My parents have a similar bedroom/living room entertainment setup. My mother has a hard time using the different controls between the BD player (living room), Sony DVD player (bedroom), Sony HD CRT (living room), Sony HD LCD (bedroom), cable box (bedroom), DVR (living room). Is there an ability to set up the Harmony (700?) to be room portable or would two remotes need to be used? I can't find a manual for the 700 online, but it would seem that it's a fairly smart device. The concern I have is switching between inputs for each of the components in either room. Does the remote send a direct to input code instead of cycling through the list? Would like to find some answers before I place some money down on one.

Thank you,
Nitrocloud

12/9/2009 7:23:23 AM

I definitely misread this. What you're looking at doing should be entirely possible. I just woke up though so I offer absolutely no semblance of help.

[Edited on December 9, 2009 at 7:45 AM. Reason : .]

12/9/2009 7:43:59 AM

it would seem like two remotes would be far easier though (if more expensive)

12/9/2009 7:52:05 AM

It seems like some of the older remotes support having more components at once than the newer models (510,700) do. I think a new old stock 670 would possibly be my best bet at this point. There's also the recertified 550's that look a lot less bulky too.

Don't see color buttons on the 550 or the 670 (activities buttons are colored, do they have double function?)

[Edited on December 9, 2009 at 8:24 AM. Reason : hrm]

12/9/2009 8:21:20 AM

the 890 is straight up awesome.

12/9/2009 8:24:44 AM

Are the 800 series buttons responsive? There seem to be quite a few reviews of failing/hard to press buttons with use of less than a couple years.

12/9/2009 8:28:43 AM

our Logitech 890 has slowly began shitting the bed. The display screen doesn't even work anymore, thankfully i had mastered the buttom combos before it died. Anyone who is new to the remote and trying to control a different device would be shit out of luck though.

Responsiveness seems to be based on device. Tuner, TV, BD Player it's fine. DirecTV it's slow as hell and takes me a couple attempts to punch in a channel number.



The 890 can control up to 15 devices and should be plenty capable of handling what you want. It may be that you would have to program each device seperately and switch to them one by one though.

We have ours set up as activities so when selecting "watch TV" it turns the TV on with direct IR control (point at TV), and controls the Receiver and DirecTV box with the supplied remote IR unit.

12/9/2009 8:36:44 AM

How do you perform color button entries?

12/9/2009 8:44:14 AM

Called up Logitech customer support. They say any new remote 700 or up can have activities programmed and named such that if my folks used it in a different room, they can use differently named activities (living room vs. bedroom) and there's a possibility of the devices sharing codes (all the same brands) even though they only have a total of 6 devices anyway. I think that the 700 would do what they need it to do.

12/9/2009 9:20:03 AM

^^if that was to me, in regards to my display being out...I've just used the remote so much that i know which top button corresponds to which color (for DTV). Like a said, this remote would almost be completely useless to a new user.

12/9/2009 9:52:25 AM

My bad, I wasn't aware of the shitty malfunctioning button issues with the 800 series. I'd just done brief research in the past when looking up the RF capable models. I ended up grabbing a usb TiVo remote with a tuner card, but it's proving to be quite annoying pairing it with MediaPortal.

[Edited on December 9, 2009 at 10:59 AM. Reason : ]

12/9/2009 10:33:34 AM

If you buy a harmony 700,one, or 900 on amazon through December you get a free Logitech PS3 adapter. Pretty sweet deal.

12/9/2009 11:22:09 AM

It's not that the 890 is bad. I think the display broke after it falling off the table or couch arm due to dogs, niece/nephews, and occasional clumsiness. That being said, it should be a little more durable. But it's ease of programming was great. The software it comes with makes it a breeze to program new devices or update the firmware. For some reason it's just really slow responding to my DirecTV receiver. That's the main gripe i have that wasn't user created (wear and tear)

[Edited on December 9, 2009 at 11:46 AM. Reason : add]

12/9/2009 11:44:37 AM

I have the 880 and it is a wonderful piece of gear to control my TV, Receiver, and PS3 ... wouldn't have it any other way.

As far as the OP, I think you have it figured out. Program a bedroom and a living room activity. Each one has different groups of devices to control.

It's still somewhat surprising to me that Logitech is the only company that really chases this market of (smart) universal remotes.

12/9/2009 12:49:47 PM

you may have trouble controlling two different TVs that are the same brand

12/9/2009 1:09:41 PM

and you may have to buy a seperate IR module to put in the bedroom.


well maybe not. We use the IR Module because our boxes are all out of line of sight. If everything can be directly pointed to with the remote you should be more than fine

12/9/2009 1:58:21 PM

I just wanted to come in here and brag about my Logitech Harmony One.



It's amazing.

12/9/2009 3:44:20 PM

i have an 880 as well, love it.

12/9/2009 4:10:31 PM

1) Yes, this should work. As has been mentioned, you can program an "Activity". Traditionally, this is "I want to watch a blue-ray, turn on my tv, surround-sound system and switch the receiver to the blue-ray player". Instead, we'll be using an activity of controlling one set of devices in a given room.

2) Buy from amazon.com if you want to trial it. I don't know specifics of remotes, but they are almost as good as Walmart when it comes to taking a return with full refund.

3) I don't know your parents, but anybody who walks around the house with a remote in their pocket without getting annoyed and/or losing the thing I'll be VERY surprised about. Start them with a single remote (maybe a cheaper Harmony 520?), and get them a nicer / more expensive one for the second room if they really like the first.

Although, I'll admit, for our bedroom, we have our DirectTV remote programmed for the TV/Satellite box/DVD in there. Works out fine for as infrequently as we use it. Have a Logitech Harmony for the great room, where the main TV / entertainment center is.

[Edited on December 9, 2009 at 8:24 PM. Reason : .]

12/9/2009 8:23:35 PM

my display screen on my 890 finally came back to life. I took the battery out of the controller last night and let it sit overnight. Put it back together this morning and it's working again. I feel like i've done this before, so not a permanent fix but good none the less

12/10/2009 8:40:14 AM

Quote :

"Are the 800 series buttons responsive? There seem to be quite a few reviews of failing/hard to press buttons with use of less than a couple years."

I have the 880 and the left side of my screen - those buttons don't work anymore.

12/10/2009 10:52:50 AM

anyone with the DirecTV HD DVR box notice that the remotes have lost sync in the last 48 hours?

my logitech software is saying there's been a firmware update to the box and that the remote is no longer compatible. My controls are all sorts of fucked up and my number pad is useless.

haven't seen anything pop up on the forums yet

12/22/2009 1:33:00 PM

let's hope the firmware update fixes the shittastic software running on that box.

12/22/2009 1:34:17 PM

Quote :

"anyone with the DirecTV HD DVR box notice that the remotes have lost sync in the last 48 hours? my logitech software is saying there's been a firmware update to the box and that the remote is no longer compatible. My controls are all sorts of fucked up and my number pad is useless. haven't seen anything pop up on the forums yet"

I have it. I havent lost anything on the Harmony One yet. I used it last night. I'll post up if that changes.

12/22/2009 3:39:58 PM

gah, the DirecTV HD DVR sux ass. My folks' is basically useless for watching a show while it's being recorded. Completely retarded.

As to the original post, yes, a Harmony One will do what you are talking about. You can program the activities. The only problem you might have is if you have similar TVs and they are within line-of-sight for each other.

12/26/2009 8:52:45 PM

Well, I didn't go with the remote. Not even the cheapest one; Mom said she didn't want one. She still pawns off the remote to anyone else that she can in most situations, but can do things like watch a DVD/BD or set the TV input to "Game" to play the Wii. She's kind of unstable with the Wii and has problems with getting it to work if it's off and not in standby.

12/26/2009 11:54:27 PM