Logitech Harmony 670 Remote: Control Your Home Theater with One Remote!

Though my husband and I tried to keep our latest home entertainment purchase simple, our best intentions don’t always match our actions. My husband and I recently purchased a Samsung 40" LCD TV in hopes of lowering our electricity bill and taking full advantage of the high definition capabilities of our components. We had hoped to salvage as many old components as possible, but it became apparent that some needed to be replaced. Our TiVo needed to be upgraded to support HD and dual recording. Our audio receiver needed to be upgraded to a model that could accommodate multiple HDMI connections. We chose to purchase a new surge protector to protect our new home theatre system as well.

We thought we had everything until the gentleman helping us in the store asked a last minute question. "Do you need a remote?" We had been using a Harmony remote for the last three years, and it worked well, but the screen was damaged from being dropped. We decided that it was time for an upgrade and we’ve been mostly happy with our new Logitech Harmony 670 Remote.

Design

This Harmony remote has an ergonomic design. Though it is rather large to accommodate the buttons necessary to perform its many functions, it’s very comfortable to hold, even in my small hands. The remote measures 11 7/10" high by 7 1/5" wide by 2 3/5" deep. It weighs 1.3 pounds, which is rather heavy for a remote, but not a terribly difficult transition from our previous Harmony remote or other all-in-one remotes we’ve owned.

The buttons are large enough to be accessible, even for users with larger hands. My husband has large, clumsy fingers and has no problem interacting with this remote. The labels on the buttons are a little small, but not very difficult to see. When the remote is in use, the buttons and screen light up in a blue tone, making them more visible. The LCD screen is located toward the top of the remote. This screen displays remote settings and functions, and is used when interacting with the remote. It is large enough to see clearly.

Usage

The Logitech Harmony 670 Remote can control your entire home entertainment center. Unlike other all-in-one remotes that only allow you to control each component separately, this remote provides this function in addition to allowing you to program shortcut buttons for common functions. For example, watching television requires our television to be set to "HDMI 1," our audio receiver to be set to BD, and all of these components to be on. Our TiVo is always powered, but needs to be controlled by the remote. I could turn all of these on individually, but the Harmony remote allowed me to set these settings to be configured upon the pressing of the "Watch TV" button. It streamlines what could be a complicated home theatre system. Now anyone can use it!

This remote supports up to fifteen devices and is compatible with more than 5000 brands of electronics. Our home theatre system consists of a Samsung LCD TV, Sony audio receiver, TiVo, PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360. We were able to set up the settings for all of these components, but the game consoles were unable to be controlled (powered or otherwise) using the remote. This is mostly due to the hardware limitations of the consoles, but Bluetooth capabilities would have improved the functionality of the remote. We didn’t mind too much since we need to use the controller to play the games anyway. Powering them with the controllers is not too much of an inconvenience.

Occasionally the remote does not turn all of the necessary components on/off. The "Help" button is useful in these situations. Our previous Harmony remote used to have problems with this much more often and that seems to have been corrected in this model. When this remote does fail to configure the components correctly, it seems to be due to not being pointed at the system long enough. I’ve noticed that it’s very sensitive and if it’s not pointed directly at the components for several seconds (much longer than the last remote), it does not power everything correctly. Pressing help brings up an interactive troubleshooting dialogue on the screen. An improvement from the last model we owned, this remote seems to resend the settings upon pressing the button, often fixing the problem immediately. If not, you answer a series of simple questions like "Is the TV on?" to troubleshoot and fix the problem.

The configuration of the buttons on this remote is less intuitive than our last one. The fast-forward and rewind buttons are too close to the skip chapter buttons. The small vertical line that differentiates the two symbols is easy to miss and I often accidently skip to the end of the recordings on the TiVo. Rewinding can be irritating when you’re in the middle of a show. The response time is another complaint I have. The remote can be slow to respond and control components, especially the TiVo. It’s not a long delay – maybe a second or two – but I’m not terribly patient with technology. When I want to queue up a television show, I prefer for the components to respond immediately.

Configuring the Remote

Setting up the remote was easy with the included 5-pin USB cable. Connecting to a site through the web, you simply type in your components’ brands and model numbers. The remote is compatible with both PC and Mac, Windows 98SE and above or Mac OS X 10.2 or higher. I think most people would be able to configure this remote without difficulty.

Durability

This remote has not yet been dropped as much as the last one, but it is still working. The product has a one year warranty for parts and labor.

Battery Life

The Logitech Harmony 670 Remote takes four AAA Batteries. Though this is quite a lot of them, the battery life makes it worth it. We used to get a much smaller battery with our previous Harmony remote. We’ve had this remote for more than two months and have not yet needed to replace the batteries.

Price

This remote was priced at $149.99 at Best Buy. We paid $134.99 after receiving ten percent off for purchasing it with our television. This is expensive, but we found it to be worth it for one touch operation of our home theatre system.