5 comments about Logitech Harmony 768 Advanced Universal Remote Control (Silver).

1. I have had a Harmony 768 for a year and bought another one for my daughter 6 months ago for $134. I thought it was a good deal at that price. For $70 the Harmony 768 is the deal of the century. Harmony's 1-800 tech support line is the best in the business.



2. I had a universal remote to control all of my components and it worked but it took a long explanation to anyone who wanted to use it.
   
   The 768 spells everything out in easy to understand English like "Watch a DVD" or even "Watch Yanks in HD" that control all of the components so that you arrive at your end goal even if you have no idea what steps are needed to setup all the gear.
   
   The support is great too. I had initial troubles getting it setup and was concerned that they may not have weekend support hours but they did! I got right through and the gentleman I spoke with was able to go into my account and clean up the problem.
   
   I sometimes wish it had dedicated directional buttons the different "modes" work well enough.
   
   I cannot reccomend this remote highly enough, especially for the price Amazon has it for right now.



3. i got mine last night. Here's a preliminary review:
   
   easy remote setup on their website, i just wrote down the model numbers of my 6 components, and then walked through setup of each one. It took only an hour or so. Once the update was downloaded to the remote, it was a pretty easy process to learn the remote. Within a short time I was able to operate all my components/activities without any problems. Activity based remote use is a godsend!
   
   The only problem i had in setup was some of the ir commands not working correctly, however, that was easily overcome by the easy remote command ir learning process on their site.
   
   I do have a little bit of setup left to do - reassigning buttons/commands to places that are more intuitive for me.. So there will be a bit of a refining process.
   
   So far i love this remote, and the TV Guide feature on the remote is coming in more handy than i thought it would..
   
   So far - I LOVE IT!



4. Pros: Small size; web interface for setup; stores every remote command in the scroll wheel
   
   Cons: Takes a while to get the remote working exactly the way you want it; each computer update takes about 6 to 7 minutes to upload to your remote (I've already updated mine over 10 times and I'm still not finished;



5. THIS REMOTE WORKS GREAT WITH ALL MY COMPONENTS, CONTROLS MY WHOLE SYSTEM WITH A TOUCH OF A BUTTON, THE ONLY THING IS AFTER BASIC SETUP IT REQUIRES SOME ADDITIONAL SETTINGS, BUTS ITS AWESOME, GREAT BUY! I GOT IT FOR 60 AFTER 10 REBATE

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5 comments about Harman Kardon TC-1000 Take Control System Controller.

1. "More expensive" does not mean "better." Definitely not the case with the TC-1000.

   Things I do not like about this remote:

   - Pressing a button on the lcd screen doesn't always result in the desired action. Actions seem to bleed from one area to the next, even when a narrow object is used as a stylus.

   - Some buttons do not work, period. Example, the number 8 does not work at all to change channels on the ReplayTV setup.

   - The display time-out resets itself to a default of 10 seconds, like every hour or so. Not enough, and I still haven't figured out how to permanently set it.

   - The brightness frequently sets it self to the least bright setting for no apparent reason. Like a sullen teenager, it must get tired of being told what to do, so it rebels by showing you a blackened screen.

   - Buttons on the remote are not labeled consistently with the original remote. A problem with most universal remotes, this one seems to have been translated from another language.

   There's more, but I'll spare the excess whining.




2. I purchased three of these remotes as part of a whole-house audio/video install when our home was being constructed. At first I thought they were pretty nifty, being that I'm a techno-geek and generally love anything with batteries. I thought the programmability would be great.

   And it would be, if it weren't for the fact that this remote is heavy and very difficult to use. With an LCD touch screen remote you get zero tactile response to tell you whether you successfully pressed a button or not and you spend half your time re-pressing buttons or accidentally pressing them twice. Further, since you have to look at the screen to see the button to press (you can't feel for it like a normal remote) you end up trying to gently place your finger over the desired button while looking at it before you reposition the remote to aim at your television. If you want to enter a three digit channel number this means you (1) Tilt the LCD screen toward you to line up over the first digit, (2) Tilt the remote to aim at TV, (3) Press button, then repeat these three steps for the other two digits - 9 motions to enter three numbers! Remotes with physical buttons allow you to develop a "feel" for button locations so you can operate the remote without looking at it - great for dark home theater settings.

   So, after trying to adjust to these clunky remotes I've finally replaced them with the Home Theater Master MX-500. This one is a great combination of programmability, including physical keys that can be renamed through LCD labels, and the kind of tactile response and solid construction that demanding techies appreciate.

   Check it out at ...

   If your home theater has 8 or fewer devices, I also recommend the Home Theater Master SL9000. I used that one before adding some components to my system which prompted moving up to the MX-500.




3. The PC software used for programming the remote is very easy to use and a nice surprise coming from the kings of bad user interface design--Microsoft. You will have no trouble setting it up nor will it be difficult to modify the setup at a later date. Unfortunately, the remote itself eats batteries (I use NiMH rechargeables, but they still only last a month or so) and the touch screen is balky (it has trouble accurately sensing pressure at the edges in particular.) You can do anything with this remote, but its just not the panacea I had hoped for. I would not recommend it, nor would I condemn anyone for buying it. If you have very, very complicated home theater needs, it will certainly be able to meet them.



4. I bought this remote in the hope that my wife would actually learn how to turn on the home theater system. It hasn't fulfilled that purpose for a vaiety of reasons, some having to do with flaws in the product itself and some having to do with the design of the components that it is supposed to operate.

   In a nutshell, the product flaws are (1) dim, almost unreadable display; (2) poor control design, (3) voracious appetite for batteries and (4) unpredictability of operation.

   Item one is self-explanatory. You just can't see the display in many light environments. Item two has to do with the scroll wheel. The product design requires you to scroll to your selection then depress the scroll wheel to select. Well, about half the time when you depress the wheel, it turns slightly causing you to accidentally select the next menu item up or down. This is really frustrating. Item three: self-explantory.

   Item 4 refers to the fact that no matter how much you fine tune the programming, its impossible to get the thing to go through a set of macros (e.g., turn on TV, turn on amplifier, set amplifier to DVD, set TV input to amplifier... etc.) successfully with any reliability. Sometimes it works, sometimes you end up setting some of the components manually.

   Also relevant to this category are the difficult to use touch screens. With no feedback you don't know whether you've activated the button or not.

   On the plus side, the PC programming is very easy to use.

   In short, I regret paying so much for a product that has not lived up to its promise.




5. I saw this offered ... which seemed like a good deal after reading a few reviews and seeing it sold elsewhere. Now that I've used it, I'm pretty impressed with the ability to progam and synchronize it with my PC, as well as find codes for download from the internet from other people who have the remote.

   I have two problems with this remote though, one is the dim LCD and the second is that Harman Kardon and Microsoft have discontinued manufacturing it and ceased developing software updates for it.

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