Logitech Harmony 360 LCD Remote Control

I picked up this Universal Remote when I purchased a Surround System for my home this Holiday Season. My existing setup consisted of a Samsung 720p DLP TV set, a cable box, and an XBox 360. I knew I was going to be adding a Yamaha A/V Receiver to this setup, and besides not wanting to have four remotes sitting around, I knew my wife would be confused by having more stuff to fiddle around with, so I wanted to simplify our system for both of us. I also knew that if I didn't make the setup easy to use, she'd hate me and resent my new Receiver purchase, so I had to get something simple, straightforward, and truly universal.

Since we use our XBox 360 as both our DVD Player and our game system, I figured this remote would be the best solution for our system. It's pretty much the same as the Harmony 550, but the store was out of those when I was shopping there, which clinched the decision.

After setting up my new A/V Surround system, I decided to tackle the remote. Out of the box, it's ready to control a 360. It does require a software installation to program the remote, and this software does leave some "ad-ware" on your machine that shows occasional "special offers" from Logitech. I didn't look through all the options to see if this could be disabled, and I was installing the software on an ancient laptop that we only use for web surfing anyway.

Once the software was installed, it auto updated, then started going through a bunch of Question and Answer screens to help me configure the remote. I'm a pretty technically savvy guy (I'm a software developer at a well-known Redmond, WA company), so I found the initial setup to be somewhat too dumbed down. However, it did ask all the right questions ("Do you have an A/V Receiver? What Brand? What's the model number? Do you listen to sound through your TV or your Receiver?") and in the end, it generated a list of activities that more or less reflected what I wanted to do. The remote connects to the PC with a USB cable (provided), and once the activities were set up, I clicked a button on the PC, and the software spent about a minute reprogramming the remote. Once this is done, the remote asks you to test things out to make sure they work as expected, and then offers to help you go back and sort out any problems. It certainly tries to be very helpful.

Immediately, I could see the pros and cons of this system, and while there were some cons, they were far outweighed by the pros. First, the good. The remote organizes your devices by activities, which are things you want to do. Want to watch cable TV? Great, it will turn on my TV, Cable Box, and Receiver, make sure the Receiver is set to the Cable input. Want to watch a DVD next? Fine, the remote will turn off the cable box, turn on my Xbox 360, and set the Receiver to the 360 input. The remote is pretty smart, in that it keeps track of what's powered on and what's powered off, and it will manage those devices for you. Of course this means you can't go and power off devices by hand, or the remote will get out of sync.

The Harmony also associates a set of custom buttons with each activity, so for example, when watching a DVD, a custom button will read "Open/Close", while when watching cable TV, the same custom button will read "Page Up" or "Page Down" for the Cable TV Guide. The only problem with the "Activities" paradigm is that the remote will sometimes take up to ten seconds to send all the commands necessary, during which the remote must remain pointed at all the devices. I usually just activate an Activity, then put the remote down on my coffee table pointing at my TV so I don't have to keep holding it and aiming it. So far, so good.

I wound up reprogramming the remote about five times over the first two days I owned it, which some people may think is too much. However, past the initial setup, I found this process to be fairly straightforward. I removed one activitiy from the remote, which was something we never did (I don't even remember what it was, honestly). I had to program the remote to learn the IR from another remote, since the button programmed from the software wasn't working correctly (couldn't go to the next radio station on the Receiver, only the previous one). The Harmony learned the new command from the original remote, and the problem was fixed. Finally, after consulting my wife, we tweaked what custom buttons were available for certain activities, and we remapped one or two more buttons for our own ease of use. That was pretty much it, and I haven't changed it in about five days now. Occasionally I'll wonder how to do something and then find the button that automatically does it in about three seconds ("How do I view the Last Channel? Hmmm... there's a button labeled PREV... Ah, that's it."), but it becomes less of a learning experience and more of a habit every day now.

In about a week of using the Harmony, I know I'm very happy with it, and my wife seems to be okay with it. She hasn't gone back to using the four old remotes, nor has she complained about not being able to do anything she wants to do. I like the reduced clutter, and I've definitely gotten used to the new button layout and the Activities "press and put down" pattern; my DLP TV takes a good seven or eight seconds to start up anyway, so this is fine with me. The display is easy to read, and the buttons feel fine. I am concerned about battery life, as this remote is not rechargable, and the online FAQ states that the 4 AAA batteries will need to be replaced every 3-4 weeks depending on use. We'll see how that goes.

Overall, I think for people who are willing to put the time into customizing the remote to do what they need it to do will find this a very rewarding product. If you're not altering your A/V setup often, this is really a remote that you'll spend two hours or so setting up, and then you'll just use it. It really can replace many, many remote controls, and it has a good feel, and a nice look.

Update: I had to change the batteries for the first time after three months of use. The remote made a strange whining noise one day, and stopped sending a signal, so I popped out the old batteries and put in the new ones. It maintained it's programming, and worked fine afterwards. I've been careful not to use the Glow feature for too long, so perhaps that contributed to the battery longevity. Still, estimate about three months of battery life for average use.