Ed.Williamson's Full Review: Logitech Harmony 700 LCD Remote Control
Do you hate keeping up with a plethora of remote control units cluttering your coffee table? If you have only adults in your house it can be vexing, because different adults move the remotes around, and they are hard to find. If you have small kids in your home, it can be a nightmare; once I even taped a 6-foot red ribbon to the TV remote because I had a then-small-child who liked to hide it under the sofa cushions.
Along came moderately priced "universal remotes." You can buy these all-in-one units for $15-$30 or so and they will turn a few of your devices on and off- and maybe adjust the volume- as long as you have coded devices that "fit" with the instruction sheet of the remote. In my experience these things can be a little spotty. Sometimes the mute control doesn't work and as for things like sleep timers, forget it.
But the Logitech people, who make excellent electronic devices such as their wireless computer mice, have for the last few years attempted to really find the "holy grail" of remote controls, the one that can (a) be compatible with virtually any home entertainment device on the market that comes with an infra-red remote, (b) be able to give you the ability to control all the features of the particular home entertainment device, and not just the on-off-volume controls, (c) be reasonably easy to set up, and (d) be reasonably affordable.
I had heard of these kinds of remotes, and when I was visiting an affluent LA relative a couple of years back, I noticed he had one. So when I recently bought a big LCD TV I started thinking about the remote. It was going to have to control FOUR devices: (a) the TV, (b) a TiVo, (c) a cable box for High Definition broadcast, plus a built-in DVR for the HD, and (d) a combo DVD/VHS player which has a built-in DVD burner. With those four devices it was going to have to control SEVEN activities: (a) Watch basic cable TV, (b) watch High-Definition TV, (c) Watch recorded TiVo shows, (d) Watch recorded HD shows on the cable box's DVR, (e) Watch playbacked DVDs, (f) watch playbacked VHS tapes, and (g) run the DVD burner. A tall order? Well, the Harmony 700 as advertised says it can handle up to six devices and that it can "cover" anything any of the devices can do. If it could do all I required, I knew it would be great. Instead of four remotes, I would only now have to use one.
So I bought the unit at BB for about $150.00. Expensive? Yes, but remember, to get all those controls consolidated onto one remote would be worth it to me. I suspect I am not alone, either. The price of all the devices is probably 20 times that (or more), so if the remote could handle all the work it would be worth it.
The tiny instruction book that comes with it is pretty minimalist. It also comes with a charging USB cord (which can plug into the wall or into a computer) and rechargeable batteries.
I am sort of intermediate-level proficient when it comes to electronic devices, which means I can at least program a TiVo, but I had not reckoned that the Harmony 700 would call for a higher proficiency level of ability than I have, so I encountered some degree of frustration with the device.
Following the instructions, I charged the batteries, then plugged in the remote to the computer and went to the company's web site. From there, you then search a database and download all the software relating to your up-to-six devices. After I got there, I took the remote back to the entertainment system. I could make the TV turn on and off, but that was it. The instructions said to go to the on-device tutorial for help, but I couldn't locate it. I was stuck.
Now, at this point, when you have a device like this, you have four choices. First, you can return the device to the store for a refund and tell them it is too complicated. Second, you can call the company's technical support people, a sometimes vexing process wherein you may encounter Rashid from New Delhi posing as Sam from Gary, Indiana, who may or may not have mastered the mysteries of American idioms, as we all know. Third, you can cajole or hire some IRL someone with more technical savvy than you to come and help. Or fourth, you can hurl the offending device at the wall and utter theological language about the parentage of whatever engineer dreamed up the device in the first place.
I chose option three, to persuade one of my sons, who is pretty good with stuff like this, to come and help me. Giving him a case of 1554 might sweeten the deal, I knew. He worked for the better part of a day with it (the remote, not the 1554), and we were about 80% successful in setting it up. That is, we can get all of the devices and most of the primary features to work, but not all of them- yet. We decided to give it a rest for a while and come back to the remaining features later. I see more 1554 on the horizon going to him.
Now I know I am asking a lot of the device, and to say the procedure is complicated is an understatement. But the device will probably do everything it says it can do in the end. So on that side of things, I am very happy with it.
But I am also convinced that we have entered a new age when it comes to home electronics, too. There was a time when a car owner could fix a lot of things on his car by himself- but those days ended when things got so electronically complicated that you had to have a trained mechanic come in and fix things. We are probably now in an age when we are going to have to pay to have a techy to come in and even help us set up our remote controls. We may complain about it and say that the device is "unworthy" because of this expensive surprise, but that seems to be the price we are going to have to pay to have things work for us in today's new electronic world.
So is this remote, the Logitech Harmony 700 Remote ready for prime time? My friend Joe the home-handyman would probably say no, because if the average person can't program it, what's it worth, anyway? But my other friend, Marian, would probably say of course it is, you just have to get over it and pay someone to help you set it up just like you pay a professional to install your furnace. In other words, it's a point-of-view thing.
I tend to go with Marian's point of view. Yes, I did hate that I couldn't set it all up myself. But now that my son has helped me, I really like this thing. It does control all four devices. It does do most of what I want with them. It comes from a good company. And it's really kind of cool only having one remote at your fingertips instead of four.
Even so, I still think the setup could be more user-friendly. Just a nagging feeling that in ten more years or so the whole process will run a lot smoother, like the difference between Windows 7 and the original Windows. But even so, this is a great, if rustic, pioneer.
Rechargeable design keeps your remote charged and ready for up to a week - no batteries to buy or replace Brilliant color screen displays favorite-cha...More at Amazon
The Logitech® Harmony® 700 is a rechargeable remote that is simple to set up and use, it can go a week between charges, so you will not be looking f...More at Dell
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