Not long ago, Dell Canada had a great deal on the Logitech Harmony 880 remote control. I've heard so much about it and they always seem to sell out whenever a good deal comes along. So when there was a good discount, I did not hesitate to buy one. But honestly I wasn't sure how well it was going to work in my own environment. I had a vague idea about how the Harmony remote functioned, but its claims to control all my devices made me skeptical.

The short of it is that the Harmony 880 remote does exactly what Logitech states: it simplifies all your remote devices into one controller. It's great when it works right the first time you set it up, but when things don't work exactly the way you want, frustration can quickly set in. Luckily Logitech has spent some time  Let's get on to the review.

The Package

The Logitech Harmony 880 remote control in a cardboard box and a clear clamshell inside holding the remote and contents snuggly. The clamshell isn't a splinter pack, so it's easy to open without needing to demolish the packaging with a pair scissors or chainsaw.

Inside the box are:

• Harmony 880 remote
• Lithium-ion battery
• Charging cradle
• USB cable (mini USB to full USB cable to connect the remote to your computer for configuration)
• Software CD
• Brief instructions

Design

What makes the Harmony 880 unique is its colour LCD display which occupies the top third of the unit. As you change activities and perform different tasks on the remote, the LCD display changes to give you actions relevant to what you are doing. There are 8 generic buttons (4 on either side of the LCD) whose functions are linked to what the LCD is displaying at the moment, thus giving a lot of functionality and flexibility.

The colour LCD display isn't high resolution and is probably just capable of 256 colours. If you've used first or second generation colour display phones you get a general idea of what to expect from this LCD. When you pick up the remote, the tilt sensor detects the movement and the back lights turn on illuminating the LCD and the silver keys. After 20 seconds, the lights automatically turn off to conserve battery life, but as long as the remote senses movement, the lights will stay on. With the configuration software you can change the glow time to short or longer periods.

The response rating of the LCD is rather poor - when changing between options, ghost images of the previous screen are left lingering on the screen for a few seconds before disappearing completely. This is a very minor quirk which doesn't get in the way of readability or usability of the Harmony 880 at all.

The Harmony 880 remote is roughly the same size as your typical remote and it's molded to fit the palm of your hand comfortably. I have moderate sized hands and I didn't find any of the buttons too far for me to use properly. Users with small hands may find the corner buttons annoying since it requires a little more effort to reach, but in the end you will grow accustomed to it.

The remote has a reassuring weight to it, but at the same time isn't too light to feel cheap. The buttons are plastic and slightly clicky.

For power, the Harmony uses a 3.7V, 950mAh lithium ion battery similar to a cell phone. When not in use, you can put the Harmony 880 back into its cradle to charge, though it can sit out of its cradle for days before needing to recharge. Yes, there is a battery indicator on the remote so you know how much juice is left in your device. How frequently you need to charge will depend on how often you use the remote of course.

At the very tip of the remote is the IR emitter and a mini USB port so you can connect the 880 to your PC. At the bottom of the Harmony 880, you will find an IR receiver which is used to program new IR commands.

To setup the Harmony 880 remote is fairly easy and refined. It's obvious that Logitech has spent some time refining the installation process because it's all very nicely laid out and not overly technical while being very concise.

Those technophobes should complete Step 4.
It will make your life easier later.

The instructions leaflet has basic 8 steps you need to get started in configuring the remote like inserting the battery and connecting it to your PC. Perhaps an important step is step 4 where you record the brand and model of the devices you want to control. For user who is a little uncomfortable with their equipment, this step is important as it will help you later in the setup when you actually program the remote. The last step on the guide you install which starts you on the way to getting the Harmony 880 to work with your equipment.

The software used to configure the Harmony 880 isn't like your typical hardware install, rather the utility is web based which uses an Internet connection to retrieve information from a central database. The central database contains all the different hardware available on the market such as AV receivers, DVD players, TVs and more! Since the Harmony remote is designed to control your components, it does make sense that a central server be used so that your remote continues to support the latest products. So to get the Logitech Harmony 880 up and running you will need to use a Internet connection.

When you launch the software for the first time, you are asked to create an account so that you can configure the remote. It's interesting to note that you can set up multiple accounts (using different emails), this way you can keep different Harmony settings and reprogram the remote whenever you want. This could be useful if you want to use the same remote at the office and at home.

Next step you select the type of devices you have and specify the model number for each component (this is where the list of devices and model numbers you wrote down earlier comes in handy).

The last step is to define your "Activities". Activities are things you want to do with the remote like "Watch TV" and "Listen to Radio". The list of Activities you have for the remote is automatically generated from the devices you own. So if your AV receiver has both an integrated DVD player and a FM tuner, you will have "Watch a DVD" and "Listen to the Radio" Activities available to you automatically by the setup software. By the same token, the software will not give you an Activity that doesn't make sense for your devices, so you won't get an Activity like "Watch a DVD" if you do not own a DVD player.

Now to refine each Activity to your particular needs, the software asks you a series of simple questions that help it figure out how you use your devices. For example when watching TV use your integrated TV speakers, but when watching DVDs you use your AV receiver, the software's questioning helps differentiate these two tasks.

Once you have gone through the questions, the software confirms your setup and then loads it onto the Harmony 880. The loading process takes a few seconds and varies depending on the number of devices you have. It could take a while, so be patient. Once the remote has been programmed, you can disconnect it and begin using it to control your devices.

Leveraging Activities

Though the software creates some pre-canned Activities that make sense for your hardware, you are not limited by these! You can define your own Activities and they will appear in the main Activities menu on the remote, and what you create can only be limited by your imagination.

For me, when I have guests over I like to play a DVD on the TV, and play streamed music from my HTPC. Using the Harmony's ability to define your own "Utility" Activity, I programmed the Harmony 880 with an Activity which plays a DVD, but sets the audio input on the receiver to my computer.

If you have lights that are controlled by remote, you can even make a "Barry White" activity which will dim the lights and play the CD player. Really the possibilities are endless.

The first time you use the Harmony 880, it is in "Help Mode" which allows you to correct any unexpected behaviour in the remote like if the volume control is affecting the wrong device. By hitting "Help" the remote will ask you questions like "Is the AV Receiver on?" and you answer Yes or No. The remote will then attempt to turn on the device. If it fails you will have to plug the remote back to your computer and reprogram the correct behaviour. Reprogramming the remote for the right behaviour is not hard once you've done it once.

For me, I ran through each Activity to make sure the correct devices turned on or off, and that the controls were doing what they were supposed to do. Once you're satisfied and everything is as it should be you can leave Help Mode so you don't get all those "Is the X device On?" prompts.

You're all set!

After you've jumped through the hoops (and over the hurdles for some) and you've finally got the remote configured the way you like, you finally can sit and relax and use the Harmony 880. But how well does the Harmony 880 work in a multi-device environment?

The easiest way to get the remote to do "things" is to use the Activites you programmed into the remote during the setup. By selecting an activity like "Watch a DVD" or "Watch TV" or "Listen to Radio", the remote automatically changes the inputs and outputs on your various devices so that the audio and video are all properly configured for that task.

For example, when performing my "Watch a DVD", the TV's input gets switched to Video 1, the digital receiver switches to DVD input using an optical connection, and the DVD player is turned on. I can then use the LCD function keys to change the aspect ratio (a TV function) and select subtitles (a DVD player function). All of this is done in just 3 buttons.

To jump to a different activity you hit the "Activities" button and select the activity you want to perform. The remote would then turn off any unused device caused by the activity switch, and turn on any needed devices, and adjust all the input and output settings automatically.

Continuing with our example, say I just finished watching my DVD and I want just the radio on, I hit the Activities button and select "Listen to Radio" from the LCD menu. The DVD and TV turn off, and the AV receiver remains on and changes its input to the radio. This is done in just 2 buttons.

By default the responsiveness of the Harmony remote is a bit slow, but thankfully you can decrease the wait time between button presses through the software so the Harmony feels snappier and more alert.

After using the Harmony 880 remote to control all my devices, I found that there were some cases where it was faster to just grab my old remotes and do the action I need. However, this is not the fault of the Harmony 880, rather it's because I have not programmed all the needed functionality into the Harmony yet.

As much as I would like to say that the Harmony 880 remote is perfect, it isn't... but it's darn close though! There were a few situations where I found the design of the remote falling a bit short, but thankfully there were workarounds I discovered. Even if my issues are not applicable to your setup, you may find this information useful in understanding how the remote works so you can decide whether or not it's something you should buy.

One problem I ran into was with the DVD player integrated with my TV set. Not many TVs have this feature, but some have this to save space and reduce clutter like on my Hitachi projection TV. The problem is that the Harmony's volume controls were using my TV set's speakers and not the digital receiver as programmed. I suspect it has something to do with the integrated DVD player and the TV set, but either way the problem was annoying.

To fix this, I had to "teach" the Harmony 880 to use the receiver's volume IR codes instead of the TV's. Using the software, I replaced the volume controls for my TV remote with the volume controls for my receiver. Once this was done, whenever I turned up the volume on my TV while in DVD mode, the receiver's volume would change, and not my TV's volume.

Above is the "Learn IR" screen which allows you to program any IR code
to a function on the Harmony 880 remote.

Getting the Harmony to learn new IR tricks is easy.
There is a IR receiver on the bottom of the 880 which receives
IR signals from another IR device.

Another issue I had with the Harmony remote is that it could not toggle the power of my Free-To-Air set top box despite it being programmed to. Granted the STB I have is a generic brand manufactured in Asia (a Pansat box), I figured the Harmony 880 should have been able to replicate the proper On/Off command by learning the IR code.

The last quirk I discovered is the lack of state management for the different devices when performing different actions. For example, I ran the Watch TV activity (Activities > Watch TV) and then turned off the TV using the Harmony 880 (Devices > TV > Off), then I ran the Watch TV activity again (Activities > Watch TV) -- the TV doesn't turn back on! This is clearly a software bug and it sounds like a relatively easy fix.

In its most basic form, the Harmony remote is a device that can take separate IR commands, store them, and emit them when requested. This means that any IR emitter (like a remote) can be replicated on the Harmony since the Harmony can learn any IR command. This could mean that the Harmony can learn to control more than just home audio/video equipment. Remotes are used with a lot of devices these days ranging from ceiling and floor fans, alarm clocks, digital cameras, video cameras, iPod remotes.... the possibilities are really endless.

To drive the point home about the Harmony's flexibility, here's an image of the Harmony 880 acting like a remote control for my Nikon D50 camera and taking a picture of itself using IR commands learned from the official Nikon remote. If you want detailed instructions on how I accomplished this, please feel free to email me!

A photo of me using the Harmony 880 to control my digital camera.
Anything is possible.

Thankfully, programming the Harmony 880 remote isn't very tricky and getting it to do what you want it to do is relatively simple. However, the tricky part comes when your devices don't quite react the way you expect when using the Harmony. In these cases you will need to revisit the software and troubleshoot the issue using the wizards or teach the Harmony new IR commands.

After spending a few weeks with the Harmony 880 I have to say that it is a potent device that accomplishes what it says: control all your devices. I wouldn't say it's the easiest device to set up and use, but Logitech has done a very fine job of simplifying the whole process while giving easy access to powerful troubleshooting and programming features. The web based software is an ingenious way of saving Harmony configurations for customers, while allowing Logitech to bolster their growing database of IR devices and improve their software interface.

For a consumer who has major brand products in fairly conventional setups, there isn't any reason why you shouldn't consider the Harmony 880 -- it should work like a charm in your setup. But for those of you with obsure brands or strange configurations, you may need to play around with the Harmony 880's programming a bit before things run smoothly. If you're one of these people with weird setups, the chances are you'll be more than happy to play and debug the behaviour of the Harmony... who knows, maybe you can teach it to do something you didn't think possible.

The Logitech Harmony 880 is by far the best universal remote I have used and it makes me wonder why I didn't get one sooner. There are many different competitors these days, but none are as easily usable or programmable as the Harmony 880. The elegance of the Harmony solution and the power of its flexibility earn it an Editor's Choice here on PC Perspective.