Outstanding remote (if you know how to program it)

I spent a lot of time researching the right remote... one that would give me all of the ability to control various components of my system as I'd like to without reaching for other remotes, and at the same time let my wife figure out how to play a tape on the VCR without calling for help! Having read some positive reviews of Harmony remotes, I thought I'd give the 688 a try.

Ease of Use
Once you get the remote programmed properly, this is by far the easiest and best universal remote I've seen. With it all programmed as I like it, I very rarely have to reach for any of the 4 remotes that it replaced. This has made it more convenient for me to use some of the features of my system that I rarely used before the remote. For example, I have buttons programmed for picture-in-picture and swap when I am watching TV. I get a lot of use out of this now, because previously, I would have had to find the TV remote to use PIP (when I normally used the digital cable box remote for most TV-watching activities). I guess you could get that in most good universal remotes as well, but it definitely beats the old 4 remote system!


The remote feels right in my hand, and the backlight is helpful. The "continuous circle" of buttons is a bit of a negative, as I would prefer if the remote were completely tactile so that I don't need the backlight and could always hit the right button without looking. I find that even after almost a year, I still hit the wrong button occasionally if I don't carefully anchor my thumb first.

Programming
Ahhh, now here lies the important stuff... The initial setup of the remote based on model numbers and how things are connected (you input this on their website) is not so impressive. When I first did this, there were a number of things that did not work at all, and a lot of others that only marginally worked. If this is the best I could do, I would have returned the thing right away.

However, after re-programming it a couple more times and poking around on the harmony website, I came across "the master home-page"... where you can directly access all of your devices/activities/etc. instead of going through their annoying question-based navigation.

Once I got here, I did a few important things. I shortened the response times on most if not all of the key components. For example, initially if I held the volume button, the volume would change by one level every half second or so, which was way longer than with the remote for the receiver. This was really annoying. I reduced the response time for that device to about 100ms, and now it works just fine.

I went through a number of similar adjustments, and probably re-programmed the remote 10 times in the first 2 weeks. What I did was had a notepad handy when I was using the remote, and everytime there was something that I didn't like, or a command that I needed during a certain activity, I made a note about it. When I had a few, I went and updated the program through their website. Now the remote works very well for me... I rarely reprogram it and rarely reach for another remote. Once it is programmed correctly -- and I believe that it can be well programmed for almost any setup -- I think that it will make the use of complicated home entertainment systems much easier for most people, and I think that this remote will work much better than most other universal remotes.

I should also say that I'm a computer engineer and work in the consumer electronics industry, so programming the remote as carefully as I did was not too bad... maybe even fun! But for a person who is not computer savvy, it would certainly be more difficult/frustrating. However, I did not have the experience of having to deal with customer support, so I can't say for sure. But I'm sure that the customer support would get overloaded around holiday season (as does their website), when most people are getting these, so it would certainly be nice if it was a bit more documentation included so that the average end-user would have a better chance of getting the programming right on their own.

A Note On Battery Life
A minor con is that the remote does drain batteries fairly quickly, but it's not horrible. I've had the remote for almost a year, and the batteries need to be changed roughly every 4 months. These are standard alkaline batteries I've been using (4 AAA).

Conclusion
If you are looking for a powerful, convenient, programmable universal remote and you don't mind spending a bit of time and effort getting it all setup right, I think that most people will be very pleased with what the Harmony remotes have to offer. The programming may be difficult or frustrating for non-tech-savvy users.