Logitech Harmony 880 remote

jteezy · 10-29-2005, 10:19 PM

anyone have one? How well does it work with Tivo

Robart999 · 10-29-2005, 10:23 PM

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

SJAndrew · 10-29-2005, 10:38 PM

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 · 10-30-2005, 06:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 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.

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 · 10-30-2005, 07:17 AM

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 · 10-30-2005, 02:49 PM

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 · 10-30-2005, 05:24 PM

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 · 10-30-2005, 05:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 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?

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

ellinj · 10-30-2005, 06:47 PM

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 · 10-30-2005, 10:13 PM

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 · 10-31-2005, 06:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iDriveX

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 · 10-31-2005, 09:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jteezy

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 · 10-31-2005, 12:41 PM

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 · 10-31-2005, 05:22 PM

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 · 11-05-2005, 04:18 PM

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 · 11-05-2005, 04:27 PM

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 · 11-05-2005, 11:25 PM

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 · 11-07-2005, 12:46 AM

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 · 11-07-2005, 01:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 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?

yes.

davezatz · 11-07-2005, 07:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by balboa dave

yes.

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

lander215 · 11-14-2005, 10:34 AM

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 · 11-14-2005, 10:49 AM

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 · 11-14-2005, 11:29 AM

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 · 11-14-2005, 02:15 PM

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 · 11-14-2005, 03:04 PM

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 · 11-14-2005, 03:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 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

Given this announcement on their new 360 remote:

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/ne...=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 · 11-14-2005, 03:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PanamaGixxer

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 · 11-14-2005, 03:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iDriveX

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 · 11-15-2005, 10:34 AM

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 · 01-03-2006, 02:20 PM

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!