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I got the Harmony 550 to control my Samsung LCD TV, HD TiVo, and Samsung Blu-Ray player. All of this equipment is brand new and supported by the Harmony 550 remote. After some initial setup frustrations, I'm happy to report I've been using the Harmony 550 for four days now without issue on any of my components. Perhaps more importantly, the remote allows my wife to easily control all of our new equipment without having to really learn anything about how it is all set up.
Setting up the remote was not as intuitive as it really should have been. I'm computer savvy and was helped by being able to understand what it was the software was trying to coax out of me or the original remotes at every step. The software is easy enough to use, but the process it takes you through seems a bit cumbersome. It tries to guess at all of the activities you want given all of your components, butI think this step probably hurts more than it helps. I'd rather just start with a clean slate of activities that I select myself. In my first two attempts, I was unable to create a "Listen to Music" activity that didn't also want to turn the TV on. This should be simple to do, and I imagine it's possible, but I wasn't able to easily and quickly figure it out.
The default mappings for my devices were pretty sufficient. I changed a few of them on the TiVo HD (most notably moving thumbs up and thumbs down to the up and down arrows - their logical location). I shuffled any of the controls that were relegated to the LCD so that the ones I use most often are on the first page. I still have a bit of shuffling I'd like to do, but all of the critical functions are covered.
Using the remote is a breeze. I don't have to worry about what input my equipment is hooked up to. I don't have to worry about which control handles the volume for my Blu-Ray player. I haven't had to use the "Help" button once. My TV supports discrete IR codes - remote codes that tell it "power on" and "power off" instead of simply "toggle power." The same goes for switching inputs - my TV can be told "switch to HDMI2" rather than having to scroll through each input to get there. When using a remote like the Harmony, this leads to fewer sync issues. The Harmony will work if it has only toggle and cycle controls but you may find yourself using the "Help" button a bit more to synchronize components.
I have a few minor gripes with the remote itself. It's difficult at first to distinguish between the respective channel and volume controls as they are flush with the face of the remote and have no space between them. Those buttons, along with the navigational circle and the "OK" button, are a little loud when pressed. They give off an audible click noise that I really wish they didn't. The other buttons are as quiet as they should be, though.
Overall, the remote gets 4 stars. Setting it up is more complicated than it really should be and may lead to a bit of frustration, but this is a one time thing for most users. Once setup the remote works wonderfully and indistinguishably from the original remotes.
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Carbon emissions from the lifecycle of this product were measured, reduced and offset.
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Carbon Neutral Certified by SCS Global Services Carbon Neutral Certified by SCS Global Services enables companies to demonstrate carbon neutrality for their products by reducing carbon emissions throughout their operations and offsetting their remaining carbon footprint through the purchase of carbon credits. SCS Global Services is a global leader in third-party environmental and sustainability verification, certification, auditing, testing, and standards development. SCS is a chartered Benefit Corporation, reflecting its commitment to socially and environmentally responsible business practices.
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Sustainability features
This product has sustainability features recognized by trusted certifications.
Carbon impact
Carbon emissions from the lifecycle of this product were measured, reduced and offset.
As certified by
Carbon Neutral Certified by SCS Global Services
Carbon Neutral Certified by SCS Global Services Carbon Neutral Certified by SCS Global Services enables companies to demonstrate carbon neutrality for their products by reducing carbon emissions throughout their operations and offsetting their remaining carbon footprint through the purchase of carbon credits. SCS Global Services is a global leader in third-party environmental and sustainability verification, certification, auditing, testing, and standards development. SCS is a chartered Benefit Corporation, reflecting its commitment to socially and environmentally responsible business practices.
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Reviews with images
Harmony is all you need
So far so good. No problems and nice when all components that you need turn on at once for what you want to do. Set up took about 1/2 hour for me and later when I got to know how some functions worked had to go back in and re-program but all pretty easy for someone with at least some internet / computer smarts. For example notice there was no eject button, so went back in and set up the number "0" as eject. Works like a charm. Still learning how it works and that is the fun part. But for now does all for what I need. Pretty sure certain buttons can be set up as favorite channels so that will be next thing I look into. Nice came with four AAA inside the remote and another set of four. And I got this with shipping for $61.
