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My experience with a Logitech Harmony.... (1 Viewer)

Eric Samonte

Screenwriter
Joined
Mar 31, 1999
Messages
1,318
Well, from several reviews, I recommended a Logitech Harmony 676 to a friend where we installed a family room HT. He got it from Amazon at $89.99. Since he wasn't at all to computer savy, I offered to help set it up. First, I didn't know u needed to be online to set it up. So I installed the software that it came along with and then started it. I had to make an account for them online, then connected the remote as instructed. That's when the commotion started. It said I needed to upgrade the firmware. Hey, great! At least they do that. Following the instructions. I plugged in the remote thru its USB. First, it would not recognize the remote, failing to "communicate" with it. I tried several times. It tells u to touch any of the buttons to wake it up, but after a few failed tries, the remote actually stops responding. U have to remove the batteries to get a hard reboot. I went thru this loop about 4 times. The last try, I didn't touch anything on the remote after putting in the batteries and just plugged the USB in. It worked! It communicated with the remote and again said it needed the new firmware. So the frimware starts upgradin then BAM! Upgrade unsuccessfull. What the fudge!?!?! I went thru the whole dance again about 6 times then all of a sudden the remote says " Firmware upgrade successful" OK....don't know if it gauges ur frustration up to a point then it just says .."OK..ur fine now...we're done."
The rest is a breeze. The set up was very intuitive that my 11 y/o could have done it easily. All the necesary macros were easily addressed. It is actually a nice remote when u get it working.
If it were just for my experience, I wouldn't recommend this remote. Then again maybe this was just a fluke. I did a search and lo and behold, the Logitech forums had several similar experiences.
That said, if u get this thing working, its a joy to use. I'd say its better than having the Philipps Prontos I have. While the Prontos having greater flexibility with regards to graphics, pages, and personalization, the Logitech Harmony remotes offer a more "ground floor" system that most Joe six packs might be able to use.
 

Eric Samonte

Screenwriter
Joined
Mar 31, 1999
Messages
1,318
An update ..of sorts...I just programmed another one for another friend. This time it worked better than the first time. It took me a while to upgrade everything, i.e., firmware, software, etc. It took me about 30 minutes for the whole thing this time. I think I'll get one next week for the family room.
 

nolesrule

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Aug 6, 2001
Messages
3,084
Location
Clearwater, FL
Real Name
Joe Kauffman
I once had to exchange one that wouldn't work out of the box about 3 years ago that I was setting up for my aunt, but other than that, I've set up about a half dozen of them over the years without issues.
 

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