Harmony 880 First Impression

Got it in Friday and have been messing around with it all weekend. Here are my initial impressions.

Day 1 (Saturday).
Right of the box, the included CD wouldn't load (Cyclical Redundancy Check error). No worries. Downloaded the newer software from Logitech.

Programming is done online. I believe the programming settings are saved on Harmony's website which means you have to log in and I imagine Internet connection is a must. When updating the remote, it's a bit slow.

Ergonomics suck. The buttons are small. The numeric pad is at the bottom of the remote instead of at the top. If you have large fingers, hands, nails, you may run into problems. Ditto if you have poor eyesight.

Unit comes with a rechargable battery and charging station. Cool. I'm not having problems with the remote sitting in the charger so far. This has been a chief complaint online.

Initial installation and setup is easy. Charge the remote, connect it to your PC, load the software, enter the model number of your devices, press "Update Remote."

Initial first run is mediocre. There are default settings for your equipment. However, it doesn't all work or it works in a non-intuitive way or there are minor annoyances. My Squeezebox 3 control functioned sometimes.

First Day Summary:
I was excited when I opened it but I grew frustrated with it. I don't think this will replace all my remotes. Definitely a remote for the wife but I'll keep the other remotes nearby for me unless I can tweak it.


Day 2 (Sunday).
The color screen displays eight Activities at a time. I didn't like the default so I started tweaking it. I changed the names so instead of Watch DVD1, DVD2, DVD3, they now read Watch HDDVD, Watch Blu-ray, Watch Buffalo (Linkstation).

Within each activities, you can change the device, the order of the device (e.g. turn on receiver/amp, then TV, then HD-DVD player), the delay settings, and Customize the remote buttons (the real buttons at the bottom) and set the screen display.

I'm really happy now. For example, in the middle of the remote is POV (joystick terminology) with an OK button in the middle, an up and a down button below it, a Vol +/- sliver of a button to the left of the POV, and a similar sliver of a CH +/- button to the right. All of these can be redefined. I hate the tiny volume and channel side buttons so I moved them to the POV for the TV activity but for my SACD player I moved the volume to the up/down buttons and use the POV for Disc Up/Down and PreviousTrack, NextTrack.

As for the menu screen, you can get buried in pages of controls so I leave the features I use more often like SACD/CD and MULTI/CH2 on the top menu and move the controls I don't use often to the next menu page (e.g. Check, Clear, Level Adj).

In other words, you can modify to your heart's content. Time consuming yes but the end result is a much easier and more functional remote. The defaults rarely maps all the features of your device's remote over to the Harmony. You have to program the missing ones.

If there's not an option listed for a certain button, the 880 is also a learning remote capable of reading and storing the IR signal. However, since it's IR, you can't use it for your Playstation 3 unless you get the IR adapter for the PS3. Regardless, at least I can now hit "Play Blu-Ray" and have the TV and receiver set correctly before picking up the PS3 remote. Nice. You can also program a button to run multiple commands using the "Add Sequence" button under "Customize Button" on the Activities tab. I haven't tried this yet.

Not everything is intuitive. I have my receiver connected to a PUREAV PF60 that powers everything on when the receiver comes on. Naturally, there's lag time between devices and this prevented the HD-DVD player from coming on because it was still waiting for power from the PF60. I spent an hour trying to tell the remote to power on the receiver, WAIT, WAIT, WAIT, power on the TV, then turn on the HD-DVD player by setting the delay on the receiver. In the end, it was the inter-delay setting that fixed the problem: delay setting from that device prior to sending commands to the next device. This didn't make sense since there were no devices after the HD-DVD which was what the Help menu suggested.

Speaking of Help, there's a Help button on the remote itself that works quite well if the series of commands don't work out. It basically goes through a series of troubleshooting questions with you to find a (temporary) fix.

One of my favorite feature is "Favorite Channel" for the "Watching TV" activity. You can program your favorite 16 channels into two menus (8 on the first page, 8 on the second page) and add icons for each channel. Cool. Makes me kinda wonder why I pay $$$ for 70+ channels and use mostly 16 stations. :rolleyes: Go here for icons: http://squareworld.com/harmony/. You can make your own and create your own pics for the remote's screensaver.

Second Day Summary:
The remote is okay right out of the box and is probably pretty good for folks with simple setups. If your AV rack is a mountain of equipment, you'll definitely need to spend time tweaking each activity and each component, especially if you're a control freak. Also, the harder and more elaborate your setup is, the harder and more time consuming your programming will become. In the end, it's definitely well worth the effort to consolidate 8 remotes down to 2 for $99 (Amazon sale).

Well, back to work with me. I still have 6 more components to tweak.