alanmak's Full Review: Logitech Harmony® 880 LCD Remote Control
Firstly, let me get the obvious out of the way - no universal remote is as good as the original unit that came with your component. But, the 880 comes close.
The 880 is a replacement for my three year old Sony Commander (the brick with the touchscreen). The Sony is ok with Sony components, but pretty well sucks with everything else. (The left/right for my digital box were reversed on the Sony?!).
The main selling points of the 880 are as follows:
1. Ease of use (programming and controlling functions).
Programming the 880 is a breeze. The included software installs on your windows (or mac) desktop. Enter your components (make and model), then answer a bunch of questions on how you use your equipment. The software figures out what needs to be done and turns on the equipment, figures out the input channel, turns off the unused equipment, etc. Pretty neat.
Once you've answered the questions, you hook up the 880 with a supplied USB cord to your PC and the remote will be updated for all of your preferences.
The only hitch I have had is that I prefer to leave my AV receiver on all the time. It took a few minutes to figure out how to navigate through the advanced, manual preferences menu, and then it took a couple attempts at uploading the preferences. (The first time I uploaded, it screwed up the rest of the settings.)
2. The Help Function
If anything happens, like a component doesn't turn on, the remote has a handy "Help" button. Answer a series of Yes/No questions as the remote tries to address your concern. It fixes itself!
The neat thing is, once it fixes a problem, the remote automatically updates its settings so that the problem won't occur again.
3. Screen Customization
Not functionally important, but you can upload images to use as your background, or to use in a slideshow. Cool.
4. Tilt feature
The remote will go into standby mode after a preset period of time. A cool function is that the remote will "wake up" if you tilt the unit up or down. you don't have to press any buttons to make it active again.
Overall Construction and Use
The remote seems well constructed, but I wouldn't drop it too many times. The plastic seems brittle and the keys have a nice "click", but do not seem to be too securely fastened.
There are a lot of keys on this puppy. Given that real estate is at a premium, the keys are probably as big as they can be. Some different textures on the keys would have been a nice touch (pun intended). As it stands, you will need to take your eyes away from the TV to see what you are pressing.
Many reviewers have complained about the charging base and how difficult it is to get the unit onto the base properly. I have no idea what they are talking about. The handset slides easily into the base. It is easy to know when it is properly mated because there is an audible "beep".
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