Logitech Harmony One Advanced Universal Remote with Color Touch Screen

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Logitech Harmony One Advanced Universal Remote with Color Touch Screen

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recommended waiting for some "rev 2" of the Harmony One, I added the following comment:

"You may have received one that was produced very early in the manufacturing process. I got mine in February and have zero problems with accurate programming for my Yamaha RX-V3800, Sony KDS-60A2020, Toshiba HD-A20, Audiovox Sirius, XM Mini-tuner, Sony PS3/Blu-ray, and Nintendo Wii. I also have experienced no problems with the IR--in fact I can aim it anywhere in my 13 x 24 room, even at the rear corners, the ceiling, floor--anywhere, and everything powers on/off as programmed.

Folks, you don't need to wait for any "rev 2", just let it download and install the most current firmware and software. It's amazing how great, and intuitive this Harmony One is. And no, I am not affiliated with Logitech or any of its suppliers. I'm just a consumer who appreciates a well-engineered product that meets or exceeds expectations based on what it claims to do."

3/4/2008 update: In addition to the gear listed above, last night I installed my new Yamaha YDS-10 iPod dock that's paired with my Yamaha RX-V3800 receiver. This dock has no remote (nor does my XM mini-tuner) and it took me a just few minutes to figure out how to control it with my One, emulating my receiver's remote.

I also saw someone who complained that this remote is "huge".

In my opinion the size is perfect for me. It's about the size of the remote that came with the Scientific-American 8380HD cable DVR except the One is noticeably thinner, about the same size and thickness as the remote that came with my Toshiba HD-A20, and a great deal smaller than the remotes that came with my Yamaha RX-V3800 receiver and my Sony KDS-60A2020 RPTV.

I also like the size and layout options for the touch screen. You can change the physical buttons to do almost anything your equipment is capable of being controlled to do. For example, my HDTV has a button that cycles through the screen sizes, such as zoom, expanded zoom, etc. I changed the One's "E" button on the lower right to do this when I'm using the "Watch TV" activity. The physical buttons can be set to different functions for each activity if you want, or they can be set to the default for the specific make and model of your device for every activity. You can also create as many screens of functions (visually represented as icons) as needed to do simple, expanded or highly complex tasks. You can revise the layouts, reorder the icon displays, rename activities, on and on. Notice I said "you can" a lot, since you don't need to customize or create anything complex to do basic remote activities and functions unless you want to.

I started out easy by adding each of my devices (all of mine were found in the Logitech database just fine), then activities such as "Watch TV", "Play HD-DVD", "Listen to Sirius", etc. These activities power on all needed devices for the activity, and make sure all others are powered off. This was great for my wife, who only needs to pick up the remote (the backlight automatically illuminates) and touch "Watch TV". She shuttered every time she previously had to do that with all the devices' individual remotes, and sometimes needed to call on me to get things "unstuck". Admittedly, this was sometimes difficult for me too, especially when I bought my new A/V receiver.

Now I've been adding more customizations and more complex combinations and functions iteratively. As I use this remote I'll think of some other button or function I'd like to have and add that to a list, then every few days I'll add a bunch of them at one time. For me, this is fun.

I haven't had to read any manuals, although I did use the built-in Help button to resolve an operator error (I had specified the wrong function), which it did very effectively and intuitively. The PC software for programming the remote is top notch. I do have recommendations for making this a bit more user friendly, which I will be sharing with Logitech's customer support. I'll list one of them so you don't get nailed like I did: when customizing buttons and doing a lot of setup activities, beware that the application (into which you must logon) times out. When it does, you will lose every change you made since your last save. So, make several changes, save and keep going. None of my recommended software enhancements are critical, nor would any of them have prevented me from buying this. And none of them were cause to not give this my five-star rating.

Logitech Harmony One Advanced Universal Remote with Color Touch Screen

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of the buttons. This is the first remote I have had that I have not been able to manuever around it by touch. The keypad is too low, so it is difficult to dial in a channel.

Second, it seems this remote needs to be pointed at the devices. Holding the remote up in order to see it often causes the devices to ignore the signal.

Lastly, this remote has an annoying habit of forgetting some of its functions. Often when I select 'Watch TV' or 'Play DVD' the Harmony will forget to turn on one or more of the devices. Usually it will correct itself if you run through the Remote Assisstant, but then I would expect it to learn from it's mistakes; it doesn't.

All in all it is a nice remote. I was able to get it to control all of my devices. I just wish it was more consisten in what it memorized.

Logitech Harmony One Advanced Universal Remote with Color Touch Screen

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of the buttons. This is the first remote I have had that I have not been able to manuever around it by touch. The keypad is too low, so it is difficult to dial in a channel.



Second, it seems this remote needs to be pointed at the devices. Holding the remote up in order to see it often causes the devices to ignore the signal.



Lastly, this remote has an annoying habit of forgetting some of its functions. Often when I select 'Watch TV' or 'Play DVD' the Harmony will forget to turn on one or more of the devices. Usually it will correct itself if you run through the Remote Assisstant, but then I would expect it to learn from it's mistakes; it doesn't.



All in all it is a nice remote. I was able to get it to control all of my devices. I just wish it was more consisten in what it memorized.

Logitech Harmony One Advanced Universal Remote with Color Touch Screen

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is turned off.
-> Watch Archos TV+ : Turn on TV, Receiver, Archos TV. Set Receiver to ArchosTV sound input, set TV to Component in. ArchosTV is turned off when another activity is chosen.

-Device Mode: When you select a device on the Harmony One, the buttons control the device you selected. I don't use device mode much since I have all the activities set up the way I want them and all the buttons I need programmed on the keypad or in the touch screen menu for that activity.

-Activity Mode: When you select an activity, the remote becomes a hybrid of the remotes of all the devices in the activity. For example the Volume buttons control the receiver, the channel buttons control the DVR, and other buttons may control TV functions. You do not need to change modes to control the different devices. If you run out of keypad buttons to program, you can add more functions to the menus on the touch screen. This is all setup through the computer software that comes with the remote. For each button in an activity, you can pick what device you want it to control, and watch function it should perform.

- The Touch screen: The touch screen is awesome. The screen shows 6 buttons at a time. You can cycle through multiple screens of buttons. You can program a button to do anything you want and label it. It can be tied to an activity or a device. You do have to be careful when using the touch screen because it is easy to hit the wrong button or two buttons at once.

- Customer Support: I wanted to add a discrete "ON" for the TV to my activities to make sure the TV was always turned on before any activity. I called customer support and the woman didn't understand what I wanted. I then emailed customer support and got the answer the next day. I was impressed with email support. There is a large FAQ that is helpful as well. The customer support staff have access to your remote setup since it is stored on line. This lets them know exactly what you are doing and help with it.

- Every button is programmable plus you can add more buttons via the touch screen.

- The setup is straight forward plus you can dig deeper into it if you are a more advanced user.

- The Harmony Once can learn commands from remotes when you can't find it in the online code set.

- When you pick up the remote, it knows it and the touch screen turns on. This is really cool.

- The off button turns off everything that you have programmed to turn off for the current activity.

- You need to keep the remote pointed at the entertainment center when you select an activity. It takes a second for it to transmit all the codes. You can reduce the delay in the setup to speed this up, but I haven't tried that yet.

Logitech Harmony One Advanced Universal Remote with Color Touch Screen

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I wont give the Harmony One 5 stars for a couple of reasons:

1) It wont pass the geriatric test. Even though this is as good as I think a universal remote can be, I don't think my Dad would ever be able to figure out how to use it, let alone program it. I guess that is not Harmony's fault, but buyers should be aware that this is not for technophobes. There is a certain amount of "tech savy" necessary to get this up and running. On a 1 to five rating of tech savy with 1 being "luddite" and 5 being "uber geek" I would say you should probably be able to rate yourself a 2-1/2 to 3 to be able to successfully program this thing without driving yourself nuts. Again, this isn't Harmony's fault, I think they've done a great job considering.

2) It is expensive. I bought this remote on impulse at Best Buy because I knew the new stuff I have (TV and PSP2) would drive my wife crazy when she sits down to watch tv or a DVD. So far she's figured it out with no complaints. But $250 is pretty steep for a remote by any standard. Especially if you have kids who typically will destroy them in short order. My kids are almost out of that phase, but dropping this baby on a tile floor or having the dog chew it up becomes a real disaster at this price point. Thank God it does not have AAA batteries that the kids would constantly steal and eventually break and lose the battery compartment door.

3) The battery seems to discharge quickly, especially with heavy use. In my initial programming/experimenting with the remote it seemed that even after a full night's charging, the battery indicator would drop down below the half way point during normal to slightly more than normal use. Putting it back in the charger is the obvious solution, but if my house is typical, most people just leave it on the table and don't bother putting it back in the charging cradle.

If you are willing to spend a bit of time programming, and want a remote solution that will probably be 90% to 95% perfect, I definitely recommend this remote.

Logitech Harmony One Advanced Universal Remote with Color Touch Screen

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short, this is a beautifully designed, very functional remote, but I would argue that unless you have at least a mid-tier home entertainment system, your money is probably better spent elsewhere.

Jake Mohlman

Logitech Harmony One Advanced Universal Remote with Color Touch Screen

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and it's waiting to play your dvd.

You actually can use this as your only remote for everything. Yes, it's expensive, but when you come home from work, and just want to watch tv, this is one indulgence that you deserve. It rocks! Enjoy.

... oh yeah... no batteries ever!

Logitech Harmony One Advanced Universal Remote with Color Touch Screen

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number. Both of these remotes enjoy a rechargeable dock.

Where the significant improvements are in the Harmony One over the Harmony 880 are the feel of the device in the hand, the improved backlit hard buttons that are easy to see in the dark, and a dock that cradles the remote much better (making it more difficult for your cat to knock the remote out of the dock! LOL). Also, with significant spaces between buttons on the Harmony One, it is easier to feel your way around the remote without looking.

If you are replacing an older Harmony remote, the Logitech Harmony software offers the opportunity to `replace' the currently configured device with the newer device, transferring your device setup for all the TVs, VCRs, DVRs, etc. to the new remote with little effort. As I did not want to replace, but add a new remote, I didn't use this function myself.

For those of us who are adding a new remote, I was a bit disappointed in the Harmony Remote software. You cannot have multiple remotes under one Logitech account. Instead, you must set up a separate ID for each remote. Many people use the same ID for most computer programs and online sites requiring one, and this requirement may cause some trouble for us in the future. I can easily imagine that the next time I need to program this remote I may have forgotten the ID I used to set it up with. While I keep pretty good track of my IDs and passwords, it will be hard to remember a year from now that I had to use a non-standard ID for this one. I would like to see the software revised to allow for multiple remotes in one account, and the ability to copy configurations from one to another.

On the bright side, the software really does make it easy to configure your televisions, Tivos, DVD players and more. If you have the model number of that device, this is the simplest method of configuring it, and with an extensive database of model numbers - including some very old tvs and the like (judging by my own setup), it is a pretty sure-fire way to set up your Harmony One Remote quickly and easily.

Of course, there are times when you simply cannot find the model number for a device. My bedroom television does not have a model number anywhere that I can find it. So, I used the `learn' function on the Harmony One Remote to teach the Logitech device the correct codes, using my original remote from the television. Even if you haven't the original remote, the remotes are still easy to configure using the brand name and the device type (i.e. Sharp TV) in the Harmony software.

Programming custom buttons for devices is very easy. I like to control the volume on my television while the remote is in Tivo mode, so I simply used the TV remote to program the volume buttons on the Harmony One Remote for the specific TV I will use. This procedure is as simple as lining up the two remotes and clicking the button you are configuring, then letting the Logitech software do its magic!

So far, I have configured a variety of devices with this remote easily: TVs, TiVos, DVD players, VCR, Cable Boxes, and an A/V receiver. None were problematic, and all work very well. I highly recommend the Harmony One Remote for anyone who wants to combine all their remotes to one and prefers ease of configuring. Oh, and it looks pretty sharp, too. Especially with my own photographs downloaded to run a pretty screensaver!

Logitech Harmony One Advanced Universal Remote with Color Touch Screen

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cradle. The Harmony one improves on all of these aspects. This new remote has much larger buttons, which have unique shapes that make it easy to determine function of most buttons by feel (so you don't have to look at them before pressing). The LCD screen is bigger, brighter, and has a much higher resolution; not to mention the fact that it is a touch screen. The newly designed charging cradle is formed precisely to hold the new Harmony One snug, so it cannot wobble and lose connection with the charging contacts. The Harmony One is a slight bit larger than the Harmony 880 and 890 series remotes, but feels more balanced in the hand; likely due to the remote's wonderful contoured body. Setting up the new Harmony One could not be much easier, using the same USB interface and Harmony Remote software that all of the other Harmony remotes utilize. If you already have a previous Harmony remote, you can copy over all of the activities and devices onto the new Harmony One. However, doing this will cause you to lose any custom button settings. As could be expected, the Harmony One also has an IR learning capability, so you can teach it IR commands from other device remotes that you have.

Although some of the features of this new model are not unique from other Harmony models, here are a few of the perks you get with the newly designed Harmony One:

- Beautiful 2.2" LCD Touch Screen Display (220 by 176 pixels)
- 40 Essential Backlit Function Buttons, With Unique Shapes That Make Them Easy To Identify By Touch
- USB Interface Allows Easy Setup via Computer With Included Harmony Remote Software
- Harmony Remote Software Currently Includes Database Of More Than 5,000 Manufacturers and 175,000 Devices.
- Activities Can Be Programmed For One Touch Control Of Your Entire Home Entertainment and/or Home Automation System (i.e., Watch DVD, Listen to CD, etc.)
- Up To 15 Devices Can Be Programmed, Meaning You Can Essentially Replace 15 Remotes With The Harmony One
- Logos Can Be Added For Favorite Channels Or Device Functions (although setting this up can be rather tedious!)
- Rechargeable Litium Ion Battery Powers Remote For Several Days Between Charges
- Up To 8 Photos Can Be Uploaded For Slideshow On LCD Display (resolution and file size limitations apply!)
- Ergonomic Body Fits Well In Hand And Feels Light And Well Balanced
- Included Charging Cradle Holds Remote Snug And Keeps Remote Charged And Ready For Use
- IR Learning Feature Allows Custom Teaching Of Specialized Device Remote Commands
- Built-In Motion Sensor Automatically Tuns On Backlighting When Remote Is Picked Up Or Tilted

With the good you always have to expect some bad, and the Harmony One does indeed have a few flaws that nick my overall score of this otherwise awesome device:

- Glossy Surface Of Remote Promotes Ugly Finger Print Smudges And Accentuates The Appearance Of Dust Particles
- Only 3 Activities Are Displayed On LCD At One Time (you can flip pages to display other activities in sets of 3)
- No RF or Bluetooth (IR only!)
- No WiFi for Remote Setup (must be plugged directly into PC via included USB cable)
- Photos and Custom Button Icons Can Be Painful To Setup and Configure
- Remote Wobbles A Bit When Sitting On Hard Surface (counter top, night stand, etc.)
- Cannot Customize Order Of Device List
- No Tactile Response/Feedback for Touchscreen Buttons

Overall I am extremely pleased with my new Logitech Harmony One Advanced Universal Remote. It is definately a step up from my Harmony 880 model. However, with a $250.00 price tag this may not be a practical choice for everyone. Many of the cheaper Logitech Harmony universal remotes offer most of the same capabilities; just not with all of the bells, whistles and high-tech style as you get with the Harmony One. I definately wish Logitech had designed this remote with a matte finish, rather than the finger print attracting gloss finish. I also wish they included the ability to customize the order in which it displays the device list. I have 15 devices programmed into my Harmony One, and I find myself flipping through page after page in order to find the device I want (since the LCD only displays 3 per page). These design oversights, and those listed in my cons list above, as well as the hefty price tag prevent me from giving this wonderful remote a 5-star rating. Still, the Harmony One is one of the best, affordable, full-featured universal remote controls you will find on the market today (IMO). Since this remote has firmware that can be upgraded via the Harmony Remote Software, I am hoping that Logitech tweaks this device a little over the coming months. Still, there is no way for them to add features like RF, Bluetooth or WiFi without introducing an upgraded model in the future. This means that buying the Harmony One today may leave you wanting a newer (improved) model, which is sure to be released by Logitech in the near future (as they did when they introduced the Harmony 890 after many of us had already purchased the Harmony 880!). If you are looking for a sleek, one remote solution for your home entertainment and/or home automation needs, and you can live without RF and Bluetooth for the foreseeable future, then I highly recommend the Logitech Harmony One. It really is one amazing remote control device!

Logitech Harmony One Advanced Universal Remote with Color Touch Screen

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finish that matches with my new all-black home theater system. Yes, there are the "issues" with fingerprints but it is the price one pays for going with a glossy black finish. You can guess the dusting I do almost daily for my home theater components. Just keep a microfiber cloth handy. By the way, one comes with this remote.

Anyway, the remote exceeds my expectations and more. The time investment is made up front when you make a first sweep at putting pieces of your components together into what is called an activity. Subsequent efforts will be to tweak the steps within a certain activity (e.g. Watch TV). This is a no brainer decision for anyone looking to make their spouse (and kids) lives easier when they need to watch TV or a movie without shuffling through 3-4 remotes. They will thank you for making such a great decision.