RC User Reviews: Harmony 745 / H745 / SST-745 Remote Control (3)

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User reviews for the Harmony 745 / H745 / SST-745 from Logitech.

Ratings	Reviews	MSRP (USD)
Average: 3.68/5.00 Median: 4.33/5.00	29	$199

The Harmony is a new style of activity-based remote control, completely programmed over the Internet. It features a compact design, a limited number of hard buttons, an LCD screen and a scroll wheel for operation.

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Now viewing user reviews page 3 of 5 for
the Harmony 745 / H745 / SST-745 remote.

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Written by Paul S. from Connecticcut.

The reviewer has used this remote control for 1-3 months.

Review 15 made on Thursday September 12, 2002 at 12:51 PM.

Strengths:

Simple to use,compact,handles all the commands needed,and downloads your remotes from the internet.

Weaknesses:

At first appears to be alittle difficult to understand the technic of downloading info from the internet but after the first time trying you'll understand completely.It's a great concept and you'll see its really pretty simple.

Review:

I'm really happy with the remote and all its capabilities.All the macros are preset from the web site and after that its a matter of pressing a few buttons to accomplish anything you may want to do with your setup.In many cases its the push of only one button to turn on all the devices you need to have your system up and running for any application you desire.The best remote I've ever had.

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Written by Steve Fox from Ruthven, ON, Canada.

The reviewer has used this remote control for 1-3 months.

Review 14 made on Friday August 16, 2002 at 4:09 PM.

Review:

If you have been reading through the various reviews on this site you'll find that I fall into the category of happy customers although for additional reasons than those given elsewhere.

I have a neurological disorder that effectively weakens my muscles including my hands. I can usually use most of the buttons on many of the remote controls that I have encountered but never all of them. Small and/or stiff buttons always pose a problem to me.

When I received my Harmony remote I found that I could press all the buttons without difficulty. The small size (about the size of a cell phone) made it easier to handle than typical remotes. When I began the tutorial presented by the remote I found that, while I could spin the thumbwheel to highlight menu selections, I could not click the thumbwheel to actually make a selection. This appeared to be a serious shortcoming for me. However before I returned the unit I contacted the customer support people explaining my situation to them.

They responded the next day pointing out that the Harmony remote's user interface is quite reprogrammable and that they can simply map the 'select' function from the thumbwheel to any other button of my choice. Within three days of me setting up my Harmony user account they had done just that. I simply logged into my account and downloaded the latest configuration that they left for me.

At that point I went through all the usual steps of configuring the remote to work with my equipment. The only difficulties I encountered were in digitizing one old remote that was intermittently malfunctioning. It took some patience to clone each button on that old remote but now I'm glad I won't have to deal with it again. I have been happily using my Harmony remote for a month now.

I can highly recommend this remote especially for people who have some constraints moving their fingers or hands. The combination of a highly reconfigurable device and an accomodating and responsive customer support make this perfect remote for those users requiring some customization.

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Written by Jeff Holland from il.

The reviewer has used this remote control for 3-6 months.

Review 13 made on Wednesday July 24, 2002 at 10:29 PM.

Review:

I don't understand how so many users are having trouble config. this remote. It is awesome. It is a piece of cake to set up. The cust support can fine tune it, and you download it with your update. If you have a very comlex home theatre it may not work, but for the other 90% w/ a typical set up it is great.

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Written by Trey Cunningham from texas.

The reviewer has used this remote control for 1-3 months.

Review 12 made on Tuesday July 9, 2002 at 9:13 PM.

Strengths:

My 5 remote situation went to 1.
It was very easy to program.
It is small enough to work one handed.
Customer service and Tech support is excellent.

Weaknesses:

More documentation on XML.
A offline editing product would be nice.

Review:

I bougth one and within a matter of moments was controling my whole AV system.

When I want to watch a dvd I press the watch dvd activity and my projector comes on my screen drops down and the dvd begins to play. with a little help from tech support I even get the lights to dim off when i hit the play and on if stop or pause are pressed this is true with all my activities.

My 5 remote situation went to 1.
My wife actually can sit down press one button to turn on everything and one button to turn off everything.
And the best thing about it I don get those annoying calls about "HOW DO YOU TURN ON?"

The tech support is very good about adressing issues. They do call you back if you call them and they do respond to email.

I've programmed pronto's and this compared to that is a breeze.

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Written by Tim Blanchard from Los Angeles CA.

The reviewer has used this remote control for 1-3 months.

Review 11 made on Tuesday July 2, 2002 at 10:13 PM.

Strengths:

P.S. FYI If Harmony could program the remote in advance tailored to my equipment and it WORKED, we'd be thrilled. Our equipment is fairly mainstream: Panasonic TV, Sony CD receiver and CD carousels, GoVideo VCR/DVD deck, General Instruments digital cable box, RePlay TV. Oddly, Harmony has TiVo appear even when you enter RePlay TV.

Weaknesses:

I feel that we received a completely different remote than those people on this board who had no problems.

Review:

The concept is outstanding; all they need to do is implement it.

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Written by Margaret Manning from Los Angeles CA.

The reviewer has used this remote control for 1-3 months.

Review 10 made on Tuesday July 2, 2002 at 10:05 PM.

Strengths:

concept is appealing; if it worked as advertised, we'd be ecstatic

Weaknesses:

neither of two units we received was able to "learn" ANY codes from ANY remotes we have, regardless of new batteries, etc., etc. We even had a tech come in to try to program it, and he spent an hour on the phone with Harmony, and got no better results than we did. The replacement hads all the same problems; nor did the new software resolve any problems.

Review:

Enclosed please find BOTH Harmony EZ Zapper remotes that you shipped us. As I informed you last week, not only did I spend two days trying to program the EZ Zapper remote, I spent more than $200 for a tech to come in to try to program it, because it held such promise and we assumed that we were doing something wrong. Neither of us nor the tech could get the remote to "learn" from the many remotes that we use with our equipment. (We tried fresh batteries, etc., all to no avail.) On the phone with the Harmony tech support personnel, the tech tried everything recommended but the remote was unable to learn any signal; in fact, it acknowledged only one signal, very weakly, and only when placed under a dark blanket. Harmony told us to return the unit as defective, and also assured us that new software to be released soon would cure our other problems. The replacement had the same problem with learning, however, which is frustrating because the Harmony has very few codes that we need built into the system. Moreover, the new software we downloaded did nothing to solve the other problems.

This remote is hardly the great solution that it was represented to be.
It is, quite simply, not ready for prime time, and we suggest that you take it off your website.

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Written by Ahmed from Bethesda, MD.

The reviewer has used this remote control for 1-3 months.

Review 9 made on Saturday June 22, 2002 at 6:08 AM.

Strengths:

Great Concept
Large buttons - well placed
Ergonomics of remote

Weaknesses:

This Product is in BETA
The IR sensor to learn commands is an absolute shame to the product (SO WEAK!)
Selecting an input through the scroll button is flimsy and can often trigger wrong results
the ZAP button seems to be a selling point that will lure customers to buy the product - when they get it, like me, they will never really use it.

Review:

This product has a sound concept of putting all your equipment in harmony with each other. However, it is obvious that the sellers have just released the BETA version. I say this because the drawbacks of the product grossly out weigh the strenghts (See strenghs\weaknesses). It is incredible to me that this site highly recommended this product. I found it extremely tedious to set up and if your equipment is NOT in the equipment they they have preprogrammed on their site -- the manuel learning is grueling -- the IR learning sensor is so weak it puts shame to those who released this product and i don't understand why a company could let this flaw go into production.

RECOMMENDATION: do not buy this remote untill the huge kinks are worked out. After trying remotes ranging from $500 to $50. Hands down my pick is the Sony RMVL-900. Read the user reviews. I can't really trust this sites reviews after their Harmony valuation.

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