Customer Reviews

Logitech Harmony One Universal Remote with Color Touchscreen

5 star:		(487)
4 star:		(203)
3 star:		(62)
2 star:		(57)
1 star:		(111)

 

 

I absolutely LOVED this remote when I first got it over a year ago for $250. No more calls at work from my wife, asking me how to fix the snowy TV!

Unfortunately, after about 13 months it wouldn't charge the battery anymore. I assumed it was simply the battery & it needed to be replaced. When I popped open the cover, the battery was so tightly jammed in there, I had to use a butter knife to pry it out. Once removed, I saw that the battery had swollen. A quick search on the internet showed that this was a common problem with this battery & the cause of my non-charging issue. OK, so I ordered a new battery (not a generic, the real deal). It came & I replaced the battery. All was fine with the world for about 3 months. Then the remote stopped charging the battery again. Checked the battery, it looked fine... no swelling at all. Ordered yet another battery, assuming it was a non-visible issue with the battery. New one came & it won't charge either, right off the bat!

Now I'm furious. A $250 remote that now won't charge it's battery. Plus $60 in replacement batteries for the thing. I expect MUCH better longevity than that on a device this expensive. Logitech will do nothing for me since it's beyond the warranty period. An internet search shows that this is a very common problem with this remote. I don't know if the swollen battery caused some kind of electrical damage to the remote, or if prying it out with the knife (even though i was VERY careful) damaged something, or if something just died all on it's own, but it's very discouraging & frustrating.

Currently I charge the batteries seperately (outside of the remote) and swap them out of the remote weekly. It's kind of annoying, but other than that it still works flawlessly. I LOVE this remote & am even tempted to get another one (since I have 2 new batteries & it's now nearly $100 cheaper), but my disgust in the longevity is preventing me to do so and I'm not entirely convinced the battery issue has ever been resolved by logitech.

I purchased this about 10 months ago. While some reviewers state the product didnt work or it was tedious to operate, I had zero problems with set up, management and every day use. I loved it. I was able to get rid of four remotes and I had easy access to everything in a single, easy to operate remote. Blue Ray, TV, Cable STB, Music Server, and Receiver all bending to my will. I marvelled at the thing and kicked myself for not getting one sooner. Early adopter I am not.

However recently the LCD panel, which is activated by touch, suddenly failed. The correct image was there but there was a black, leaf shaped artifact covering about a third of the display and the colors behind faded making it nearly impossible to read. No problem, it is less than a year and still under warrany so i should be fine, right?

The immediate reply from Logitech support was an indication. In the email they send telling you they have your inquiry and they will respond soon, they go to the trouble of saying that they will not warranty any faults due to physical damage. I thought it was odd to make a disclaimer and i already felt they were going to shaft me. I pressed on because I took care of the remote and didn't damage it. I have it in my basement man-cave. I only watch TV there a couple of times per week. I don't mess with it. I don't have kids that would play with it. Just normal use.

Their reply stated it was caused by physical damage by me and they wouldnt replace it. They offered me a discount of 50% to buy a replacement instead. I thought the answer was telling. Sure it's generous but it felt like a copout. I expect this happens often and i bet most people take them up on it. However I wasn't satisfied so I wrote back. They responded quickly and politely and asked me to send more pictures, which i did. Alas they responded with the same result.

It is a great working product but I am very disappointed to pay that kind of money for a remote and have it fail under normal use. I wouldnt mind paying the money to replace it if I knew I was at fault. But if I did break it, then you have to really treat this with care if you want to hold onto it for a while.

So if you are considering this product you may want to encase it in bubble wrap and a diaper so you don't have the same thing happen to you. A more realistic options is you skip this one and get a non-touch screen version instead. It may not be as cool as your I Phone but i am sure you would be happier in the long run. After i cool off i expect i will go down the same route.

I have owned one of the first generation universal remotes for years. However, it soon turned out that it wasn't able to actually take over all the functions of the original remotes and soon enough it was just one of the five or six remotes littering my couch. Frustrated over this situation I bought the Logitech Harmony One, and it solved my problem. Brilliantly so. Not only can it handle all functionality of even obscure brand devices (it knew my Peekton DVD player and my cable company's digital decoder), but programming it is as simple as can be. No more cumbersome, button by button transfers by pointing your old remote at the new one. Simply install the software, enter your devices with their model numbers, link the remote to your PC via USB, download the settings to it, and you're done.

However, the true brilliance of this remote is not in the easy setup and its truly universal applicability, but in the fact that it doesn't treat your devices as a random collection of separately operating electronics, but as an integrated system. This is done through the programming of `activities'. The setup through the software is, again, dead simple. Once done, you can select your activity on the touch screen, and the Logitech does the rest. For example, if I want to watch a DVD I no longer have to switch on my TV, my DVD player and my amp successively. I just hit `Watch a DVD' and the remote switches on all the devices I need, and also switches my amp and TV to the right input channels. It switches off all other devices (unless there are machines you always want to keep running, you can tell it that too). So not only can you throw out all your old remotes, the Harmony performs the same operations faster and without confusion.

All this ease of use is packed into a sensible, stick-type remote that has some touchscreen functionality, but thankfully didn't dispense with ordinary push buttons (the more I encounter touchscreens, the more I feel they rarely add true functional benefits but more often than not remain stuck on the level of a tempting looking gimmick). The Harmony is motion sensitive, which means it springs into action when you pick it up. When not in use you can leave it in the docking station - no batteries are needed. A five star invention if ever there was one.

I purchased the Harmony One to replace 4 other remotes that controlled my uVerse box, Samsung DVD, Samsung TV and media PC. I was particularly interested in the ability to program "Activities," that would chain remote IR commands together in the correct sequence to turn on the correct devices, connect each to the correct input, change to the correct channel, and so on.

Primarily, I bought the Harmony One to satisfy my wife, who could never figure out how to get the right devices turned on and connected to the right inputs. Particularly confusing to her was the idea that the TV had multiple inputs, and each remote was capable of controlling multiple devices. Depending on who used the TV and remotes last, each device was always left in a non-default mode that she couldn't recognize and re-configure to do what she wanted. Basically, she demanded a one-button solution that allowed her to do exactly what she wanted to do. And she threatened to stop making dinner until I provided that solution.

So, I knew I needed to program the Harmony One for these activities:
1) Watch Live TV,
2) Watch Recorded TV
3) Watch a DVD
4) Start Pandora Music that streams through the Samsung DVD
5) Start Netflix that streams through the Samsung DVD
6) Switch to the Media PC
7) Always start live TV on the Turner Classic Movie channel, her favorite.
8) Make it easy for her to switch to the cooking and history channels, her secondary favorites.

I succeeded in programming the Harmony One in all these tasks, but only after a great deal of trial and error. Challenges I encountered were primarily in choosing the correct time delays between commands, choosing the correct command, and dealing with the limitations of commands available for each individual device. For example, the Samsung TV has separate commands for TV-ON and TV-OFF. That means you can program the Harmony One to send multiple TV-ON commands if the TV seems slow to respond. On the other hand, the Samsung DVD has a single Power command that toggles the DVD player ON if it's currently OFF, or OFF if it's currently ON. This means that sometimes the DVD player power status gets out of synchronization with the TV, and when the Harmony sends power signals to both the TV and DVD, the DVD may be off when the TV is on, or vice-versa, until you manually turn off the DVD to match the TV. I spent a lot of trial-and-error time experimenting with time delays between commands before I finally got each activity to be reliable.

By the way, you CANNOT program the Harmony One until it is fully charged. Without a fully charged battery, it will never complete the update process. This problem has been mentioned in several reviews, and I encountered it when I first received the Harmony and tried to program it immediately after opening the box. Resign yourself to charging the Harmony for at least 6 hours before attempting to program it. Although the Harmony is connected to a USB port during the programming process, the USB port does not charge the Harmony, so you must leave the Harmony laying in it's charging cradle for at least 6 hours before you attempt to program it.

The Harmony One is totally dependent on using an internet connection to do the programming. Since there will be a lot of trial-and-error testing if you are programming Activities, it will be convenient for you to have a computer nearby with Internet access.

Having given you all those warnings about programming "Activities", I do want to say that when I connected the Harmony to the Logitech website and entered the list of all my AV devices (TV, DVD and uVerse box), those device configurations were downloaded to my Harmony One and it worked fine as a single universal replacement for each remote. The Harmony allows you to cycle through choices to control each device, so when you choose DVD the Harmony remote will properly control the DVD, and the same is true for the TV and the uVerse box. Of course, the Harmony cannot emulate a computer mouse and keyboard, so I did not get full control of the media PC. But I can use the Harmony to make sure the TV is pointed to the Media PC source when I'm using that. If all you need is a universal remote replacement for all your existing remotes, there are products cheaper than the Harmony One that fill that function. The real power of the Harmony One comes from it's ability to be programmed to perform user-defined "Activities" that normally require issuing a series of commands from several remotes to get to the function you desire.

A few other miscellaneous points:
Getting the "Activities" to work often entails inserting some long time delays into the command string. For instance, starting my "Play Pandora Music" activity requires 40 seconds to begin the activity. During those 40 seconds, the Harmony remote must remain CONTINUALLY pointed at the DVD player and the TV. If you get distracted and swing the remote around or lay it down where the IR signal is blocked, the Activity will not start correctly.

The touch screen and the buttons on the Harmony are fairly sensitive, easy to press. If you like to fondle your remote while watching TV, you may find yourself inadvertently pushing buttons and changing channels when you didn't mean to. I partially compensated for this by leaving the number buttons unprogrammed or unassigned when in the "Watch DVD" or "Watch Recorded TV" activities - that way, inadvertently pressing a number button has no effect while watching a recording.

The layout of the buttons on the Harmony One are different from all the other remotes I've owned. The positions of the volume/channel controls, and the playback controls, are reversed from anything I've seen in the past. You will get used to it, but it's annoying at first.

If you are going to change your current Activity, I found it best to use the Harmony power button to turn everything off, confirm everything is really off, and then choose the new activity. I also programmed a string of "power down" commands that return the TV to a default input, and return the uVerse box to the TCM channel, before turning off both devices. That's my "Default" setting. That way, the wife can manually turn on the TV and uVerse box and the TV will come on to the channel she likes best, without using the remotes at all. I suspect that regardless of which activity you choose next, it's best to have all devices starting their individual power up sequence from a known default condition.

The Harmony One can be programmed to display on it's touch screen a pictorial list of favorite channels. 6 channels per screen, multiple screens. That makes it easy for the wife to find her favorite channels, because when she chooses the "Watch Live TV" activity, all her favorite channels are displayed and are just a finger touch away. No need for her to memorize 4 digit channel numbers for each or to scroll through all channels to find the ones she wants. However, the channel icons are not provided by Logitech. You will need to Google for "Harmony One icons" in order to find the user generated websites that provide the icons, such as iconharmonyDOTcom.

The "Activity" command strings and your device configurations are all stored on the Logitech website. If your Harmony One locks up or quits working, like mine did once, you should be able to connect to the Harmony website and re-download the configuration for your Harmony. As always, make sure the Harmony is fully recharged before you attempt to download the configuration. If the dog chews up your Harmony One, you can buy a new one and download all the configuration files from the old one to get it up and running quickly.

The Harmony One has a built in troubleshooting function which you can invoke if your Activity does not perform as expected. I found that it did little more than ask if the correct devices were turned on, and if not it would turn them on. However, if your Activity requires that the uVerse box should be turned on AND then tuned to channel 1490, the troubleshooter would not ask if the tuner was pointed at the correct channel. Eventually, I disabled the troubleshooter because it rarely solved the problem completely. It needs to step through every line of the command string and ask if that command was executed - it does not do this.

The battery life of the Harmony One is quite short, maybe 8 hours, even if sitting idle on your coffee table. So if you don't put it back in the charging cradle at the end of each day, it will not function on the next day until it is recharged. Leave it discharged for a few days and you will probably have to reconnect it to the programming website and download the configuration all over again.

The infrared signals from the remote are apparently emitted in a fairly narrow cone, and they may need to shine on several devices that are a few feet apart. So you do need to step back at least 6 feet from your AV center in order to make sure that both the TV and the DVD player are receiving the infrared signal. Step back at least 6 feet and point the remote somewhere half way between the several devices you are trying to control during start up.

Finally, I'm reproducing below the string of commands that turns on my "Watch Recorded TV" activity, just so you can get an idea of a typical "Activity" command string. You'll note two commands are duplicated, just to make sure thery are recognized. And the pauses add up to about 10 seconds if you include some default pauses not shown here.

. . . Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Status / Actions

Samsung Monitor . . . . . . . . . . . Samsung Monitor is on
Motorola Tuner/Recorder STB . . . Motorola Tuner/Recorder STB is on
Other . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . All other devices are off
Samsung Monitor . . . . . . . . . . . Samsung Monitor is set to "Component1"
Samsung Monitor . . . . . . . . . . . "PowerOn" command is sent to the Samsung Monitor
Samsung Monitor . . . . . . . . . . . The remote pauses for 5000 milliseconds
Samsung Monitor . . . . . . . . . . . The remote pauses for 2000 milliseconds
Samsung Monitor . . . . . . . . . . . "InputComponent1" command is sent to the Samsung Monitor
Motorola Tuner/Recorder STB . . . The remote pauses for 500 milliseconds
Motorola Tuner/Recorder STB . . . "RecordedTV" command is sent to the Motorola Tuner/Recorder STB
Motorola Tuner/Recorder STB . . . The remote pauses for 1000 milliseconds
Motorola Tuner/Recorder STB . . . "DirectionRight" command is sent to the Motorola Tuner/Recorder STB

Before the devices are turned off, leaving the Generic Activity does the following:

. . . Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Action
Samsung Monitor . . . . . . . . . . . . "InputComponent1" command is sent to the Samsung Monitor
Motorola Tuner/Recorder STB . . . . The remote pauses for 200 milliseconds
Motorola Tuner/Recorder STB . . . . Motorola Tuner/Recorder STB is set to "Channel "

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Good luck with your Harmony One! I spent almost 6 hours programming my "Activities," as I kept trying alternate commands, duplicate commands, orders of commands, and different pause lengths. Activities that worked one day would stop working the next day, and I found I had to go back and increase the length of various pauses or change to order of commands before I could get it to work consistently.

My wife is pleased, and she makes dinner for me again.

I bought this remote based on a positive review I read on CNET. I first tried to program the remote using my MAC and the software would just freeze at the final step. After several tries I put it on my PC and it ran OK. After programming, the remote functioned as advertised for about 48 hours. Then it displayed a low battery signal, would not charge, and died. I called Logitech customer support. Similar to another review on Amazon I encountered that the advertised support number with the remote does not support the remote. After retrieving the 2nd number I was able to speak to a service representative who said he would forward my case for review. A couple of days later I received an e-mail that I had been mailed a new battery. That was about a month ago. I still do not have a battery or a functioning remote. I called again and this time customer service said my case was still open because they do not have any of those type batteries. I suggest that you avoid this company altogether as they obviously cannot support what they sell.

I received this product in August 2009 and it lived up to it's design and capability. About three months later, half of the screen quit working. I called Logitech on December 10, spent one hour on phone with english second language support, sent photos of bad screen as requested, was promised call back that day with return authorization and given Incident # 091211-000726. No call back. On Friday December 11, same exact experience, heartfelt promise from foreigner that they would call me back. Nothing. Called today, relayed my experience, said they would locate a supervisor to talk with me, 57 minutes later, they hung up. Who among us has time to waste like this? So if the product works, you have a great product, but if it breaks under warranty, Logitech makes sure that you get no service and that you get stuck with a pretty $200 paperweight. Quite disgusting that Logitech would pull a stunt like this with the ability we customers have to tell potential buyers of their rip-off customer service. I would not buy any Logitech product if they treat all customers like they did me. No fault to Amazon for any of this. They just unknowingly listed a dishonest vendor.

Update: January 25, 2010 I received my warranty replacement for the Harmony One from Logitech. It works perfectly. As I had stated earlier, the product was absolutely great, it was the Logitech customer service that was terrible. Anyway, I pursued and pursued and pursued and eventually Logitech did honor the warranty and provide a replacement unit. The result was what everyone expects from a warranty but getting there was very frustrating. But hey, the product is wonderful!

I've owned this remote for almost 1 year and today while home sick on the couch, it fell 15 inches to the floor and the LCD cracked. Logitech support said the warranty is voided by this.

I take very good care of my fragile products (iPhone, iPod, Kindle) and they've always handled the extremely rare accidental fall. Apparently dropping off the couch isn't covered. In no way should an expensive remote like this not withstand a 15 inch fall. This has to be considered a design flaw.

Logitech support has offer me a 50% off their hugely jacked up store pricing - essentially I can buy the remote again for what I'd find it at Newegg orAmazon.

Despite being a fan of the Harmony One, I can't emphasize this enough- do not buy this remote if you've every had one fall off the couch. The warranty will not cover you.

The main problem with this remote is that there is an inherent delay (often called bufferring or queing) built into the remote. The result is that no matter how you adjust the delays/repeats on this remote, it will always be sluggish when compared to the original remote when you press a button several times in a row.

From a logitech rep on their forum discussing the issue:

"With all Harmony remotes there is a set 50ms to 100ms delay that happens between any and all commands due to it being to the way we implement the codes on the remote. Therefore it will almost never get down to a true 0ms delay as a hard-coded and built OEM remote is. This buffering (or queuing up) of commands cannot be controlled. It's just the way the hardware, firmware and software of the remote interact. In later Harmony models we were able to improve that internal delay starting from the 1100, to the 900, 700 and now 650, 600 & 300. Unfortunately, the prior line of remotes up to and including the Harmony One are more prone to noticing these "buffering" or bursting of commands."

The remote itself is easy to set up, and controls all your equipment well, just a little sluggish. For some it may not matter but I found it pretty frustrating.

I gave the remote 2 stars because , in my opinion, a remote of this cost should be perfect.

*compared to the Harmony 900.

My Harmony 900 that I had been using for a couple of years stopped coming on; possible due to being dropped one too many times. After a call to Logitech and them determining it was out of warranty, I was given a code to get a new remote for 50% off. I considered going with another 900, since that it was I was used to, but in my review of that remote, I said myself that the Harmony One is probably the better value due to being less expensive with pretty much the same features (except for RF support). In addition unlike the newer Harmony remotes, the Harmony One supports macros which is what many customers liked about the earlier harmony remotes, and disliked about the 900 and 1100 line.

After a couple of weeks of debating my next move, as well as going back to using anywhere from 3 to 5 remotes to control my devices, I decided to go with the Logitech Harmony One. As I expected there is no huge difference or drawbacks to going with an earlier remote and in fact the remote seems much more responsive than the 900 was. With the 900, there was always some sort of delay when using the activity buttons to say "Turn on TV", or "play XBOX", there was also a noticeable delay in using it to control my DirectTV unit. I had gotten used to it after a while, but when using the Harmony One for the first time I immediately noticed there was no delay, response was almost instant and I love it. While the remote is basically the same shape and design as the 900 the screen to me seems to be more professional looking. This has nothing to do with the functionality of the remote but it's more pleasing to the eyes than the 900. Like the 900 the Harmony One uses a rechargeable battery pack with the same rechargeable base so no difference there either. Of course the One has macro support that the 900 and 1100 line inexplicably does not have.

Another good thing about "downgrading" from the Harmony 900 to the Harmony One is that setup I used for my 900 is easily transferred to my Harmony One without having to go through the time of setting up all my devices and specific activities again. I simply opened the Logitech Harmony software, found the button that says replace remote, and the software instantly transferred all my settings over. After completion, a couple of volume control button mappings on a couple of my activities were messed up (went from using the receiver for volume to using the TV volume). But a couple of tweaks solved that issue quickly.

While overall, I don't consider this remote a downgrade, there are a couple of things to consider...

1.) The Harmony 900 has Red, Green, Yellow, and Blue hard buttons that are automatically mapped to a DirectTV unit, they are even in the same position as they are on an actual DirectTV Remote. I found these buttons to be very convenient. However the Harmony One does not have these hard buttons and my only option was to use soft buttons for these Red, Green, Yellow, and Blue buttons. In the end, they serve the exact same purpose, but it feels a little weird using them, when I was so used to having them as hard buttons for so long.

2.) There is no RF support for the Harmony One. For me this doesn't affect me at all since all of my devices are in a clear sight line of the remote. And even though my 900 had the RF feature, I never really had any use for it.

Other than these two things, the Harmony One and Harmony 900 are virtually identical in every other aspect except for the fact that the Harmony One costs significantly less. In my review of the Harmony 900, I stated that the Harmony One will probably be the better value for most people, and that they should ONLY go with the Harmony 900 if they NEED RF support and DON'T NEED macros. After using the Harmony One for a couple of weeks now, I can say without a doubt that I still stand behind this statement.

My only real concern about this remote, as well as all the newer Harmony remotes is the durability. I have been using Harmony remotes for nearly 6 years, and I've owned several models. The 760 I had was built like a tank, it took a lot of abuse during the 3 or 4 years that I've used it and still worked like a charm. However when I upgraded to the Harmony 900 and later the Harmony One, the durability just didn't seem to be there anymore. I could tell this just by holding the remote. The 670 was tough and it felt tough, but the One and the 900 and even the 880 I had did not feel as durable. I have hardwood floors in my home so we have to be very careful about dropping this remote or it would mean the inevitable demise of the remote. My 900 suffered this fate after the remote was dropped, and my Harmony One suffered a similar fate by simply having too much pressure applied to it when it got stuck in between the couch. Luckily I was able to get the One's screen fixed without having to buy a brand new remote, but from now on I am VERY careful with this delicate remote. If you have carpet instead of hard floors, then you shouldn't have too much to worry about, but if you have hard floors, extra care must be taken to ensure that the remote is not dropped as it cannot take too much punishment.

The only reason I give this remote 4 stars is the questionable durability; if this was a 10 point scale, it would easily be a 9 and I still consider it a better remote than the 900. All that said, when considering best bang for the buck, the Harmony One is hands down best value for the money, In addition, if you don't need RF support and don't really care about having Red, Yellow, Green, and Blue hard buttons if you have directTV, then going with the 900 is simply a waste of money. Most people will suffice with the Harmony One and will save a lot of money in the process.

Many great reviews led me to purchase this remote. It is pretty cool but the family found it frustrating to use. You will find yourself constantly using the "help" menu to help it unravel itself from the confused state it gets itself into: is the TV on now?.. is the DVR on now?...did that fix the problem?... The wife and tech savvy teens were pretty fed up with it quick. "Why doesn't this thing work?... A drop from 4' onto plush carpet caused the LCD to "shatter" internally. This renders the remote completely useless.. out $180 in 15 months... no support from Logitech and no repair possible. After they gave me the you're out of luck story.. they won't return email and the on-line help is nothing. STAY AWAY from this remote!