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 enlarge | Brand: Logitech
Category: CE
List Price: $249.99
Buy New: $136.51
You Save: $113.48 (45%)
New (60)
Avg. Customer Rating:  1407 reviews
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Shipping Weight (lbs): 4
Dimensions (in): 6.5 x 10.5 x 6.5
Legal Disclaimer: Warranty does not cover misuse of product.
Warranty: 1 year warranty
MPN: 966187-0403
Model: 966187-0403
UPC: 097855031792
EAN: 0840356603636
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 Probably the Last Harmony remote before Logitech destroys the company December 14, 2005
38 out of 46 found this review helpful
I've had 4 harmony remots and been a user since the first model came out. everything work on all the remotes. My latest remote is the 688 which came out right when Logitech was buying the company... I have watch Logitech infuse their horrific customer support, total lack of driver updates, and pathetic coding work jsut eat away at a great product. The 880/890 was in development at the time and will probably be the last real harmony remote, going forward I'm sure it will all be based on Logitechs incompetent engineering department to push out a defective product.
The key to the Harmony remote is the website which customizes your remote and updates the firmware, allows you to add devices etc... The site under Harmony's control was a little slow and dated, but it did everything and worked perfectly. Logitech has come along and now made it so you can not choose the order of your customized buttons, you get 6 per page, but logitech wants to alphabetize it for everyones inconvience... so your least used buttons on the top, and important buttons such as power are 5 menu's into the remote. Different activities use to have independant buttons you could customize... until logitech stepped in and now anytime you add a button to one activity for a particular device... it now shows up in ALL of your activities. i.e. for your receive if you want to have a button availble while watching a DVD, you would add it to the DVD activity... but now logitech makes that button appear while just watching TV, or listening to a CD.
One last thing, since logitech took over they no longer maintain their IR code database and it has fallen into complete shambles. If you try and add your TV, i.e. Samsung DLP HL-P4674, instead of seeing the TV and adding it as it would in the past when Harmony was running things... now you will get hundreds of TV's all with slight variations in the model number because users are making custom labels and have full access to add garbage to the master database, now you will see hLp4674, HLP-4674, Hpl4674, hlp46744, and so on... now because these are all inputted by users, 1/2 of the TV's don't work, the IR codes are wrong, they are missing commands, or have incorrect labels i.e. PowerToggle, PowerToggle1, PowerToggle2, PowerOff, PowerOn, PwrTgl1, PwrTgl2, Power, Pwr, Powr... etc... and you could spend hours trying to figure out how the frig' to turn on and off your TV... and every change to the remote is a solid 5 minute upload, verify, reboot process, then go test with TV, then come back, rinse, repeat.
Logitech has been cripling this product since the first week they took over. It's still a good product overall, but I can tell you that if you think this thing is easy to use... you are sorely mistaken... with Logitech's new web site as your backbone you WILL spend 20-40 hours of effort trying to set this thing up... take a week of vacation for this one.
I hope logitech fires all the staff and starts off fresh with some people who know what they are doing... this one's slipping quickly. and at a price of $200+ I demand more customer server and a better interface.
Just to give you an idea of how back-ass-ward Logitech is... go visit the support forums and you won't find anywhere to get support on the Harmony remotes. Then go look at their products page, and you can't find a picture of their products larger then a thumbnail, click the larger picture view and it pulls up a medium size thumbnail.... you can't see any of the buttons or anything... that's the level of effor they put into trying to sell a $250 remote... imagine the effort they put into supporting it after the sale!
 In a perfect world versus the real world October 5, 2006
37 out of 44 found this review helpful
This remote, when it works, is incredibly good. Now that I do not have it, I miss it terribly. This remote could replace all of your remotes. So when you want to watch TV with a home stereo system, it controls all of your equipment. It rocks. It has a cradle that allows to recharge the system so you don't have to depend on batteries. It is perfect in a perfect world.
In the real world, this will die within a year because the remote's contacts will no longer be able to contact the cradle. Then the battery will slowly die. Then you will have a very, very small brick. Then you will call Logitech technical support and then you will be very, very disappointed. You will wait weeks for an answer. You will get none. You will call them and give Tier 1 all of your information and then give Tier 2 the exact same information. And then you will receive no useful information. And then you will wait. And then you will do it again. And then you will repeat this again and again.
[Update] Second charger dies 6 months later.
 Best I have seen - so far - for the money (UPDATED) January 17, 2006
36 out of 39 found this review helpful
I have been through a large number of universal remotes. This remote is light years ahead of the previous models Harmony has come out with, and really delivers outstanding bang for the buck. I say this from an ergonomics as well as functional standpoint.
The screen is beautiful and highly legible. Icons as well as text make choosing an activity easy to understand and execute. The buttons are extremely solid. Much better than the 688 that I also own. It was quickly relegated to the bedroom system when I saw this unit.
The keys are MUCH better located and logical. On the 688 you had to turn on the backlight to press any button because none were in a position that you could feel your way to them. On the 880 they are pretty much right where they need to be. The 4-way directional control and select buttons are very easy to find in the dark and the function is rock-solid, no question as to whether it's been pressed enough, and the command signals are very strong, so it's not usually necessary to point right at the equipment.
For those of you who have never tried or maybe even heard of the Harmony line, you will love the internet-based simplicity of the programming. This interface has not changed since I first got my 688. To control both remotes, I had to add another userid/password, so I was unable to transfer any of my commands from my previous unit to my new one. This is a small peeve.
Some notes on programming. The initial setup could not be easier, you just type in your equipment model numbers and it adds them to your remote. It found every piece of equipment I own easily, and some of my stuff is obscure. Then, you set up activities, like "Watch TV" and the website creates that activity instantly. Sometimes no tweaking is involved whatsoever, and sometimes you do have to either add or change equipment included in that activity or add a few buttons to the existing commands available when doing that activity. Here is where experience pays off. It's not 100% intuitive how to add soft buttons, nor is it always clear whether you need to train the remote by using the original remote for that command or whether that command is already trained and just needs to be added. Also, I found that often you need to relabel an existing command so that it reflects what is on the original remote, which means that the Harmony database is not perfect.
However, the database gets you 95% of the way there, and after you play around with the website a bit, you start to understand it and can soon get to the point of customizing it exactly as you wish. In the end, I probably spent two hours to get my 880 to operate exactly as I wanted. But I'm pretty picky; many users may be happy with it after the first 5 minutes of programming. You will all be impressed by the enormous size of the Harmony database, and by the simple function of the remote.
It is rechargeable as well. This is a big bonus compared with the previous Harmony 688. Another thing I really liked: even when the 880 is out of its cradle, it knows when you pick it up, and automatically lights up. I cannot hear any type of mechanical sensor rattling around in there, but somehow it knows when it is moved and gets ready for your input. I love this simple feature. Would be interested to know how it does that.
All in all, I say it is probably not quite as good as having a Pronto or other really high end remote, but it is far easier to program, performs perfectly once correctly programmed, and costs MUCH MUCH less than any other remote with its power. The screen is sharp and beautiful, the keys function great. I have nothing but good things to say. I don't think you can go wrong for the price.
UPDATE 4/21/06: On this morning, my remote stopped working. I contacted customer support and was quickly handled. They are going to send me a new remote. Lucky for me, the new one will be able to be completely reprogrammed by connecting it and downloading all my existing codes. I will update again once this is accomplished if there are any issues. Otherwise, I continue to rate this item a 5-star pending the results of this warranty issue.
Update 5/22/06: The replacement remote came on schedule and has been working perfectly. Logitech's RMA system and follow-up were very professional and prompt.
SAVE YOUR MONEY! November 26, 2005
29 out of 39 found this review helpful
I purchased this particular remote almost four months ago. Giving it an honest evaluation here, I must admit I have made a terrible mistake in purchasing it. I should have returned it after the first week. Hoping that this would be the "latest and greatest" remote out there for the money, I shelled out $285, only to be very, very disappointed. My wife had been wanting a remote that she was comfortable with to run most of our video/audio components........she is still wanting. One of our biggest gripes are the miniscule buttons.....too small for us with normal sized fingers and hands. This remote should come with a magnifying glass, or stylus? Watching a good dvd in subdued lighting in your home....then accidently bumping the wrong button....can be real exciting.....as in having most/all components switch off. All is preferred here as opposed to most. Oh well, whats another five minutes to turn on the lights, re-set the buttons on the 880, etc. Another gripe is the way this remote "re-sets" itself automatically...what gives? Mine is hardly consistent from one day to the next. Come on Logitech, you folks can do better. This has been really frustating, thinking you are controlling one component, when another component fires up......yes, I do know how to program the remote
(I build/program custom computers for a living). Bugs galore here, in my estimation for the Logitech 880. In summary, this little jewel was fairly easy to initially set-up....it's good looking...it's light weight....but this is not "it". If you can find one to "test drive" at a friends home or local store...this will give you a good idea what I am talking about. Save your money until something really good comes out.
Too many problems - Don't buy this September 26, 2005
28 out of 34 found this review helpful
I just returned our Harmony 880 after 30 days for several reasons (many are referred to in other posts, but here's my list):
1. Remote won't seat properly in the charger -- lots of fiddling around every time it needed a charge
2. The 880 would randomly forget the state that our system was in, and we would often have to reset its status manually for various components in our system
3. The 880's buttons are too small and close together; even for simple (and common)Tivo tasks like play, reverse and pause; we had to LOOK at it to use it, as opposed to FEELING which button to hit. We found it much less friendly to use than our stock Tivo remote
4. Slow response by our Tivo DVR to this control -- everything took longer to accomplish with the 880 than our Tivo control
I really liked the concept of the simplistic power up and switching for a particular activity. The 880 was a gift, and I really tried to like it, but just couldn't. When a relatively expensive product exhibits such poor engineering and attention to detail, I get turned off. The designers on this product were amateurs. This model has a poor quality design, poor ergonomics, and exhibits erratic behavior.
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