Box Contents, RF Blaster…
I’m new to the Harmony series. They’ve been tempting for a while now, but I’ve always put them off as a luxury. Meanwhile, my brother in law loves his and has urged me to get one for a long time. When the 900 arrived for review, it was finally time for me to give this popular series of remotes a thorough look. I took some quick unboxing pictures earlier this week, but now allow me to describe what the Harmony 900 comes with straight out of the box.
The box contents are separated into two compartments, similar to Wii packaging. In one, you have the sleek and stylish remote and its matching charging cradle. The second box includes the software CD, the RF Blaster, two mini-RF Blasters, some double sided tape (to secure the Blasters to your cabinet), two identical power cords, and some fold out guides. The power cords are of the adapter variety, which normally means wasted electrical outlets. However, these adapters are small enough to conveniently fit into the space that a normal two prong electrical plug takes, so you can avoid having to get any of these.
The RF Blaster is a small unit, smaller than a wallet, that is designed to help your new Harmony remote communicate with devices that are otherwise difficult to reach comfortably with IR. This is helpful if the device in question has a small IR response field or if cabinet doors or other obstructions make communicating with said device difficult. The RF Blaster uses the second included power cord and its design and color scheme matches the remote and the remote’s cradle. When on, the RF blaster takes signal from the Harmony via RF and rebroadcasts it in IR to those “difficult” devices. My Philips DVD player, DVP 5140, is one such device that has a picky field of response. By placing the RF Blaster near the unit — ideally you put it in front of the device, but I also got it working with it on top — I was able to get the player to respond as conveniently as my other devices. To help spread out the effectiveness of the RF Blaster, two Mini-RF Blasters were included that plug into the RF Blaster. By strategically positioning these, you should be able to communicate with every device with ease, but honestly in many setups, you may not need the RF Blasters at all. That said, it’s great that Logitech included these in the event you need them.
You may be wondering how the device knows what to respond too — input from the Harmony itself or from the RF Blaster. This is something the user determines within the Harmony’s interface. You can quickly and easily change whether a device should respond to the remote or the Blaster simply by navigating the full color touch screen on the remote. The Remote’s snappy and colorful touch screen works great. Users can choose from four different themes to apply to their remote’s interface for some extra customization. Customization is a thought that applies to this remote wholly, as I’ll explain throughout this review.
The Harmony’s interface can do a lot for you, but it’s up to the PC software to handle the initial setup, updates, and many of the unit’s other functions. The software can be downloaded from Logitech’s site or installed straight from the included CD. The installation takes just a couple of minutes, including checking for updates at the end of the brief install. I was pleased that Logitech gave me the option to install their Desktop Messenger Service, which is basically a System Tray app that runs and informs you of new software revisions and other things. I prefer to update and do such things manually, so it was appreciated that Logitech let me not install this aspect, rather than having to install it and then find a way to remove it.
Adding My Devices, Activities…
Once the install is complete, you need to create an account with Logitech. I have to admit I was surprised at this, and a bit disappointed; why should I have to create an account just to configure my remote? The idea of course is that Logitech stores your custom remote settings, which can get very detailed and intricate, in case your system loses them for whatever reason. I’m sure it also helps Logitech troubleshoot with you should you need to call them. Speaking of which, each new Harmony customer has 90 days of free phone support. Account creation is quick enough, and of course it’s free. Just having the option to say ‘no, I do not wish to create an account’ would have been nice though.
Account creation requires a unique username and password, a favorite question and answer, an email, and your first and last name. Once your account is created, the next step is to connect the computer and the remote together via mini-USB. It took me the better part of three minutes to locate the hidden mini-USB port and for that I do feel some embarrassment. The stylistic sketch picture on the program’s wizard and the Quick Start guide didn’t say the port was hidden behind a small black cap, so I felt like that could have been done just slightly better. The cap, by the way, is attached to the remote firmly with a tiny flexible piece of plastic, so it won’t go missing. This very brief bit of trouble I had isn’t a big deal at all, but I thought it worth mentioning.
You have to establish this connection anytime you want to update the remote’s configuration or its internal software. The Harmony program was doing the latter at this point, and a new software update was already found (even for this yet to be released remote). Anytime the Harmony software is communicating the remote, there is a handy Show Status button that gives a detailed log of everything going on between the software and the remote. As every new Harmony remote owner gets 90 free days of phone support, this log could be helpful if you run into trouble and need to call Support. I haven’t run into much trouble at all, but one point that I did was actually during this update phase. After the new software was installed onto my remote via the USB cable, the Harmony PC program stopped responding, although it hadn’t locked up as far as Windows was concerned. I simply had to kill the process and restart the program. The software was able to pick right back up with the next step: adding my devices.
You may have heard how incredibly large the devices database is for these Harmony remotes; some 5,000 manufacturers and 225,000 models, with more added daily. Yes, you’re device is in here, and I have to say it’s really satisfying to see all my stuff listed in here. I’ve tested and been using the remote on two setups and the devices for both setups were in here and they worked very well to flawless right off the bat.
My devices that I added to the remote include a 30″ LG HDTV, a Sony AV Receiver from 2003, two Philips DVD players, two DirecTV HD set top boxes, a Samsung 52″ LCD, and a Pelican System Selector Pro. Adding these devices was about as easy as you could hope for. First, select the type of device — TV, DVD player, etc., from a list. Then, choose the Manufacturer, followed by the Model. These are all listed via drop down boxes, so you can browse for your device, type in the first few letters, or just type in the full name. When you’ve added your devices, a nice Summary page is shown.
Now that you have your Devices in the remote, it’s time to add Activities. Activities include things like Watch TV, Listen to Music, Watch a DVD, and so forth. When adding Activities, the Harmony software can recommend applicable Activities based on your devices, or you can create a custom, “Utility” Activity which I actually had to do a for a certain application of mine. Generally, the recommended Activities are sensible and exactly what you want. Setting up Activities is done through a Wizard interface, and about my only complaint with this method is that each step is one screen. I wouldn’t mind to see the option to go ahead and do multiple steps on a single screen.
Depending on the Activity being created, the program will ask you certain questions. When adding Watch A TV for example, I was asked what input did my TV need to be on for the satellite to work. Also, what device do I use to control the sound for this activity (AV receiver or TV?). All told, most Activities require less than five questions for setup. Furthermore, the answers are often readily available to choose from as the Harmony software includes a list of available answers that correspond to the device in question. For example, when I was asked what input my TV needed to be on for the satellite to work, I didn’t have to type in a response or select from a generic list of possible inputs — the software knew what device I had and it was able to list the inputs that my particular model of TV actually has.
As for that “Utility” Activity I had to create, in case you’re curious, that was so that my PC sound card could talk to my AV receiver. I have an optical audio cable coming out of my X-Fi soundcard that goes into my receiver, and I use the receiver and its speakers to handle my PC audio. This is a bit unusual, so the Harmony software didn’t have any template for me to use, but thankfully they included this “Utility” feature that let me create a fully customized Activity.
After the Wizard is done, the main Harmony window appears. From here, there are several primary functions that you can execute. There is an Update Remote button, permanently situated in the upper right hand corner. This function uploads your changes to Logitech and sends the new data to the remote via USB. As most of the steps involved in this procedure take about the same amount of time every time, I’ve found that just about any change you make the to remote is going to take about sixty-five seconds to complete, which includes a reboot of the remote.
Other options in the main window are Activities, Devices, and Remote Settings. From the Activities tab, you can view all created Activities, alter things about them, add new Activities, and reorder the Activities so that they appear differently on the remote’s control screen. I found renaming the Activities to be one of the handiest things you can do, especially if you add multiple TVs and component devices to your profile. For instance, rather than having just Watch TV and Watch TV 2, I renamed them to indicate if the Activity was for my upstairs or downstairs setup. There are several other Activities options like being able to edit an Activity to tweak boot sequence for your devices, whether or not to leave a device on after ending the Activity, and so forth.
The Devices tab is used to add, remove, and edit your Devices. When you remove a Device, the software will inform you of any Activities that would be affected should you proceed, which I thought was cool. This tab also includes the Learn IR ability that is used to teach your Harmony remote a new IR command, if the software wasn’t able to automatically account for all of your original remote’s options. You do this by pointing the original remote at the bottom of the Harmony — the on screen Wizard explains it with words and an animation so it’s easy and quick to do.
Lastly, Remote Settings is the place to go if you are adding a second Harmony remote or changing out your current one. You can also edit how the clock is displayed (12 or 24 hour), or if the Remote Assistant is turned on. The Remote Assistant is a part of the Harmony’s built in software that offers useful tips written in a practical manner to help ensure that your remote is working properly.
In Closing…Wow
So, getting back to one of my programmed setups, that includes an LG TV, Sony receiver, Pelican switch, and Philips DVD player. Before the Harmony, it took four remotes to turn all these units on and to set them to their proper settings. Now, I have one remote, I press one button, and I witness everything come together before my eyes. Similarly, on my second setup, I’ve been able to put away my multiple remotes in favor of just the single Harmony; it really does work that well. It isn’t, however, able to communicate with the PS3 unless you purchase a separate adapter. This is likely due to some restrictions imposed by Sony, who knows, but the optional $60 device looks and behaves just like the RF Blaster. With it, all fifty-one PS3 control commands are supported. We should be getting a test unit of this in shortly and I’ll report back with the results when we do.
Frankly, the Harmony 900 works extremely well. For first time Harmony users like myself, give yourself a good hour to get everything all setup and customized to your likings. When everything is set, you have an extremely versatile and powerful remote that will certainly reduce your clutter and make your entertainment experience a more enjoyable and streamlined one. I have found that not only has the Harmony remote done everything it promised, but it’s plethora of customization options has made my entertainment experience a better and more satisfying one.