RC User Reviews: Harmony 880 / H880 Remote Control (5)

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User reviews for the Harmony 880 / H880 from Logitech.

Ratings	Reviews	MSRP (USD)
Average: 3.36/5.00 Median: 3.83/5.00	46	$250

The H880 is the first Harmony with a color LCD screen. It also offers their famous activity-based concept for 15 devices, web-enabled setup with USB connection, television program guide and a rechargable lithium ion battery.

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Now viewing user reviews page 5 of 7 for
the Harmony 880 / H880 remote.

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Written by Scott from Los Gatos, Ca.

The reviewer has used this remote control for 1-3 months.

Review 18 made on Friday November 4, 2005 at 11:49 AM.

Strengths:

Easy setup/programming.

Weaknesses:

Misses send signals to one or more components quite often.

Review:

I've used an RTI Theater Touch 2 for some time now and purchased this remote for another room. It's very easy to set up, anyone can do it. It looks easy enough to use, and would be if it sent signals to the right components every time. Most of the time I need to hit the 'help' button to get it to take some action. Next step is to go in and fine tune it.

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Written by Ari Melmed from denver, co, usa.

The reviewer has used this remote control for 1-3 months.

Review 17 made on Sunday October 30, 2005 at 10:46 PM.

Strengths:

The theoretical application of it's easy programming.

Weaknesses:

Often misses a signal to one or more componenet. Difficult to program if you have a mac. Terrible battery life. Known problem with charging base station. Frequent reboots. Small buttons. Fragile screen.

Review:

This device looks like it would be an awesome universal, but don't be fooled. This thing is not ready for prime time. How many times does the thing have to reboot when you pick it up (a process that can take a couple of minutes) before you conclude that it is a piece of junk. How many times do you have to show up and find that despite your careful balancing act or rubber bands or stacked books, the remote didn't make a good connection with the charging station and it's dead before you conclude that this thing causes much more aggravation than it's worth. I figured the first one was just a lemon and the good folks at Harmony were good enough to send me out a new one, but when the second device did the same thing I knew I wanted my money back.
They say this thing is mac compatible, but simply put... It's NOT. You'll end up on the phone with tech support for at least an hour or two (what's your time worth?). This thing has caused me enough aggravation, I'm done with it.

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Written by Tim from Boston.

The reviewer has used this remote control for 1-3 months.

Review 16 made on Monday October 3, 2005 at 12:39 AM.

Strengths:

Looks, interactive help on LCD, customizable 'activities'

Weaknesses:

Physical buttons are terrible to use; remote often sits awkwardly in charger that will not charge.

Review:

The Harmony 880 seemed like a good upgrade for me since I moved to HDTV and still have TV and a relatively complex receiver. The programming is involved, but pretty simple. The software and USB connection is very useful. I also love the 'Activities' setup which allows full customization.

However, use of the remote is severely hampered by the physical buttons. Namely the numbers and the forward, reverse buttons. The numbers are so close together that you need to look at the remote to make a channel change. In addition the volume/mute and channel/prev buttons are too close together and shaped the same so you often get a channel 'up' when you think you are on the PREV button.

It is still a great control, but I like functionality in combination with the lazy man's ergonomics where I can lay back in the recliner and just perform simple functions without having to constantly look at the remote. This was hard for me and to do with the harmony.

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Written by Larry Cooper from Birmingham,MI.

The reviewer has used this remote control for 1-3 months.

Review 15 made on Thursday September 29, 2005 at 11:55 PM.

Strengths:

Initial install software is efficient and powerful.
Good ease of use (when it works)

Weaknesses:

Poor button placement, size, and feel.
Does not seat properly on charger.
Erratic performance -- forgets the status of your system, which negates they fundamental reason for using this remote.

Review:

I just returned our Harmony 880. Bottom line on this product is that it's too flaky and erratic -- I've grown to dislike it. This is a relatively expensive product, but it exhibits such poor engineering and attention to detail, I got turned off. The designers on this product were amateurs.

We had the unit for about a month before returning it. We really liked the concept of simplistic power up and switching for a particular activity. Unfortunately, it would randomly forget the state that our system was in, and we would often have to reset its status manually. Also, it's buttons are too small and close together; even simple Tivo tasks like play, reverse and pause forced us 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.

It doesn't seat properly on the charger, so you have to place it in just the right spot on the charger for it to work. If it is moved just a hair one way or the other,
it stops charging.

The 880 was a gift, and I really tried to like it, but I just couldn't. I concluded that this model has a poor quality design, and I felt MUCH better when I returned it.

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Written by Ced Lentz from France.

The reviewer has used this remote control for 3-6 months.

Review 14 made on Thursday September 29, 2005 at 5:34 PM.

Strengths:

Rechargeable battery
LCD Display

Weaknesses:

Too small keys
Application from a very poor web site
Ergonomy for people with 10 inch fingers

Review:

I'm very disappointed this this expensi product.
First of all the applications works only form web site that hangs very often
It's unacceptable for a company like Logitech to use an application unusable like this one. Two days to program the remote with 10 components
In device mode some keys don't work (red yellow...) don't know why !
In activities mode my TV powers of then on changing from DVD to SAT...
Zapping is very slow or goes very fast pressing the same keys numbers...

I presume that people at logitech thinks that users will feed the database of IR keys, but the database contains a lot of wrong definitions (ex my Amplifier seems to have 4 video inputs but it has no one !)

Techical support is under 0, when you call them they say check your internet connection (more easy for them than resolve their's bugs...)

So don't buy this one, and don't be a beta tester for Logitech, choose Philips Marantz or a simple all-in-one that works better and is less expensive.

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Written by Craig Hillman from NSW Australia.

The reviewer has used this remote control for 1-3 months.

Review 13 made on Monday September 26, 2005 at 10:29 PM.

Strengths:

Functionality is excellent - works everything - Best marital aid available

Weaknesses:

website is a little confusing.

Review:

Functionality is excellent - works everything - Best marital aid available

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Written by MrC from California, USA.

The reviewer has used this remote control for 1-3 months.

Review 12 made on Friday August 26, 2005 at 4:23 PM.

Strengths:

- Tilt-controlled auto-on is brilliant
- Wizard driven programming is useful for initially programming
- Screen looks nice
- Assistance (help) to determine what devices are working/non-working is excellent.
- Hard, glossy, slippery plastic is not the best choice for something you hold in your hand long term. Its like grabbing a fish.

Weaknesses:

- Button size and location is very poor
- Not designed for one-handed operation
- Web-programming for anything other than very rudamentary programming (on/off/up/down) is painfully slow and trial-and-error.

Review:

Here's a list of the things I found to be of poor or unusable design. These are just off the top of my head:

1) Buttons are far too small, non-distinguished, and poorly located to use based on touch alone. Any raised dots etc. are so small and indistinguishable that Helen Keller would cry. Me... I want reasonably sized rubber buttons with peaks and valleys - so that my big thumb easily finds it way around without looking at the thing. The 880 makes operation require looking at the damned thing. The pretty screen should be an aid, not a requirement.

2) One handed operation is not possible unless you have 9 inch long thumbs. The numeric pad is not reachable from the mid-section typical grip. The smooth rounded curvature of the units causes the unit to twist and rotate out of hand - there's not much to hold onto while you're trying to use your thumb to hit buttons. The left-right-up-down shuttle-like arrow keys are more appropriate for a dashboard of a car where mostly style is important - but for a remote, the buttons are way too small, and unconvential given all the other remotes that have similar features. These are the buttons used 90% of the time, yet they are so small!

3) The website programming has numerous problems where you get a non-specific error message during programming. It actually gives no details whatsoever other than to contact customer support. And contacting customer support yields a response that says be sure to use the correct browswer and "Please tell us exactly what you did to cause the problem". The freaking site can know exactly what you did, where you were, and what button you pressed, but they didn't bother to program in such logic, leaving it up to the customer.

4) The website is PAINFULLY slow. Press button... wait... wait.... wait... next screen.

5) Transferring programming information is even more PAINFULLY slow. Each time you customize a button or menu item and want to test, there's a 2 to 5 minute download wait! What the hell's up with that!

6) The Harmony website for programming the remote is just miserable. Its layout, and utility stinks. Logitech needs to do some heavy investing there, but given the state and duration of their other sites, that won't happen - ever.

7) My amp had 11 screens worth of menus on the remote. There's no way that clicking through 11 screens trying to find that one function is in anyway useful. Such functions are in plain site on the original remote that came with the amp. It is faster to get up, pick up the old remote, click the button, put it away, and sit back down than it is to scroll and search 11 screens!

8) Customization of Button and menus using the predefined functions is a game in frustration at best. My amp has several hundred unique codes and functions - trying to identify the difference between Mode - Surround 1, Mode - Surroud 2, etc. x200 using the very short, simplistic names presented in the scroll list on the website is just terrible. There is no explanation as to what each function is supposed to map to on your device, the names do not match the names i know from the device and manual, and at 2-5 minutes per download to test each, I'd get old and gray before I'd get the right setup.

Least I sound all curmudgeony, there are some nice things too, but for anyone who wants a quick touch, one-handed remote, or has less patience than Job, look elsewhere.

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