Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Quick and easy, but some limitations, January 27, 2005
I got tired of constantly having to redo the menus on my Pronto everytime I made a minor change, so when I saw this Harmony remote advertised, I thought it sounded like a really great and easier alternative. I don't have a Media PC but I really liked the choice of buttons on it, so thought I'd give it a try. Let's cover the highs and lows:
1. Good remote for Tivo use (probably best of the Harmonies), but I had to manually configure a lot of the buttons that really should have been preset. Like play, pause, forward, etc. None of those worked with the basic setup.
2. Basic setup is easy, but the online help if you have any problems is really confusing and annoying at times. I never did find anything that described how to use the online program guide. I did figure it out myself, but there should be more help for stuff like this.
3. As another user mentioned, ability to customize is somewhat limited, certainly compared to some other fancier (but more expensive) universal remotes. For instance, the macros for doing things like Listen to Music only determine what components will be on and what inputs they will be set to. I cannot, for instance, make Listen to Music tune my cable box to my favorite digital music channel. The up-side of this is that for most people, the setup is pretty easy, you don't have to be a techno-geek to figure it out, like you do with some remotes.
4. The ability of the remote to remember what components are on and off and switch them automatically is *really* nice. The Help button to correct any issues always worked great for me if something got messed up accidentally.
5. I'm glad I can add some custom commands using the LCD but the biggest issue for me here is that it only allows 5 characters to display. Definitely NOT enough.
Overall, this is a decent remote that does what you want 95% of the time. For a lot of users that find programming universal remotes too difficult, it's a great solution. I'm not sure it's quite the right remote if you really want complete control, but for the most part, it does the job.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Works great for me, replaces 4 remotes (read 4.5 stars), September 25, 2005
With our recent Panasonic TH-42PD50U 42" plasma purchase (fantastic, esp. finding it for $1500), we were up to 4 needed remotes:
* Plasma (only really need pwr, vol & mute)
* 8300HD cablebox (guide, channels, PIP, DVR, info)
* Tivo (8300HD DVR UI is terrible, esp. compared to Tivo which is wife-approved:) use Tivo for SD recording & 8300HD for HD.
* DVD (magnavox - none of the other remotes would talk to it)
* VCR (rarely used now, but nice that Harmony does it too)
After some trouble setting the 680 up (& after some tweaking), this remote works great for all my devices, is easy to use & covers all often-used functions.
Trouble I had: Like the 676, has only 3 activity hard buttons & wanted 1st (TV) = cablebox, 2nd (movie) = DVD & 3rd (music) = Tivo. Made initial mistake of trying to mod the Listen to Music activity to control Tivo & TV... Had to bail on that & simply create a "Watch Tivo" activity & assign that to the music button.
Had to "learn" the DVD Chap+ function, reduce plasma key repeat (from 3 > 2, vol +/- was going by 2) & reduce most delays. Now its all good.
Minor reasons to not give 5 stars: 1) All setup is web-based - so reliant on internet & their website for *any* setup mods (which seem to take at least 15mins or so each) & 2) LCD could have better contrast. Not sure of battery life.
No question I would purchase this again (or 676... Tossup between the two).
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Finally a Great Remote!, February 17, 2005
I spent many hours on the web researching a remote to replace my Harmon Kardon TC1000 and the Harmony 680 appeared to be the right replacement. I have been completely satisfied with this remote. I use it to control a Plasma TV, Home Theater Receiver, VCR, DVD Player, TiVO, and Satellite Receiver. I have to disagree with some of the comments of other reviewers as I have not had the same problems. Some of the highlights:
1. Simple and Efficient Macros - Touch one button and you can turn on all components and have each component execute a number of commands. For example, I have one button set up to turn on my TV (then set the TV to the proper video input and sceen selection setting), turn on the receiver (then have it set to TiVo input and dolby digital sound selection), and finally tune TiVO to a specific channel. Others have claimed you cannot do this. Not true.
2. Great Design - Same bone style design of the very popular TiVO remote. Fits in the hand well. Two slots in the back for your fingers to rest in. Reaching all buttons is very easy. Buttons are shaped well, press easy, and are not too close together (unlike the 688 model). I initially had a problem with the buttons not responding when I pressed them repeatedly(especially for TiVO use), but once I learned that you could adjust button response times, that problem went away. All remote buttons light up so it is easy to use in the dark. The LCD is easy to see and provides you with six additional customizable buttons for each function you set up (i.e. watch TV, listen to music, etc). You can also use the LCD to scroll through different functions for each of your components, but once you customize the remote you probably won't need to do that.
3. Set Up - Set up is done online at the Logitech website. Basic set up was fairly simple, but there was a bit of a learning curve when I tried to fine tune my set up. If you are technically inclined, you will be slightly annoyed. If not, you may find this a bit frustrating.
All in all a great product that is easy to use for the whole family. My wife loves it and my mother bought one after I showed her how it worked. Actually, she took mine and asked me to order another. That's how good it is. If you are willing to spend an hour setting it up, then this is the remote for you.
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