My new Logitech Harmony 670 remote

I'm not the kind of guy who cares about remotes really, although remote controls are very much a guy-thing. My wife would say that I'm not a guy-thing guy at all to start with anyway, except maybe for a few things (don't worry, I do put the toilet seat up before I pee... :o). Jokes aside, I was truly getting tired of manipulating all our remotes, even though we have only four of them - yeah it's not THAT much, some have up to 7 or 8. And also, not that I blame them, but my wife and kids tend to not know what to do with them when one setting is off from our regular settings. For example, I like to watch our recorded TV programs on the amplifier (or receiver, most call it I think) to get the surround sound, or simply a better sound overall even if surround was not available. I find that it is worth it just for the voices that come out much clearer through the amp. But to do that, I have to change a setting on the digital cable receiver, and if I forget to switch it back, then they won't know how (that setting in particular, you really have to know where it is as it's really not obvious to find).

For those reasons and more, I've been investigating Logitech's Harmony suite of remotes. Reading reviews here and there, looking at the different options of the different models available, and asking questions to people who already owned one. I had a pretty good feeling this was the remote I needed. It seemed to have enough compatibility and flexibility to accommodate anything and everything I would need it to do. The only thing stopping me every time I considered them was... the price! God they are pricey, for my taste anyway, for something that does things you already can do with what you have, but in a more convenient way. They go up to $600 for the most expensive one!!! Mind you, I don't think they have any worthy competitors. None that I have heard of anyway. So they have no incentive to bring the price down that much...

Came a special on the Dell web site: $90 off on the 670 model, to bring it down to just under $100. The best price I've seen yet, even compared to e-bay, where they almost always sell for an amount too close to the retail amount (factor in the shipping and the US to CAD conversion, and it's even less a deal). I decided to buy it. Here's how it looks like (yes, it Glows!!!):



Bottom line? I like it! Like many reviews say, it can be a bit of a hassle to set up, but not in every case. One thing is certain though: you HAVE to know in which input your components are plugged in your TV and in your amplifier. You pretty much have to know how everything is hooked up together. I hooked up my home system myself, so I knew. But I can easily imagine someone who does not know heck about this kind of system, having headaches trying to set up the remote. It does try though to make things as simple as possible, but there's only so much it can do.

The basic setting is pretty simple: write down all of your component's brand and model, and enter them in the interface (oh and, you have to set up an account because the setup software it's web-based, but that's not harder than any other web sign up). Then you set up the "activities" as it suggests you (it is actually pretty good at knowing what you can do with what you have - for instance, I did not remember I could actually listen to radio on my amp!). If you are lucky and all works perfectly, then you're already done, unless you want to add some custom activities. It gets more time consuming when you have to do adjustments. In my case, I had to adjust the time delay it should be using when switching from one video input to another on my television. Otherwise, it would perform the switch to quickly, and my TV would not register it, thus not switching input correctly. It would end up on the wrong input. But that's more my TVs fault, since it works that way, and fortunately, the Harmony remote allows such an adjustment. After that, all worked perfectly. Press on "Watch TV", and it opens only what is needed, puts everything on the right inputs, and the control buttons on the remote control the correct components (ex: the channel buttons changes channel on the digital receiver, but the volume buttons change the volume on the amp). Then press on "Watch a Movie", and it closes what needs to be closed, and opens what needs to be opened, etc. And of course, the "Off" button closes everything. It remembers what you were doing so that it knows what to perform next. All in all, I spent maybe an hour total to set it up. But once it's done, all works perfectly. It's a charm!