and now works perfectly. My room mate is very "technoligically challenged" but this remote made operation of the theater easy even for him. This device, quite simply, does what it is advertised to do - and for a lot less $$ than many others out there. We are very pleased with it and would highly recommend it.

Wow, after decades of always having multiple remotes cluttering the table, this baby takes the cake! We have 5 pieces to our entertainment system including dish pvr 625 and Pioneer plasma with OTA HD.

This remote quickly switches your inputs, and correcty powers the correct components flawlessly. The color LCD is a great touch, and the ability to dock and charge over night is priceless.

The signal is way stronger than our pioneer 5070 remote which only worked when pointed directly at IR port. Now we can aim this halfway between our tv and other A/V equipment (about 10 feet) and still control equipment as needed.

Some of the buttons click a little when pushed, but you get used to it quickly. The software works well, but advanced programming is not for technology challenged.

I greatly look forward to installing some dimmer lights that can be paired with this remote, for the ultimate in home theater convenience!

This remote is worth every every penny and simplifies even our complicated and diverse A/V setup, get it now, you wont be disappointed.

The TC 30 was my dream remote, since I had heard great things about the Harmony software and, in my opinion, Harman/Kardon can do no wrong design-wise. Of course, as a college student, the MSRP was not even feasible for me a remote control. Immediately following Christmas though, Amazon had it for about the price of a Harmony 550 in retail stores; I couldn't pass it up. This remote is essentially a Harmony 550 on steroids, with an extra pair of programmable buttons, a color LCD screen, rechargeable battery with dock, and tilt-sensor. It also looks incredible, especially the glossy black charging dock with blue LED.

For the TC 30(and Harmony remotes in general), setup is both its greatest asset and biggest flaw. It is a breeze to add any (and I mean ANY) device from Harmony's extensive database for control and to set up activities. For example, with all devices off, I can press "Play Xbox 360" and my Aquos will turn on, change to a component input, my receiver will turn on to 'Game,' and my 360 will turn on. When everything is on, the remote will display programmable actions on the LCD screen, covering any device involved in the activity. I even have the Xbox A, B, X, and Y buttons mapped for browsing the media functions. In most instances, this is fantastic. My roommate literally could not even play DVDs before, but now all he has to do is push a single button. In some cases, though, everything doesn't work so smoothly, and the remote seems to turn some devices off instead of just leaving them on. Also, the response delay is often noticeably long, which can get annoying. These are probably user error on my part, but the setup is very sensitive in that regard and WILL take time to get perfect. Strangely, even though it uses the Harmony software, the remote uses a special Harman/Kardon interface that is not quite as functional as Logitech's web-based system. If you log into the Harmony site, it will redirect you to Harman/Kardon's homepage, which is completely worthless - I'm still trying to figure that one out. You can download and install the recent Harmony software, but Harman/Kardon reps instructed me not to (but it worked fine and had some more features).

Speaking of customer service, my remote DID completely lock up on me one time as I was updating it with some new settings. An email to customer service was returned surprisingly quickly (less than six hours) and the solution worked immediately. It involved resetting the remote to factory settings, then simply re-updating the programming (everything is stored on their servers through your account). In all, a very painless experience. As far as the button layout goes, I prefer that of the "peanut-shaped" Harmony remotes, as the TC-30 (and Harmony 520/550) have some odd placements. At the same time, I like the rectangular shape better; be aware though that this remote is almost nine inches long and at times will require two hands to move between the number pad at the bottom and the LCD at the top. The backlighting is a nice blue color, but it doesn't shine through the white text of the buttons as well as it could. It's easiest to see in either complete darkness or full light, and can get hard to distinguish at times. If I can nitpick, I wish the record button had 'REC' in white letters instead of the traditional red circle. It's something you have to see to understand; it just isn't black, white, silver, or blue. The tilt sensor is a sweet feature and will save you from having to hit the "glow" button. You're going to need to see the LCD screen anyway, but you also want to save battery life, which is fantastic, as far as I can tell. I've been home from school for a week and a half now without charging and it still is going strong. The remote doesn't sit very securely in the dock, but I doubt that would really ever become an issue.

EDIT 2/8/2011 (and reduction to two stars): I figured I would update my experience with the remote just in case anyone ever tried to pick one up second-hand - do yourself a favor and look elsewhere. I ultimately found that the delay in between registering my button presses made navigating any kind of cable guide incredibly frustrating, no matter which delay settings I used. The worst aspect of the remote, however, has been the complete lack of support from either H/K or Logitech. Despite "Harmony Technology" displayed on the back of the remote, logging into the Harmony support site sends me to... Harman/Kardon's main international corporate site. What? That forces me to use the software but, unfortunately, the latest version of the Harmony software that supports the TC30 is over three years old and doesn't support anything later than Windows XP. Attempting to run it in Windows 7 under Windows XP SP3 compatibility gave me a Java runtime error. I'm not sure if it's even worth busting out my six-year-old laptop to (probably) fail at a simple task it used to take minutes to do with a super-intuitive and easy web interface. To add insult to injury, the chrome lettering "Harman/Kardon" rubbed off of the remote after relatively minor usage, so my paperweight isn't even as attractive anymore. I have a Harman/Kardon receiver with which I have been very impressed, but the company's abandonment of this remote is a joke. At the very least, H/K could have paid Logitech to take over support (as I mentioned above, the TC30 is nearly identical to another remote that, I'm sure, still enjoys full support). I feel ripped off.

I am very happy with this remote. It does everything it says it will do. Even a non techie like me can program it. I use it for my Dish Network VIP 622, Pany TH42PHC8 TV, Pany DMR EMS 25 CD/DVD, Pany Receiver SA-XR 55, and JVC VCR HR-59600U. It was a little tricky to program because I didn't understand the instructions for awhile. My only complaint would be the placement of the buttons. It's not laid out as convenient as it could have been so I have to move my hand around a lot. You don't really need two hands though. All in all, I'm really happy to have one remote again.

The programmability is pretty easy, but the volume and channel buttons (the ones most people use the most) are small, and I think they should be much bigger and protrude more from the remote. The top menu buttons are a bit small as well.

Our family has now been using this remote for about 4 months now and we love it. It has integrated our DirecTV HD Tiro HR10-250, Denon 1707, Sony 5-Disc DVD/CD Changer (DVP-NC80VB) and Panasonic TH-50PX600U remotes into one.

It was driving us a little nuts having to use every controller for each device to activate a set up for DVD's, Tivo, or listen to music. The TC-30 fixed our cumbersome juggling of remotes in one afternoon. Now all we do is hit "Activities" on the TC-30 and pick from a list of 5 setups we programmed in and thats it.

Learning curve for some took a couple of days, but once these late bloomers figured out how to control all units with one button, eyes widened and smiles bloomed. The handset for charging is a nice touch as well, no more "AA"'s. Battery life has been excellent according to the amount of time it never spends on the charger. The longest it went without being on the charger was 5 days, a long weekend vacation for the household, and with its power-down ability, we lost one bar out of three.

My only one real complaint about the remote is that it occasionally will not activate all units when programmed to. All one needs to do to remedy the problem is push the help button the with a few correct answers to its questions, all devices are up and running. This is but a 10-20 second inconvenience. Other than that, I would recommend this remote to anyone that ask.

It got rid of all my clutter. Its a little slow when you point it at something and push a button it doesn't react right away but other than than I highly reccommend it.