|
|
Logitech Harmony One Advanced Universal Remote
Average Customer Rating:  
List Price:
$249.99
Asia Trips Trips Price:
$219.99
Your Savings: $ 30.00 ( 12% )
Subject To Change Without Notice
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Logitech
|
|
|
Batteries Included: 0
Binding: Electronics
Brand: Logitech
EAN: 0097855046673
Feature: Easy Internet-based setup
Is Autographed: 0
Is Memorabilia: 0
Label: Logitech
Manufacturer: Logitech
Model: ONE
Publisher: Logitech
Studio: Logitech
Warranty: 1 year warranty
|
|
|
Features
|
Easy Internet-based setup
Dedicated on-screen activity buttons
Color LCD touch screen
Contoured backlit buttons
Can learn IR codes from existing remote controls
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Editorial Reviews:
|
Logitech knows who you are. You have a half-dozen remotes on the coffee table. And you're the only one in the family who knows how to use them. Logitech can help with the Harmony One Advanced Universal Remote. Enjoy a full-color touch screen. Intuitive button layout. And an ergonomic design. So easy to use, the whole family will love it.
|
|
|
Spotlight customer reviews:
|
Customer Rating:
Summary: The best REMOTE yet
Comment: I have been using this remote for over a month now. Not one complaint. The best thing about Harmony is their CUSTOMER SERVICE. It is by far the best there is on the net.
Customer Rating:
Summary: best remote...EVER
Comment: Amazingly simple to set up. Works like a champ. Flawlessly controls tv, dvd, a/v receiver, and DISH satellite box. Setup took only minutes to complete, and was easily customized to match my preferences. Had a Phillips Pronto before, Logitech blows it away. Best part is, everyone in the household can use it!
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Harmony One universal remote control
Comment: I like the fact that this unit has a removable, rechargeable, battery. Unlike a lot of products, if the battery fails it will be easy and cheap to replace.
I found that the initial setup pretty straightforward. It took perhaps 45 minutes for the first attempt. I then had to go back a couple of times to make minor adjustments. Editing the settings is simple.
The default settings for controlling the various components work very well. I found that all of the common commands are available as a push button. Less frequently used commands are accessed using soft keys on the touch screen.
My biggest dislike is the feel of the unit. It has an ergonomic shape that positions your hand for pushing the most commonly used buttons. But the numeric keypad is located too low on the unit so it is difficult to push the numbers while holding the unit in one hand and the touch screen is located too high for one handed use. I end up using two hands to push the numeric keys or to use the touch screen. The vol and channel up/down keys are better located so channel surfing one handed works OK. The keys are a bit on the small side and have a very short throw with a noticeable click to them.
I don't much care for the very shiny finish on the unit. It makes it look a bit cheap, which at nearly $200 it is not. At that price this is a luxury item for me and is a bit hard to justify buying. But it did allow me to get four remote controls off of my coffee table. Cheaper universal remotes that I have tried in the past where not worth the trouble. This one does do what they claim.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Solid, as far as universal remotes go
Comment: I was a very early user of this product and have been fairly pleased with it now that I've gotten used to a few minor glitches.
Setup is a bit complicated--you need to connect it to your computer via an included USB cable and identify all of your electronic components by Model Number, as well as what port they're all hooked into (e.g. my directTV DVR is in my TV's HDMI port #1 and XBox 360 is in HDMI port #2). Once that's done, the remote works as advertised--a nice touch screen lets you "Watch TiVo" or "Play XBox" with one click--adjusting the TV, audio system, and various components. It *does* take a while (5 seconds?) for it to send all of the commands to the various devices and, if you're not pointing the remote at the device when it's sending the message, your device might miss the message. In that case, the Harmony One remote has a useful "Help" button, which almost always is able to correct the problem fairly quickly.
My one complaint here has to do with the design: too many important buttons are accessible via the touch screen. For example, I use the "List" button and the "Blue" button for my DirectTV DVR very frequently ("List" shows me all of my DVR-recorded shows and "Blue" lets me cycle through other channels while watching a program). Because these are only accessible via the densely packed touch screen, I regularly hit incorrect buttons, which puts my TV into a funny state. It's very annoying and so it's therefore more work to press these buttons...
My remote also seems to have a bug in that it regularly loses the time (the remote has a clock on it which is frequently wrong for me). Not a big deal, though, since it's purely a cosmetic feature.
Overall, this Harmony One is a solid device with a few minor quirks.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Can't program individual buttons
Comment: My wife and daughter love this remote. I've lived with the softkeys of the Marantz 'remote of the gods' for more years than I can remember. The coolest thing about that remote was that every single button on the remote could be programmed for an individual device, plus 4 pages with 10 softkeys per page.
It took a lot of time to program each button on the old Marantz. It took even more time to program each macro. But when you had it almost set up right, you knew what little things you still had to reprogram and you could do just that.
But once you were done, you were the only one who knew how to use the thing, unless you engaged in continual spousal training.
I'm convinced that remote was designed by a man who wanted a great excuse to hog the remote.
The H1, like all the Harmony task-based remotes, auto-programs its macros according to tasks you give it. you can also give it more advanced tasks, like switching your receiver's DSP input from coax to optical when going from DVR box to DVD player, and vice versa. You can program those steps right into the "watch a DVD" or "watch TV" macros. With the Marantz, you could program dozens of macros into the thing, but except for macros 1, 2, 3 and 4, only you knew the supersecret locations of the macros and how to run them. Plus, who besides you knew that the big '1' button powered up the whole system for TV, and the big '4' button powered it all down, with '2' and '3' serving to switch between dvd and TV?
Even a gadget freak like me can draw the line at multiple thousands of dollars for a TV. I intend to go on using my good ol' Panasonic Superflat 36 incher until the day it dies. I'm much more about the sound than the picture. My receiver is the third big Marantz that has driven my 5 KEF Reference satellites. No puny little eggs here: the speakers mounted at the corners of my 5.i system were each over $600 when new. The center channel was more. I want that room to sound good.
When the Panny gives up the ghost I'll be able to use those fancy HDMI thingies on the back of the receiver with a real live Blu-Ray player and HD DirecTV, and either a really good projector and screen or a very large direct view HDTV. For now, it's DVD and standard def.
The H1 works very well for almost all of it--except for one major hole that irks me in my system.
When I want to control basic TV functions like subtitles, the up-down-left-right buttons on the Harmony 1 work fine--but the center 'select' button does not work. If the remote were programmable like the old Marantz, you could just make that center button memorize its function in TV mode. But with Harmony you're stuck with whatever the Mother Ship does. And Logitech has decided to place the 'select' button up in the touchscreen and call it 'action.' So every time you want to do something that ought to be intuitive, you have to search the screen for that action button before you can do it. And since this type of action requires multiple presses of that button, that means multiple chances for error on the touchscreen. You might accidentally press the page turn softkey or the "activities" softkey, both of which will then require you to page back to the screen you need just to press that damn action button.
It's annoying in the extreme, and though it doesn't ruin the experience it makes it unpleasant.
I'm sure I'll put up with it until I switch TVs. If it happens with a different TV I'll be back to reduce my rating from 4 stars to 3. The thing is supposed to work, isn't it?
Of course, with a function list as deep as a Marantz home theater receiver, you can't expect the H1 to be able to completely mimic the remote that came with the device. Thankfully Marantz has placed most of the receiver's functions in onscreen menus, which the H1 navigates with ease. And unlike with the Panny, with the Marantz receiver the "select" button actually "selects" what you click on, thank God.
It also does a very good job of mimicking the DirecTV DVR remotes. I still prefer tactile buttons for red, yellow, blue and green. But there's nothing that can be done about that with a universal remote. This one goes about the solution quite elegantly, with full color buttons on the touchscreen. Way to go, Logitech. The other buttons do what you hope and expect them to do. As remote control technology advances, a lexicon is slowly developing for remote functions that hopefully soon will become more of an 'industry standard' cross-platform programming language. If and when that develops more fully, universal remotes like the H1 will become even more powerful devices that will mesh more completely with the equipment they're designed to control.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
