dr427's Full Review: Logitech Harmony® 880 LCD Remote Control
I actually bought this on a whim. My wife was complaining about the number of remotes we have. I had bought Universal Remotes before and have waited for something like the Harmony 880 to come along. I was tempted by remotes such as the Pronto, but what sold me was the help menu for guests. What a novel concept! Especially for the babysitter!
Out of the box the remote was fairly easy to setup. The battery is like a cell phone battery (flat Lithium Ion). The recharge cradle is setup next to my couch. The initial setup suggests a full charge, but I had 1 out of 3 bars, so I risked it and it worked fine. The setup takes you to the internet and basically asks you the model number and type of equipement you are setting up.
Once that basic setup is completed you upload a file to the remote and poof it's programmed. It even asks if it programmed correctly. A help menu built into the remote helps correct minor issues such as off/on. The setup took about 20-30 minutes for 6 items. My Tivo and Satellite are one in the same, so are my CD/DVD/Receiver. Initially I setup (6) a device for TV, CD, DVD, Receiver, Tivo, & Satellite, but in the end I figured out that I only need 3 devices since my receiver is a Sony AVD-C70ES combo unit and the Tivo and Satellite are one unit. The Tivo needed some adjustments, and to do this the computer walks you through properly aiming the remotes at each other and pressing specific buttons to program. once I did this the Tivo functions worked fine.
The DVD functions had to be tweaked a little as well. The play button for instance didn't work as I wanted to. I went back and forced the "play" button on the lower part of the remote to act as a Play button for the DVD. You can ultimately change the function of ANY button to any command you desire. No Macro programming functions though. It essentially does that for you when it asks "Watch TV". It turns the TV on, the Receiver on and to the correct settings, and then the Satellite.
Please understand that there are 2 sets of buttons. Ones that are fixed at the bottom half of the remote and those that are built into the screen and then executed by pressing the corresponding button on the right or left. The "On-Screen" buttons allow 8 choices per screen )4 on each side) with an unlimted number of screens to scroll through I suppose. My DVD/CD/Receiver for instance has 7 screens to scroll through for all DVD/CD/Reciver options.
The remote has a "tilt" sensor that activates the LCD and backlight buttons once pickup up. This can be toggled on or off.
The remote took about a full week to get used to. I kept the original remotes on the table for about 2 days to make sure all functions worked and were accesible on the Harmony.
I love the simplistic menu now. Once you pick it up it shows a list of things to do...."Watch TV, Listen to CD, etc." You click the button you want and leave the remote aimed at your equipement for about 5 seconds and bam it does it all. That feature is great for guests. Next time I have a babysitter over all she will have to do is click "Watch Satellite" and that's it. No more instructions scratched on a piece of paper.
I managed to pick on up for around $180 on ebay, and even at that price it seems high, but I do enjoy having one remote again and even more so one that is easy to setup and use. In fact, I will probably get one for my father in law for Christmas if he doesn't get one before then.
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