Logitech Harmony 880 remote

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The Harmony 880 Remote is a relatively expensive universal remote control. Given it's high price, it does offer a lot of flexibility in how it's programmed.

Pros

  • One nice feature compared to some more expensive LCD touch-screen remotes is it has real buttons, which are nice so you don't always have to look at your remote to use it, but it still has an LCD screen where you can customize buttons and add text to them.
  • It "knows" what mode everything is supposed to be in - you push "Watch TV" and it sets all your devices to the correct mode.
  • It has a Help button which will fix any device that gets out of sync with what mode it's supposed to be in. Great for kids, guests, etc.
  • Fairly customizeable, if you're willing to spend the time.
  • Rechargeable - never runs out of batteries
  • Great customer support

Cons

  • Web-based tool to program the remote. If your Internet is down, you can't program it.
  • I've had two of these over a couple years (the motion-sensing LCD light was starting to go on the 1st), and the second one I got in 2007 is "cheaper". It feels like a different plastic, and some parts of the buttons are starting to wear only after a couple months. The worn sections now show light through them - very annoying. They are clearly not made like they used to be.
  • When learning other remote's commands, you cannot get a button press faster than 1 second. In other words, a learned button, when pressed, locks the remote for 1 second. So, if you want to press 5 buttons - it takes 5 seconds until it's responsive again. Apparently Logitech knows about this issue by reading their forums. The fix some have reported is to call customer support, and by providing them your login they can provide further customizations to your remote which you don't have access to do. (BTW, when I first got the remote 2 years ago, this 1 second minimum keysend did not exist. New software or firmware is to blame - maybe they will fix it soon.)
  • You don't have full control down to the binary level of the codes that are sent, unlike some high-end Philips remotes, for example. Sometimes it takes a lot of tries and tricks to learn commands to get them just right (Press the button fast, slow, block the IR before releasing the button, block the IR when starting to send, etc)
  • It's charging contacts get dirty quickly and eventually stops charging, unless you remember to clean the contacts.