Logitech Harmony 890 Remote Question (1 Viewer)

[ArunVK]

I am planning to buy either the 880 or 890 but was wondering whether (apart from AV components) it would work with lighting as well. If so, which manufacturer's lighting switches ? Lutron sells remote control switches for home theatre and conference room lighting control. However, I don't know whether the Harmoney series work with them. Any clue ?

 

[DougR]

Maybe you can find some info here:

http://www.remotecentral.com/cgi-bin...rmony/list.cgi

 

[Steve_Drake]

I have a different question about these remotes. Are they easy to set up? also are they as sweet as they sound?

thanks

 

[AndrewPaulJones]

yes harmony does work with lutron

you name it, it will work for it.

i looked up the 890 specifically for the lutron my self a few months back and when i was browsing through the options i clicked on wireless lighting controls and i swear 40 different manufacuters had to of popped up.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I'll let you know later this week since I finally broke down and ordered the 890. I have eight different remotes that needs to be slim down. So this remote will control a display, audio processor, video processor, HD Tivo, DVD Recorder, DVD player, HD DVD player and Blu-ray player.




Crawdaddy

 

[drobbins]

Yes they are. After building my theater, was constantly getting calls at work from my wife & kids: How do I set everything to watch a movie, etc..? I talked the wife into spending the money on a Harmony. Setup couldn't be easier. Go to their web site, enter the numbers of your equipment, answer a few questions about settings, then plug your remote into your computer and the rest is done for you. The web site also remembers your settings, so if you have to reprogram all you do is connect the remote to the computer and it will be programed as before. You can also modify the default settings if you would like.
Now they press one button "Watch a Movie" and:

• The projector is turned on
• The projector goes to the right input
• The receiver is turned on
• The receiver is set to the DVD input
• The DVD is turned on.

Now the remote controls:

• Volume
• The DVD player
• The light dimmers
• The aspect ratio of the projector.

The same works for "Watch TV" etc... After spending all the time and money building a theater, a Harmony makes it user friendly.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Another big thumbs up for the 890 Remote. Very easy to setup and it controls 8 different pieces of equipment without any trouble.




Crawdaddy

 

[Xander H]

I'd love to pick up a universal remote like this, and I

 

[Robert Crawford]

This remote controls my DirecTV's HR10-250 without any problems including accessing the guide, recording immediately or setting up to record later as well as surfing up and down. I even use it to change the output signal from 480i to 1080i and then back again. It does everything because once you setup your remote from Logitech Harmony site as to what equipment and sequence you want the remote to control, it downloads the user's guide for each piece of equipment into the remote from their site.

 

[Reginald Trent]

How does the 890 differ from the 880?

 

[mylan]

The 890 has RF capability.

 

[ShelbyB]

Is that the only difference?

 

[mylan]

Other than the fact the 890 is silver rather than black, they are the same.

 

[ShelbyB]

Thanks.

 

[Craig Beam]

I just bought the 880 today, and I'm absolutely loving it so far. Finally, one remote for everything! I had to reprogram a few buttons to make it mesh perfectly with my HT setup, but I kinda enjoy that kind of stuff, so I didn't mind. Still LIGHT YEARS better than programming my old Sony Universal remote key by key, and still never getting full functionality out of it.

 

[Nick-R]

The remote is absolutely great. I use a projector, AV reciever, Cablebox, dvd player and an xbox 360 (it even controls it). My wife has no troubles controlling the system with the remote, which is amazing.

It's going to take some time to set up, however, and can be a bit of a pain. You'll need to pull the remote reciever out of your system and hook it up to your computer every time you want to make a change, then hook it back up to your system to test. Tedious if you have a cramped cabinet like I do.

I use my 890 to control some Lutron Spacer IR dimmers. I needed to buy an IR booster to control them, as the remote reciever was in my cabinet. Just hook the booster up to the reciever, and mount it in a spot that can beam to the switches. I put 4 light settings on the second page of each activity.

 

[Cees Alons]

Three weeks ago I ordered the 895 (which I believe is the European version of the 890). Received it last week. Fantastic piece of equipment!

Already controls my new Samsung TV, Toshiba HD-A1 and HD cable set, since the very same day it arrived.

For the automation (ligthing, curtains) of my new HT (and part of the rest of my house), I had chosen Conson, a European brand.

Unfortunately, the Harmony 895 expects RF-devices to be "Z-Wave" compliant (I believe Lutron is), which Conson isn't.

Although this means that my H895 cannot control the lighting, etc. through RF-devices in my Conson installation, it doesn't mean at all that it's helpless!

The H895 came with a nice RF-extender (more can also be ordered separately), which has outputs for up to 8 red laser extenders. Fortunately, Conson is also in the central database Logitec has for the Harmony line, so I can easily use this option and setup ("learning")!

You can order more RF-extenders and have them recognized by your H895 (890), through a handshake procedure very much alike to what the bluetooth devices do.

I already love this device!


Cees

 

[Shane Martin]

I picked up an 890 as well. J and R had it for $249. I needed the RF capability since my HT receiver and equipment is going to be hidden away.

To me hiding your equipment out of your view while still maintaining functionality is a massive upgrade.

 

[Keith Mickunas]

I just picked up an 890 last week and I'm really beginning to like it. I had a Yamaha RAV-2000, which is a Pronto clone. It's nice in it's flexibility and overall capability, however programming does take time if you want good macros, and it lacks a good selection of hard buttons.

The 890 does just about everything I want. It takes some getting used to, and I had some trouble with the IR receiver/emitter, but it's working smoothly now. I have to do some more programming and I'm sure it will take some weeks for me to work out all the kinks in it. I found that it has the 30 second skip for my PVR, which is nice, and for most of my components it knows most of the commands, although it does require a bunch of customization for my receiver.

I have two major gripes though. One is that it doesn't support normal macros outside of the activities themselves. For instance I need a few commands to activate my backlight. The only way to do this is to program the macro in another remote, then learn the RAW command from that remote. Also along with this is that it will send the off command to devices that aren't part of the current activity. I believe there's a work around for that, but it's not like it should have happened with my X10 controller anyways, but it did. The second problem is that to update the programming you have to connect the IR emitter to your PC and unplug it from the power. That can be a major hassle depending on your setup. If they had at least made the power cord detachable from the emitter you could just yank that out, but as it is you have to unplug it, so you can't run that wire nicely like all the rest of your system and you have to have that plug accessible. That is a huge shortcoming in my opinion. Although I've managed to place it where it won't be a huge problem for me, it's still a boneheaded decision on their part. On a minor note, the LED in the base station is way to bright to have in my theater. But I think I can work around that.

 

[Don T]

I just ordered mine and I hope I like it. From the reviews here, it sounds like it fits my current needs. I was looking at another brand, but this one seems like a better interface to me.

Thanks for all of the good pointers on this remote!