Logitech Harmony 900 user reviews

Pros The advertizing played on our hopes and dreams of unifed theory of remote technology. It lured like the sirens of Crete.

Cons Reality hit like a pallet of bricks, when wrangling with the amature software. What a rat's nest. The edit process required the awkward java form upload and then a download to update the remote, and then many repeats to fix the unexpected results.

Summary The two levels of tech support commiserated with me. They were as tired of the topic as I was. They read their scripts per their job descriptions nonetheless. The upload dialog software requested an ancient 1024x768 resolution screen. The 1920x1080 HD on my 8-month old Dell XPS laptop was not good enough. I tried the low-res but the results were worse. Even with HD I had to scroll the screen down to access the next or done buttons, for each input. The Java choice menus malfunctioned and vanished upon any clicking. I constructed a crippling workaround involving a mix of mouse and keyboard maneuvers but I averaged about one hour for each of my many updates to the remote, each producing unexpected results. The software is convoluted and ignores every ancient law of a reasonable hierarchy. The remote hardware is the same. The promise of a full version of every remote was broken immediately upon reading the requirements for adding just one custom function to one device.

My customer could afford the remote but the full time programmer would be a little pricey. The tweaker who may like the challenge of conquering this beast, is not likely in the income bracket to buy one. The first thing I found was that the RF claim on the box did not mean that its "universality" actually encompassed the RF controlled Bose system. So the reduction to one remote became two, within the first five minutes, and the outlook became clear that for a dozen reasons a dozen remotes would need to be kept on hand.

As the reader can likely tell, the shock and disappointment affects my writing. I would sooner not be having to write this review, but I would feel irresponsible if I did not do my part to discourage the perpetuation of such poor engineering, if it could even be called that. Harmony has made a dog (no offence intended to canine kind) and Logitech should dump this product before it bites them back.

Pros I love the upgraded RF. It is significantly improved and works like a charm. I love the additional icons (wish you could custom make some more).

Cons How is it possible in 2009 to release an advanced remote without macros / sequences. If anything logitech should have improved on previous limit of 5-6 commands, not remove it. CNET failed to point this out so I bought and returned it within 48hrs.

Summary One issue makes this remote worthless. Add macros / sequences and I am buying it

Pros Intuitive desktop software

Cons Proven history of design flaws with the Harmony remote product line (especially the chargers).
Customer support

Summary Google "harmony remote design flaw" and see all the comments about the faulty chargers on the harmony remote line. If you're looking to buy a 900, I suggest waiting until the bugs are worked out. I'm stuck with two harmony remotes 880 & 890 that don't charge. Harmony wont exchange them. I've wasted countless hours on the phone with Harmony customer support. It's appalling in this day and age when companies don't stand behind their products...especially when the actual replacement cost can't be that high.

My two ($600) remotes are 100%, completely, and utterly useless.

Pros Everything is much quicker, Fav Channel is instantaneous, The screen is a higher resolution LCD, The Help button is much better, and the new backlit Blu-ray controls are awesome ..RF is incredible easy to set up .. great range of the mini IR blasters

Cons $400 .. but oh well ... if you dont have $400 to spend on a remote , don't buy it .. If you do its well worth it

Summary Let me be clear i was in Love with the Harmony ONE remote,For my setup it was perfect and a joy to use ..

Even the non tech Fiancee loved it .. But the one issue we had was IR in general the components sat below the 60" tv and the coffee table reflected the IR Signal so i bought a pair of the X10 PowerMid RF to IR receivers.. They were Fine but not a perfect solution .. Slow response time and missed signals .. and mind you i still give the Harmony ONE a 10/10 rating ..


Well last weekend after a night of drinking and Playing Rock band 2 someone stepped on my Harmony ONE and broke the screen making it useless .. I was thinking about getting a replacement ONE but i knew the 900 was just released so i scooped it up ...

Now on the the Harmony 900 .. Set up was SOOO EASY ! yes you have to redo the online set up because it does not carry over but it only took me 15-20 mins to get it perfect even adding all the Channel Icons to my fav channels ..

The RF/IR blaster was incredibility easy to set up i just place it on top of my DVR and the 2 Mini IR blasters i placed on each side of the lower components .. Amazingly it hit everything on the first try each as each blaster has 4 IR nodes in it so it has amazing coverage .. RF is a HUGE difference ! I can control everything for almost any room in the house and unlike the Harmony ONE the was almost No delay at all ..

Fav channel buttons change almost instantaneous , Everything is much quicker, The screen is a higher resolution LCD, The Help button is much better, and the new backlit Blu-ray controls are awesome .. I Paid $400 which is a little crazy for a Remote but in the end it was well worth it ..

So if the Harmony ONE is a 10/10 .. Then this has to be 11/10 .. Bonus Pt for RF : )