Logitech Harmony 880 remote

[jteezy]

anyone have one? How well does it work with Tivo

[Robart999]

I have one it works great. Can set it up the way you want and haven't had a problem yet.

[SJAndrew]

I received one as a birthday present.

It's a great looking remote and does indeed work fine. But, I still use my TiVo remote. It's just more intuitive and comfortable to use.

With the harmony, you have to scroll through the screens. With the regular remote, all the buttons are right there.

[Mr. Soze]

I received one as a birthday present.

It's a great looking remote and does indeed work fine. But, I still use my TiVo remote. It's just more intuitive and comfortable to use.

With the harmony, you have to scroll through the screens. With the regular remote, all the buttons are right there.
My hand and mind are well tuned to the Tivo remote, but I have set the Harmony up with my most used "other" buttons on the screen too.
I still have to look at the Harmony to work it which is bad, but I am getting there. I am not in love with the keys on the Harmony, but again, that's growing on me too.

[jennifer]

I bought one a few weeks ago, set it up but haven't used it much. I suppose it's because I rarely do anything other than watch via Tivo, so I don't need the functionality that the Harmony offers.

It's really pretty, though ;)

[Dennis Wilkinson]

I've been using one for a few months now, and I love it. The only time I have to look at it is when I use one of the less-frequently-used commands that I have on the screen buttons, which isn't all that often. Didn't take too long to navigate by feel once I remembered which buttons the little 'nubs' were attached to.

My wife likes it a lot more than the Pronto it replaced, but she still prefers the peanut to either.

[jteezy]

for those that own, does the remote buttons on the bottom light up? Being the number buttons and the play, ff, rwd, rec, etc?

Also, can someone who has the remote go on the harmony page and tell me if they have codes for the xbox 360 that is coming out in november and what functions it will support

[Dennis Wilkinson]

for those that own, does the remote buttons on the bottom light up? Being the number buttons and the play, ff, rwd, rec, etc?

They do - the white parts of the buttons have a blue backlight.

[ellinj]

I have a 676, its not as nice as the peanut IMHO, but it has become a necessity now that I have more components. I still find myself setting up the tv using the activiy button on the harmony and then using the peanut, when using Tivo.

[iDriveX]

I bought an 880 on my birthday. Unfortunately, the battery contacts are so recessed that it doesn't charge correctly. I contacted harmony support and they told me that a number of the 880's had this problem and asked for my name and address to send me a new base station. Unfortunately it has now been a month and a half and I do not have a base station, my remote's batter does not charge and I cannot return it to Best Buy because of their 30 day warranty. Harmony's customer service has been very non-customer servicey and all of my eMails asking for an update on the new base station have gone unanswered. In my experience, I would give this product a big thumbs down.

[davezatz]

Harmony's customer service has been very non-customer servicey and all of my eMails asking for an update on the new base station have gone unanswered. In my experience, I would give this product a big thumbs down.

Over the last two years or so, I've only good experiences with Harmony support - in fact probably the best tech support over that period of time versus other companies I've had the misfortune of dealing with.

They helped me customize some remote settings to deal with finicky components. Also my latest Harmony remote (the 529) has a jammed activity button and messed up tilt/glow sensor - it was no big deal to call in for a replacement (though I have to send the malfunctioning unit to Canada).

Have you called in directly and/or have you gotten a fuffilment/RMA number?

[Albertsanchez]

anyone have one? How well does it work with Tivo

I've had a Harmony remote for about 1 year now.

Much prefer the TIVO peanut, HOWEVER, I cannot program the peanut to control the volume on my sound system - so I have to use the Harmony.

Universal remotes seem to be an ergonomic compromise.

[shady]

I have the 880, and even though I prefer the feel of the peanut, the Harmony makes it so much easier to switch from watching DVDs to Tivo to my HD box etc.

I used to have a Pronto, but that was very cumbersome to program. The Harmony can be set up very easily from a web page on Harmony's site

[iDriveX]

No, no RMA or Fulfillment number because they don't want me to send anything back to them. They told me just to toss the old charging cradle. I finally got this response via eMail from them today 10/31 after my initial inquiry on 10/18:


I'm sorry to have to inform you that the new base stations are not yet available to send out to our customers. They have recently been shipped to North America from our production plant in China and await some further processing. We apologize for this as we are very aware that we have promised this unit to be delivered to you and many others weeks ago and are quite frustrated that we have not been able to fulfill that promise. As it stands the best answer we have been given is that they will be ready for shipping in 10 days. We do promise that you will receive your base station as soon as we are able to send it out to you.

Regards,

Harmony Technical Support

------------------------------------------

I understand that Harmony has great technical support, while my remote was working (the three days in which I didn't know the battery wasn't charging) they helped me out with my Sceptre LCD TV set. It was fantastic. It's the customer support people that seem to take long to get back to me. In my opinion 2 weeks to get back to someone regarding a simple question is way to long.

[jteezy]

got mine the other day and lovin it. Got it setup to work the tivo perfectly. Just found out that the Harmony 890 is coming out sometime this month. Same as the 880 but it does RF and IR. msrp is 400, wonder what it will go for on ebay

[tase2]

Personally I did not like the feel of the 880. It was very nice and fairly easy to set up, but I did not like the button placement or the look of the LCD buttons.

I traded for a HTM MX-700 and I am very happy with that decision.

[PhantomDilbert]

I have the Harmony 880 and love it. Even got the WSA (Wife's seal of approval). Upgraded from the Marantz Mark II.

I have a hd monitor, av receiver, tivo, dvd player, vcr, and digital cable box with various input selections and av settings and this worked pretty flawlessly for me.

i give it 4.5 out of 5 stars, losing .5 because it's still in the early adopter phase and think it will be a generation or two before i give it 5. I do have high standards though...

[jteezy]

can someone verify for me with their remote that there is a slight rattle inside the remote. Hold it up to your ear and shake it a little. Does is sound like a tiny ball bearing moving around inside. I was wondering if this is suppose to be happening or if there is something broken on the inside of mine. My remote is brand new. I am wondering if that bearing is what triggers the remote to power on when you pick it up. Is it acting as the tilt sensor?

[balboa dave]

can someone verify for me with their remote that there is a slight rattle inside the remote. Hold it up to your ear and shake it a little. Does is sound like a tiny ball bearing moving around inside. I was wondering if this is suppose to be happening or if there is something broken on the inside of mine. My remote is brand new. I am wondering if that bearing is what triggers the remote to power on when you pick it up. Is it acting as the tilt sensor?yes.

[davezatz]

yes.
It's also audible in the low-budget 520. :)

[lander215]

Anyone have any problems with the 880 and the Previous Channel button? I cannot get mine to work at all, it does nothing. Going to call tech support tonight but just thought I'd check here first in case it's a known issue.

[lamontcranston]

This is a great remote, had it about 6 months. Very high "wife acceptance factor". I've owned quite a few universal remotes and this one's about perfect. Two quick points, though. Out of the box, the button response is a lot slower than the peanut remote, and the ff/rew buttons are hard to find. Remotecentral.com has great advice on changing the number of repeats to speed up the remote, and it's very easy to map the up/down arrows (which are large and easy to see) to rewind and ff.

Lander215, I had an issue with the previous channel button and had to re-learn it from the peanut remote. Fine now.

[lander215]

Doh! Didn't think about just learning it from the peanut....great idea! Great idea also regarding the up/down arrows remapping to the skip/rewind.

[Lee L]

I need to check RC, but does anyone here have macros running on the 880 and also how programmable is it in general? I have a Pronto TSU3000 and like the 880 for its hard buttons, but want pretty custom functionality and macro control.

[BLeonard]

I bought the Harmony 659 when I got my new TV and home theater setup. It helps a lot and I use it to turn everything on with one button and let it select the appropriate component on the receiver, etc. and I use it to control my volume - but I haven't been able to put away my other remotes. When watching Tivo I still prefer my Tivo remotes and even the Cable HD-PVR is easier to control with their remote.

[PanamaGixxer]

for those that own, does the remote buttons on the bottom light up? Being the number buttons and the play, ff, rwd, rec, etc?

Also, can someone who has the remote go on the harmony page and tell me if they have codes for the xbox 360 that is coming out in november and what functions it will support


Given this announcement on their new 360 remote:

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/news/US/EN,contentid=11265,crid=34

I would only assume that they will support the 360 with the 880 (much higher end remote).

Anyone's thoughts on this?

[davezatz]

I would only assume that they will support the 360 with the 880 (much higer end remote). Anyone's thoughts on this?

All the remotes use the same database of IR codes... the difference with the new 360 is dedicated X, Y, A, B buttons. I assume we will be able to program other buttons or soft keys to handle this on different Harmony models.

[desulliv]

Harmony's customer service has been very non-customer servicey and all of my eMails asking for an update on the new base station have gone unanswered. In my experience, I would give this product a big thumbs down.
I bought one from Weaknees about two months ago. The unit would not charge at all. Called Logitech customer service and they said this was a known problem and within a few hours got an email and RMA to return the unit. They sent me a new one in about four days. That unit was chargeable and I was able to program it to run my TV, Tivo, Stereo Receiver, DVD and CD player. Worked great. Went in to tweak the programming and it hung up while communicating with the website. Now the Harmony site does not recognize the unit at all, so cannot do anymore programming. It still works for what I want and I haven't had time to call Harmony tech support--I did once but it rang without a pickup so I gave up.

BTW, I also e-mailed Weaknees at the time and they said they had not heard of this problem but were willing to replace the unit if Logitech was not responsive.

[lander215]

Got mine reprogrammed last night and, oddly enough, it wouldn't take the IR learning from the Tivo remote, but it took it from my MX500 (which learned it originally from my Tivo remote). Strange...the light on the Tivo would flicker amber when I pressed the Prev button, so it saw the IR command, but it wouldn't go to the previous channel. I then learned it from the MX and it worked like a charm.

Lee L - the programming of the 880 is done entirely on the web. Basically, you go through a process of telling it all the components that you have, and then how you want those components to interact. Go to their website and I think they have an overview that walks you through how it all works.

[Lex]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I was wondering if anyone had any experience using the Harmony 880 with 2 TiVos. I'm expecting my 880 to arrive today, but I hadn't considered the compatibility with 2 TiVo units. Thanks!

[NYHeel]

I also have 2 tivos but I'm looking at the 520. Does it work well with 2 tivos (obviously with different remote addresses).

[mportuesi]

Also my latest Harmony remote (the 529) has a jammed activity button and messed up tilt/glow sensor - it was no big deal to call in for a replacement (though I have to send the malfunctioning unit to Canada).

I just sent my malfunctioning 520 back to Canada for a replacement. Does Harmony tech support wait to receive the malfunctioning unit before they ship out a replacement? I'm already going through Harmony withdrawal.

My experience with them on the phone reporting the problem (row of dead pixels on screen) and working through their suggested fixes was very good, even though I ended up with an RMA# at the end of it.

[desulliv]

I just sent my malfunctioning 520 back to Canada for a replacement. Does Harmony tech support wait to receive the malfunctioning unit before they ship out a replacement? I'm already going through Harmony withdrawal.

My experience with them on the phone reporting the problem (row of dead pixels on screen) and working through their suggested fixes was very good, even though I ended up with an RMA# at the end of it.
I got my replacement in about four days after I called them. In fact, I still have to send them the malfunctioning unit--it wouldn't charge the battery.

[rsnaider]

I had my 880 replaced by filling out the form on Logitech's website. I got the brand new remote within a week and sent the old one back afterwards.

[mportuesi]

Bummer! I should have kept the old one and waited until I got the new one. It still worked, even though the screen was defective. Should have asked here first...

[Lex]

To answer my own question, controlling 2 TiVos with the 880 is a snap.

[alunj]

Hi Lex
how did you do it ?
I have the 880 and it seems to use the generic "0" remote codes. So my 880 changes both my UK Series 1 and my US DRT800. (i have the UK set to remote 3 and the US set to 7 i think)
Did you have to relearn codes from the original remotes ?

[pmarcos]

Yeah, do tell! :-) I had never found a way to change the remote code using the 880 so I just kept a second remote around for the second TiVo (which I didn't use very much anyway).

[Lex]

Since I've had these TiVos for a while and I've been using them with a TiVo peanut remote, I've had one set up with a remote address of 1 and the other with a remote address of 2. Maybe that's the key, to already have them set up with different remote addresses. Anyway, after that you just add the second TiVo if you haven't already, click "More Options", and then "Confirm infrared commands." You'll have to do a few button pushes with the peanut remote set to address 2 and then it's all set.

Edit: you may also have to "Confirm infrared commands" on the first TiVo. Sorry to have skipped that step in my original reply.

[HTH]

I've tried using my 880 to control multiple TiVos. My first mistake was telling it about my cable boxes: it kept turning them off. Also the responsiveness is slower than a TiVo peanut.

But it is nice to have the ability to put a unit to Standby from the remote.

[Lex]

Also the responsiveness is slower than a TiVo peanut.
The Series 2 peanuts are the slowest POSes out there. The Harmony 880 actually seems more responsive to me.

[Narkul]

The Series 2 peanuts are the slowest POSes out there. The Harmony 880 actually seems more responsive to me.

Slow in what?

I love the peanut remote. The buttons are just so darn intuitive. If only it had more functionality with other devices it would be the only remote I need.

Harmony remotes are virtually unusable to me. You gotta be a true couch potato to design a remote properly. Pretty remotes- but just too clumsy to use.

[Lex]

Slow in response to button pushes. Push the TiVo button and 2 seconds later the TiVo Central screen actually comes up. As for usability of the remote...being able to push one button and have all the proper components turn on and the correct video input selected on the TV to watch a DVD is priceless...especially when you have people who are unfamiliar with the system over (parents, in-laws, babysitters, etc.).

[ZeoTiVo]

Slow in response to button pushes. Push the TiVo button and 2 seconds later the TiVo Central screen actually comes up. As for usability of the remote...being able to push one button and have all the proper components turn on and the correct video input selected on the TV to watch a DVD is priceless...especially when you have people who are unfamiliar with the system over (parents, in-laws, babysitters, etc.).


the slow response is due to the TiVo and what it is doing rather than the remote.
It has to cache the menus in memory and if it dumps that cache for whatever reason then the menus get rebuilt which involves drive reads which take time.

[iDriveX]

I finally ended up getting a new base station for my harmony remote (880). It charged well by just gently placing it in the base station for about two days, then after that it just stopped charging, by putting pressure on the remote from the top, I could get it to charge but the second I took my hand off of it, it would stop charging. I am so sick of having to deal with Logitech's customer support that I now just put a heavy book on top of my remote to charge it every night. It's crude but it works.

[Narkul]

Slow in response to button pushes. Push the TiVo button and 2 seconds later the TiVo Central screen actually comes up. As for usability of the remote...being able to push one button and have all the proper components turn on and the correct video input selected on the TV to watch a DVD is priceless...especially when you have people who are unfamiliar with the system over (parents, in-laws, babysitters, etc.).

As posted above, the lag is in the TiVo box itself.

I agree that Logitechs activity based design is fantastic for those unfamiliar with operating a home theatre system, however, the button layout and size is awkward for those of us that watch tv in the dark and can't be bothered to light up the remote and actually look at it. When they manufacture one with a sensible button layout I'll certainly be the first in line to buy it and retire my mx500.

[iDriveX]

As posted above, the lag is in the TiVo box itself.

I agree that Logitechs activity based design is fantastic for those unfamiliar with operating a home theatre system, however, the button layout and size is awkward for those of us that watch tv in the dark and can't be bothered to light up the remote and actually look at it. When they manufacture one with a sensible button layout I'll certainly be the first in line to buy it and retire my mx500.

No offense but "bothered to light up the remote and actually look at it"? Well the lighting up the remote part involves picking it up, which you would do with a normal remote. And the cursory glance that is required to use it is hardly going to cramp your TV viewing style. You probably use a whole 7 buttons on the thing 90% of the time.

1. Click the "TiVo" activity button
2. Clicking the "TiVo" button
3. Clicking the Guide Button
4. Clicking the FF button
5. Clicking the Play Button
6. Clicking the Pause Button
7. Clicking the "Off" master button

If you have a hard time memorizing where 7 buttons are on a remote you use on a daily basis, you've got bigger problems than being bothered to light up a remote and actually look at it.

[Narkul]

No offense but "bothered to light up the remote and actually look at it"? Well the lighting up the remote part involves picking it up, which you would do with a normal remote. And the cursory glance that is required to use it is hardly going to cramp your TV viewing style. You probably use a whole 7 buttons on the thing 90% of the time.

1. Click the "TiVo" activity button
2. Clicking the "TiVo" button
3. Clicking the Guide Button
4. Clicking the FF button
5. Clicking the Play Button
6. Clicking the Pause Button
7. Clicking the "Off" master button

If you have a hard time memorizing where 7 buttons are on a remote you use on a daily basis, you've got bigger problems than being bothered to light up a remote and actually look at it.

I have no problem with the memorization, its just the buttons are so darn crammed together and poorly placed that its just way too easy to hit the wrong one.

A properly designed remote does not need to be lit up or even looked at to operate frequently used functions.

The only way logitech will make a better remote is if their current products recieve proper critisizm from the end user.

Once again, these remotes are designed to look pretty sitting on the coffee table at the expense of good button size and layout. I personally don't want to pay $200 for a remote thats pretty and the babysitter can use.

[Corey]

anyone have one? How well does it work with Tivo
If I had to do it over again, I would definitely NOT buy this remote.

1. Unlike a Logitech rechargeable mouse that you just sort of "plop" in to the cradle and it lines itself up, this remote you have to set very carefully into the charging cradle and keep jiggling it around until it sets in there just right. Be careful of bumping the table because that alone will be enough to cause it to lose contact and not charge.
2. Battery Life - only 3 days! Now, if you could just plop it in the charger every night and not worry about it, who cares if it's only 3 days. But, since it is so easy to not be aligned correctly and therefore not charging, 3 days is very short.
3. The first time I went on-line and created my account, configured the control and downloaded everything into the remote everything worked fine. In fact, I thought "this is COOL!". I then went back and added some more devices and now I can no longer get anything downloaded to the remote. The Logitech "solution" is for me to comletely disable all my firewalls, disable my virus protection, and then go on line and download to my remote. Yeah right! I'm in the tech field and any company that advocates disabling firewalls and anti-virus protection then go on-line is crazy. Call me paranoid but there is no way in h*** I am disabling my security and then go on-line to start downloading things. If that's what it takes, it's a poor design. For the record, I am not using anything obscure - WinXP firewall and Symantec AV 10.0.1.1000 (up to date corporate version of Norton AV).
4. You can't make macros - only activity based set of commands. For example, on my TV, the "aspect ration" button toggles between aspect 1, 2, 3, and 4. Unfortunatley, those aspect rations leave a grey band when watching in 16:9 mode ( my TV is a 4:3 TV). With a dark room and watching in high def, I want the bars at top and bottom to be black which is Aspect ratio 5 which you can not get to by simply pressing the "aspect" button". So, I pull out my TV remote and go to menu, picture, down arrow 4 times until I reach aspect ratio5, select, exit and poof, now I have black bars. Unfortunaltey, this $250 remote does not allow me to create a macro to do all that. What I wanted is a simple 1 push button to go toggle between 16:9 and 4:3 mode. No dice though my 5 year old Sony universal remote for $60 does it easy (Hitachi TV). Or, I can swith the logitech over to TV, do the same commands and then try to switch back to the activity I was in. SOmetimes that works and sometimes not - easier to use the TV remote.

While there are some nice features on the 880 and I do see it having a lot of potential, I really regret buying it. Definately not worth $250 - especially since I need to still use my TV remote.

-Corey

[Wolffpack]

4. You can't make macros - only activity based set of commands. For example, on my TV, the "aspect ration" button toggles between aspect 1, 2, 3, and 4. Unfortunatley, those aspect rations leave a grey band when watching in 16:9 mode ( my TV is a 4:3 TV). With a dark room and watching in high def, I want the bars at top and bottom to be black which is Aspect ratio 5 which you can not get to by simply pressing the "aspect" button". So, I pull out my TV remote and go to menu, picture, down arrow 4 times until I reach aspect ratio5, select, exit and poof, now I have black bars. Unfortunaltey, this $250 remote does not allow me to create a macro to do all that. What I wanted is a simple 1 push button to go toggle between 16:9 and 4:3 mode. No dice though my 5 year old Sony universal remote for $60 does it easy (Hitachi TV). Or, I can swith the logitech over to TV, do the same commands and then try to switch back to the activity I was in. SOmetimes that works and sometimes not - easier to use the TV remote.
This concerns me. No macros? My TV cycles through 7 inputs via one button. I'd like 1 button on the 880 designated for "Watch DVD", Watch HDTivo", "Watch SDTivo". So I'm thinking the macro can power on the components, switch my av receiver to the correct input component and then do "channel up-pause-input" to watch HD, "channel up-pause-input-pause-input" to watch DVD and "channel up-pause-input-pause-input-pause-input" to watch SD. Can this be done with the 880?

[mportuesi]

This concerns me. No macros? My TV cycles through 7 inputs via one button. I'd like 1 button on the 880 designated for "Watch DVD", Watch HDTivo", "Watch SDTivo". So I'm thinking the macro can power on the components, switch my av receiver to the correct input component and then do "channel up-pause-input" to watch HD, "channel up-pause-input-pause-input" to watch DVD and "channel up-pause-input-pause-input-pause-input" to watch SD. Can this be done with the 880?


Yes, it can be done. Harmony doesn't support macros in a strict sense, but the "activity" concept built into its software handles all of this and then some.

First, you tell the Harmony software what outputs on each box are connected to which inputs on your receiver and TV/monitor. Then you define an activity, such as "Watch HDTiVo", by telling the Harmony software which devices you want active and which ones you don't.

Based on your responses, the Harmony software composes a macro and downloads it to the remote. The macro will power on/off all the proper units, change all the inputs, and if necessary (like for a DVD player) commands to open the drawer and press "play". So you don't program macros at a low level - the Harmony software does this for you depending on the answers you provide in the setup wizard. It took me a grand total of 15 minutes getting my Harmony 520 out of the package to the point where it had workable activities for everything in my home theater system.

The next feature about Harmony "activities" is that the remote is aware of the current state of your AV system - which devices are on/off, which inputs are active, etc. So when you switch from one activity to another, it sends only the commands necessary to get from "here" to "there". If it gets out of sync (a rare occurrence in my experience), you just press the "help" key and it will run through the commands again, one by one, until everything is the way it should be.

Finally, each activity defines its own key layout that can mix commands for several devices. So for my "Watch TiVo" activity, most of the buttons control the TiVo. But the volume buttons are actually commands for my AV receiver, and I also have an "aspect" button that controls the aspect ratio of my widescreen TV. Again, these were set up for me by the Harmony software, by answering questions like "Do you use your TV or AV receiver to adjust volume in this activity?" (There are also more detailed screens to let you fine-tune this stuff after initial setup)

There are some weaknesses. The web-based setup software feels unreliable, and I could wish for better build quality on my 520 (see my experience returning my first 520 eariler in the thread - they got me a replacement quickly).

But the whole activity concept and PC-based setup are huge winners in my book, and a strong reason to consider a Harmony remote.

[Wolffpack]

I just picked up an 880 and it is great. The first universal I've had that really works. Also, as others have mentioned, my wife also loves it. When I brought it home she stated "Oh great, another worthless remote that will end up taking space with the others we don't use any more". But no.

The only problem I had was configuring the Tivo remote addresses for my SD-DVR40 and HR10-250. I had the remote set to address 1 and address 6. Went through the learning a few times and the 880 was set to address 1 and address 0, which didn't work.

What I ended up doing was going into More Options --> Confirm Infrared Commands and then picked "I have a remote, but would like to select from a list of command sets my device supports". Then I could choose from various command sets. Set2451 equates to address 0. 2452 equates to address 1, 2543 equates to address 2 and so forth. After that I was programmed with addr1 and addr2, working just fine.

Thanks for all the help.

[TIVO_GUY_HERE]

I have to use 2 remotes ( my TV is a ADVENT, but codes don't control on/off) so I might get one of these if I can get it for good price ( + rebate)

[miller890]

Same comment here, the TiVo peanut is still more of a natural feel even after 6 months of only using the Harmony 880. I have just recently pulled out the TiVo remote and have both on the coffee table now. The Harmony is a cool remote but it does have its problems as you may have read. I am experiencing two of the common complaints. The contacts for the recharging doc just stop working-well. It takes about 7 or 8 tries of moving the remote in the doc for the recharge connection, even with clean contacts. The LCD display looks slightly burned in only after a couple days, the edges of my LCD are sort of white in color. Still, I do like the Harmony 880. It eliminates the need for numerous remotes and anyone can use it to turn on the most complicated systems.

[Wolffpack]

Hey, does anyone know which button on the 880 equates to the slow-mo button on the Peanut?

[dubious]

Can I jump in with a new question, too? Can the 880 be programmed to do the 30 second skip? Kinda crucial for me.

[shady]

Can I jump in with a new question, too? Can the 880 be programmed to do the 30 second skip? Kinda crucial for me.

Yes

It's there by default (you still have to do the select, play select, 3, 0, select)

[Wolffpack]

Can I jump in with a new question, too? Can the 880 be programmed to do the 30 second skip? Kinda crucial for me.
The 880 sends the same signals as the peanut remote. Program it for a Tivo, hit the SKIP button and it will send the SKIP signal. If you've enabled the 30 second skip as shady mentioned, it will skip 30 seconds.

I LOVE my 880, and so does my wife. That's the key.

[Andy in NYC]

Got this from fatwallet.com

Logitech 880, use coupon code P5BV189GX7Q820 at checkout.
Add additional code X10DHMT?VL6NBS for $10 more (paypal payment)

Rebate at Rebate Form (http://www.projectorpeople.com/SLIS/downloads/rebates/Logitech/Logitech_Rebate.pdf)

Free shipping.

At that price, I'll buy one just to test it and see if the wife/in-laws can use it alone.

Andrew

[Guindalf]

Actually, there's another $10 off too, making it $69. There's a link in the Happy Hour forum (or here). (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=294694)

[Stormspace]

I found a 628 Harmony for free at tigerdirect. Of course you had to buy a 74.00 DVD player to get it, but at 74.00 is was the cheapest one I saw. The 628's button layout is also very simple and easy to operate by touch, unlike some of the more buttony remotes and it works as good as the more expensive ones.

I haven't tried it with two tivo's, but I imagine it would work like any other Harmony remote.