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User reviews for the Harmony 880 / H880 from Logitech.
Ratings
Reviews
MSRP (USD)
Average: 3.36/5.00 Median: 3.83/5.00
46
$250
The H880 is the first Harmony with a color LCD screen. It also offers their famous activity-based concept for 15 devices, web-enabled setup with USB connection, television program guide and a rechargable lithium ion battery.
The reviewer has used this remote control for 1-3 months.
Review 39 made on Saturday July 28, 2007 at 9:58 AM.
Also owned:
MX500
Strengths:
Very easy to program with the on line account page. When I had to call Tech Support they were GREAT! No wait, patient and polite... fixed me up in no time! I like the activities field that allows you to go from one activity to another (tv watching to watch dvd) in a press of a button. So far so good!
Weaknesses:
Lcd screen could be bigger/ and brighter
Review:
On line set up is a snap! Just plug in to the USB and off you go! Tech Support is Great! *(not sure why so many people bag on Lt's Tech Support). Overall, very pleased with ease of use, functionality, and have had zero problems with battery charger as reported by so many others. The remote is controlling my HK 7300 Receiver, Toshiba XA2 HD DVD Player, Fios HD Box and My Hitachi 70' . Good remote for the $
The reviewer has used this remote control for 6-12 months.
Review 38 made on Friday July 20, 2007 at 11:49 AM.
Strengths:
Excellent. Good as it gets.
Weaknesses:
None that I can find.
Review:
At first I found this quite daunting - intimidating would be the word. After the first few times I used it I found some things counter-intuitive. After using it for more than 7 months now, having updated by DVD player and switching from Cable to Bell Express VU and a change to a 9200 PVR I have found this remote to be the MOSt flexible, best designed setup for a web based remote I have seen.
Once you realize the complexity of designing a system that will handle 99.999% of the users and the reasoning behind the steps taken to add devices, complete activities and enter additional commands it becomes apparent that this remote handles it all.
First step Finding all your devices and getting them into the device. After updating the remote check to make sure all the various devices turn on, switch off, and all the buttons that YOU WILL NEED are available.
2nd step is planning your activities. What do you want to do with the remote. You want it all on one button. This WILL take planning. Heck, this thing will switch on or off your lighting, open or close curtains, turn on a receiver and change to a channel, turn on the TV and select the input, turn up or down the volume, switch an HDMI switch to the proper input, turn on an audio amp, select inputs, select equalizer preferences and set the volume to just where you want. By selecting various device controls that are buried deep in the device you can elevate them to be 'on top' i.e. Skip Fwd, PIP, Swap, Aspect Ratio etc can all be added to be right at your finger tips. All with ONE button. Then, as with my case, you can go into another room and have it control another completely different set of equipment.
However, it does take time. And as with ANY device that plans to make things more automatic, the more things you want done with one button the more complicated the setup. "Garbage in - garbage out"! You want to say "Hello world" you can code that in machine code with 25 or 30 bytes. You want Excel to start with a particular spread sheet and run a salary calculation for 350 employees every 2nd Thusday morning at 8:30am it will take a couple of million lines of code.
Most of the problems I see with this remote, whether in this conference or on Logitech's site have to do with people wanting to unpack it, stick in the batteries, point it at the entertainment centre and have it READ YOUR BLOODY MIND. Sorry, it doesn't work that way.
My 880 is my most prized possession. If my wife said, "its me or the remote", I'd sure miss her. To paraphrase Mr. Heston, "You can have my 880 when you can pry it from my cold dead fingers" !
The reviewer has used this remote control for 6-12 months.
Review 37 made on Friday June 8, 2007 at 5:09 AM.
Also owned:
Harmony 659 4 others that I do not remember specifics on
Strengths:
Activity functions, PC programmable, recharging cradle, motion-activated back-light, comfortable in hand, and it's ability to remember what has been turned on outside of the current activity.
Weaknesses:
Sometimes does not start charging when placed in cradle, not enough themes available for the on-screen menu, and can (not often, though) cause some confusion when used by someone visiting.
Review:
I'm very surprised at how many bad (horrible, actually, being basically the lowest possible ratings) reviews are posted for this remote compared to positive ones. Generally, when looking at reviews for products, I read but then disregard reviews that rate products at the lowest possible scores. Due to the number of these types of reviews I saw on here for this remote, I paid a bit more attention and decided to post my own views as well as point out some short-comings other's stated that may not be entirely accurate...
First off, this remote has been one of the easier to set up that I have used. The remote connects to your computer via a USB cable, which has a 5-pin USB connector on the remote's end. The software is simple to install and get running as well, as it took about 5 minutes before I had the software installed and my account created and logged in. (Note: ALWAYS download the most recent software from the manufacturer's website... the installation cd that comes with the remote will be out-dated as basically every one from every product is, so this will save some time and help to avoid any issues that may be associated with the original cd's installation software.)
The remote now (in comparison with the Harmony 659, at least) uses it's own software application instead of a web browser to do the entire set-up, which is always welcome by me as I do not like hardware that automatically launches anything third-party when plugged in. When first logged in, you will see three tabs toward the top that, in order, are "Activities," "Devices," and "Remote Settings."
The activities tab will be the default selection and has the options for adding an activity or re-ordering the activities. Also, since it has been such a long time since I first ran the software, I cannot remember if there were any activities listed on the first time running it. Once you have devices added (below), you can create your own activities or let the software automatically recommend activities for you. The wizard that you can use to set the activities up is simple and straightforward, but make sure you know what settings you need your devices to be on in order to perform the activity such as what input selection your tv needs to be on to display from a dvd player. Another option for the activities is the ability to name and re-name the activities to whatever you would like to help make what the activity does easy to understand (i.e. instead of "Play Game Console," "Play Game Console 2," and "Play Game Console 3," you can rename to "Play Xbox 360," "Play PS2," and "Play Nintendo Wii") For each activity, you can also select advanced options that help to fix some issues encountered while using the remote such as selecting to leave the devices from the current activity on when switching to a new activity even if they are not used for the new one. This is extremely helpful for me whenever I want to switch from my paused game on my Xbox 360 to watch tv. It is very simple to delete activities you do not want as well... simply click the trash can icon on the top right of the unneeded activity and confirm you want it to be deleted. Finally, I really like the fact that the order of the activities can be changed, because it allows me to put them in the order of the frequency used.
When the devices tab is selected you have the option of adding a device. Adding the device is simple and asks a few straightforward questions. If the device is missing any controls, the software can learn using the original remote and the infrared receiver on the remote. There are advanced settings available for the devices as well. One of my favorite features is found here and is the option to change the delay (speed or response time) of the remote's commands to the specific device. The delay can range from no delay at all up to a 60 second delay, in 1/10th second intervals, before the next command is sent from the remote which helps to get every device moving/responding as fast as possible.
Under the remote settings tab, you can manage your remotes, change the display settings, set the remote's background, set up a slide show, and select a theme for your remote's on screen menu. With managing your remotes, if you upgrade to another model Harmony you can make the change here. In display settings, you can set the backlight's glow time, turn on the motion-sensing capability for the backlight, set up the clock, turn on/off the help function, and turn on/off the remote assistant. For the background, you can use the default one or select a custom background from a picture stored on your computer. With the slide show, you can select up to 8 images to display when the remote is not in use. Under the theme option, you can select from a few different themes for the icons and background of your remote though they generally just change the font or text size with the exception of one soccer theme. My gripe with the themes is that there is no variety... where's the themes for other sports like baseball or themes for movies, games, etc.? I find myself settling with the default....
After everything is set the way you want it (took me about 15 minutes for 7 activities and 9 devices), click the "Update Remote" button on the top right portion of the application and within a half-minute or so, you're ready to go. The software asks you to go check to make sure everything is working correctly after finishing the update and if not, will help you troubleshoot problems you run into.
Actual use of the remote is very satisfying for me, and it is very comfortable to hold in hand. I do not feel the buttons are too small or hard to locate. When running an activity, there is a symbol at the top of the remote's screen showing that it is sending signals to the devices, so make sure to keep the remote pointed at the devices until all commands have completed for the activity. Turning everything off is also simple, but once again you need to make sure to keep the remote pointed to the devices until it has finished. This can cause confusion with friends or other visitors that are not familiar with the way the remote works by the result of devices being left on after pressing the off button. The life of the remote is great as well. I get around 5 days with moderate usage of the remote before the battery meter shows it is getting low. This brings me to the charging cradle for the remote...
The charging cradle looks very good aesthetically and charges the remote within a few hours when the remote is at zero battery power. I have had some problems with the base not charging the remote, but found that any debris such as dust or hair in the cradle and around the contacts for both the cradle and the remote are the cause of this problem. Simply wiping the cradle down and making sure the contacts are clean has fixed the problem every time, but I do wish that the contacts weren't so sensitive to foreign objects.
I have also never in the year I have owned the remote needed to use the help or remote assistant. This is an extremely satisfying thing to me. :-)
I have changed tv's 3 times and also switched out other components of my home theater such as the receiver and had no issues reconfiguring the remote to work with the new devices.
Overall, I am very satisfied with this remote and do not see a need to replace it for quite a while.
The reviewer has used this remote control for under 1 month.
Review 36 made on Sunday February 18, 2007 at 9:17 PM.
Also owned:
Sony AV2500
Strengths:
USB interface to PC for programming, flexibility in configuration of the remote, extensibility via web based database, learning capability and activity based operation.
Weaknesses:
It would be beneficial if the interface offered an "advanced" mode in order to bypass many of the steps required for making common changes.
Review:
I read many of the reviews of the Logitech Harmony 880 here and was almost driven away from this remote by them. Of course, my requirements and expectations may vary from those of the more negative reviewers. Activity based operation was a key for me in order to make a complex theater system usable by others.
I really wanted the ability to configure the remote as I desired using the larger, more intuitive interface made available by a PC. I then wanted to upload that configuration into the remote. This remote delivered that very effectively and I have become quite familiar with the interface so that fine tuning and changing equipment will be easy to accommodate.
I was able to define my devices rapidly from the Logitech Internet database that the desktop software uses. Every piece of my equipment was present and its buttons were defined correctly. I also like the ability to update its firmware and software via Internet download.
I found a few spots where I wanted to teach different commands from those provided and that was very easy to do with this device. It offers the ability to select several keys to learn in succession and then teach those keys from the original remote by pressing the original key for each function when prompted.
The device has its IR receiver at the back of the unit with the IR emitter and USB connector at the front. This allows the remote to be plugged into the USB cable while the IR port for learning commands is not blocked by the USB cord. This is a very convenient arrangement.
I configured my 6 devices: a projector, DVD player, two amplifiers, an MP3 player and room lights. Then defined 4 activities: Watch HD Tivo, Watch a Movie, Listen to a CD and Listen to Digital Music. Each of these activities sets up its own inputs for video and sound as needed as well as room lighting levels.
The activities start each required piece of equipment in the proper order. When you switch between activities it turns off any unneeded devices and turns on any new ones required by that activity. Even niceties can be automated, like opening the tray on the DVD player to accept a disk when the Watching a Movie activity is chosen.
The remote sits on a tray which serves as its charger. Some have complained about the run time of the remote out of the charger. For me that is a non-issue since the remote does just fine for hours of viewing or listening. Once a session is over it goes back into the charger. The charger tray is lit with a blue light making it easy to place the remote in the charger when the room is dark.
I like the motion sensing backlight which turns on the display with any movement of the device. My previous device did not do this, requiring me to locate the "light" button in the dark to get the LCD to illuminate.
Overall I am very pleased with the device and its functionality for my purpose.
The reviewer has used this remote control for under 1 month.
Review 35 made on Sunday February 4, 2007 at 3:31 PM.
Also owned:
Mx-500 Mx-3000
Strengths:
Looks Nice
Weaknesses:
Small Buttons
Review:
First of all, the buttons are small and very close together. You have to look at the remote real good before you push a small button, and forget about using your finger use a toothpick. And second,I have a good size system and this remote just cant handle it.
The reviewer has used this remote control for 6-12 months.
Review 34 made on Wednesday January 24, 2007 at 2:15 PM.
Also owned:
sony commander
Strengths:
looks. while it was working it was ok.
Weaknesses:
customer support
Review:
I bought the 880 after being unable to get the sony to control all my equipment. I admit I'm not an electronics guru but I was able to get the harmony to work with just a couple of calls to tech support which was helpful and fairly quick. Every thing was fine until one day the remote is placed on the charger and it doesn't charge and the battery goes dead. I had heard there had been some problems with the charging cradles so I call harmony and they tell me they will have one out in 48-72 hours. I think well that sounds great, so I wait the 72 hours and nothing now it is the weekend so I call the first of the week and the customer service rep has my incident number but no idea what I'm talking about 48-72 hours that it will be 5-10 days starting now because it was approved but not initiated. I get the cradle in about 10 days and guess what it doesn't work. I left the remote on for about six hours and no charge at all. I call harmony back. Their response is it takes 8-10 hours to charge (it had been 6) and for me to leave it on the cradle overnight. I did it didn't help. I call back and eventually get a level 2 tech, he tells me he will send me a new remote and cradle it should be here in 5-10 days. I wait 8 days and nothing. I call back and the customer service person says she can see my RMA but can't tell me if it has been shipped or when it may ship. I ask to speak to a supervisor and after going through all the same stuff with her giving the pid and p/n numbers she says she will get me a new unit and cradle and that I should have it within 5-10 days. That is where we stand now, I'm wainting another 5-10 days. I know this is long but this is the worst customer service ever. I've had to call at least twice every step of the way and they have yet to do what they said on the first call. Assuming I get the remote in 10 days it will have been almost 2 months since my initial call to harmony. I for one have had it with harmony.
The reviewer has used this remote control for under 1 month.
Review 33 made on Friday January 5, 2007 at 5:58 PM.
Strengths:
Good looking, Unique.
Weaknesses:
Pain in the ass
Review:
I have spent over 10hours on the phone with customer service trying to get this remote to do what I want. After that it works well changes inputs correctly which is very nice. I was impressed by engineering behind it and all the custom settings. BUT HOWEVER, I'm very dissappointed in the remote. To pay 250 and the darn thing will not turn off my TV under a certain activity. I've spent 3hours on the with second tier support trying to get this thing to turn off my TV under this activity and it just will not do it. To spend 250 and have to use help all the time is ridiculous. It worked for a while then a week later it craped out again. I am very dissappointed that this high end remote cannot do such a simple function as turning off my TV under a certain activity. For this reason I give logitech's Harmony 880 a poor review.
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