Harmony 720 Official Thread. For all info and FAQs

Please use this discussion thread for posting info specific to the Harmony 720 remote.

According to AVS member "disgruntled1", the Harmony 720 is available online at Costco

Strange that the the U.S. Logitech website continues to offer no sign whatsoever of the remote's existance.

The U.K. Logitech website has photos and information on a model 785 that is almost, but not quite the same as the 720 shown in the photo above (there is a row of colored buttons between the transport buttons and the number buttons).

Yup, same link I provided by clicking the word "Costco".

Note: if anyone's browser doesn't highlight the active links in my above posting, "Costco", "U.S. Logitech site" and "U.K. Logitech site" are clickable links going to the respective site.

Went to my local Target today and no sign of the 720 as has been reported in another discussion thread, although they did have the 520. Didn't think to try Wal-Mart (and I was even there, in the garden section), 'cause it never occured to me they would sell a remote so expensive.

I'ld love to see one of these remotes as I will most likely purchase either a 676 or a 720.

Checked my local Wal-Mart this evening and they do, in fact, have the Harmony 720 hanging right next to the 520. Price was $194.

The package does mention "backlighting" but I couldn't find a "glow" button on it. Perhaps it has a tilt sensor like the 880?

The transport buttons seem like they might be a bit low, but I guess that would be decided by where the balance point is.

As noted in my post above, I agree that the transport buttons appear to be a bit low - and given that 99% of my TV watching is either cable-supplied DVR or my own TiVo, transport control usage is at the top of my list.

I'm still guessing that the weight of the battery and the resulting balance point is important to know. There is plenty of room for one's hand to grasp the remote so that the fingers fall naturally over the transport keys -- if the remote is balanced when holding there, then that might be OK.

We'll just have to wait until someone can actually hold a 720 in their bare hands outside of the packaging and offer a report.

I'm not a big fan of the cradle-charging requirement either, although I could see it being convenient to folks who have an easy place to put the crade. I have several NiMH chargers and a drawer full of batteries, so keeping batteries charged and swapping them out wouldn't be an issue for me.

This (and price and location of transport controls) is one of the reasons I'm still considering the purchase of a 676. As you like your 520, it's time for me to review that one again too.*

I am drawn to the color screen, however, as I'm finding that the impending doom of old age is making it increasing difficult to see things close** and I am thinking that the color icons would make it easier for my lovely bride and myself to "read" which button is the "play DVD" button without memorizing the location. Wife Acceptance Factor, ya know?


*Checking the Logitech site, I see that, like the 720 there is no info on the 520, only the 550. Which one is now the current model?
UPDATE: I see that the 520 is listed on the Canadian Logitech Site .

**It will NOT be advisable to ask my wife to put on her reading glasses every time she wants to change activities!

Congrats for being the first person here to actually touch and try out one of these guys!

I just purchased one off eBay and if I'm lucky it will be here in a few days.

Cradle. The remote easily "snicks" into place and appears to not have the problem that the early 880's did.

Can anyone offer a clue as to where I can search to find out how to set up the "Listen to Music" activity so that my Sony A/V receiver will go to one of the radio frequencies assigned to a preset?

My receiver has three groups of ten presets (A: 0-9, B: 0-9, and C: 0-9). Adding the command "preset" and "7" to the music activity changes the tuner to preset #7 in whichever group was active last time the tuner was used (i.e. preset A7 if the last preset was anywhere in the "A" grouping, B7 if the preset was anywhere in the "B" grouping, etc).

There are no device commands available for "A", "B" or "C", so there must be some other way to tell the receiver which preset group to use.

I suppose I could try to do a direct entry sequence, but having the remote shoot out all the numbers individually (i.e. 1-0-7-.5-0) is awkward...

A minor inconvenience is how to direct tune HD OTA TV stations.

There is no "." hard key, so if I want to go to my local CBS HD OTA station, there appears to be no easy way to punch in "9.1" ...

I'll try mapping "." to the "record" transport key, since I don't think I'll be using the "record" function while watching TV.

BTW: when registering the remote and going through the intial setup, I was instructed to select from two categories -- is my remote an "880/890" or "all others".

I selected "880/890" because the 720 has a color screen. I don't know what would happen if you selected "all others".

Once the computer actually connects to remote and uploads the info, the Logitech website accurately displays that I have a 720 and shows the appropriate photo.

I also get the "go to website to update the remote" error about a third of the time. I figured out the problem (at least with my setup).

I have the Harmony software set to "watch the download folder" so that after the hex file is downloaded to the computer, the harmony software will automatically upload the data to the remote. For some reason, I believe the software tries to upload the data to the remote before the file is fully downloaded to the computer.

After the upload fails with the "go back to the website" error (which I'm guessing is a generic way of saying "the upload did not successfully complete, please try again"), simply double-clicking on the fully-downloaded data file on my desktop always results in a successful update of the remote.

I can tell if the automatic upload is going to fail, because the "thermometer bar" that measures the upload of the data to the remote goes much faster than what you see if the upload is successful.

Since this "upload failed" issue didn't crop up until near the end of my initial configuration of the remote (probably 40 uploads over a span of two days), if I was a gambling man, I'ld guess the problem has some relation to the downloaded data's file size.

I started remote configuration by listing every component I had on the website and after spending more than a short while drowning in the bazillion options offered by the website when selecting the "let me show you all actions available for your group of components", I deleted everything except the TV and the A/V receiver. Then I always selected the "let me add the Actions I desire manually" option and started to slowly add the specific actions I wanted. This way I had a much better idea of what to do and how to go about it when later adding additional devices one at a time (TiVo, Cable DVR, DVD player, etc.) and adding Actions that pertain to those devices.

Since I didn't get the "please go to the website to update the remote error" until after I had added numerous components and configurations*, I'm guessing the downloaded file size got to a point that it triggered something on my end so that the upload to the remote started before the file was fully download. The first thing I would test is if my automatic anti-virus scan of downloaded files, even though quick on such a small file, is somehow gumming up the works by introducing some sort of delay between the time the file is fully download and the time that it is "ready" to be uploaded. Perhaps this delay is confusing the Harmony software update process.

But I haven't tested this because the problem didn't occur until almost the end of my configuration process and now that I'm rarely updating the remote anymore, there is no annoyance. And since I can just turn off the Harmony software "watch for downloaded files" option and start the remote update manually by double-clicking the downloaded hex file, it's just not a bother anymore.

I can also confirm the high WAF -- after getting the remote mostly configured, I presented it to her as the gift of being able to actually use the home theater system in the living room (i.e., listen to FM and CDs). My lovely bride narrowed her eyes and said "and how much did this cost?" Five minutes later she was saying, "well, this is cool" and "that HELP feature is very nice" and "so we can program in the buttons for my favorite radio stations?"




*I could try removing the photos from the slide show to reduce the downloaded file size -- it's possible that the update error began around the time I added them. Perhaps it is as guessed simply a matter of download files size, perhaps it is more specifically related to having photos in the configuration.

I was stunned to see today that after only six days of use, numerous text labels printed on the case under the Transport Control buttons have worn off completely. There is no text label left at all under the SKIP BACK, PLAY, SKIP FORWARD or PAUSE buttons, and the word "Skip" that is printed on the case under the SKIP button is almost completely gone.

Yes, I use the transport control buttons almost exclusively, but that's what they are there for. I don't see how I could have overused the buttons in only a few hours of use. I don't have chemicals, hand cream or sandpaper on my fingers.

While I would not be happy that the text wore off after a year of use, at least it would be slightly understandable.

But SIX DAYS!?




.

Edit: The remote pictured above was cheerfully replaced by Logitech and the replacement remote has been in use for over a month with no apparent degradation of text labels.

Pure Speculation: as one of the first people in the U.S. to get one of these, perhaps there was a quality control issue with the first batch.

No response from Logitech after three business days, regarding the issue of button label text from rubbing off almost immediately.

But for folks who might be interested, the large selection of "favorite channel" icons that are discussed at length in the Harmony 880 discussion threads work just fine on the 720.

Re: Tilt sensor vs motion sensor.

I think it's more of a tilt sensor than a motion sensor, but in any case, mine requires only picking it up or a gentle tilt of the wrist (along the long axis of the remote) to get the glow light to come on.

If getting the glow light to come on requires a motion that needs to be described as "shaking", then I might guess that something is not working correctly for you.

I poked around for a moment and don't immediately find a way to do that. But I'll bet it can be done.

Try a search of the 880 discussion thread (lots of posts there) or as a last resort (or first, if you simply want to get the correct answer right away) simply call the Logitech support line and they'll set it up for you if not easily doable yourself.

Not that you asked me specifically, but I'm pretty sure the 720 is only available from Costco via their online site. You can, however, return it to a brick and mortar Costco if you wish/need to.

The Harmony 720 remote is hanging on the hooks, available for immediate purchase at the three Wal-Marts I've been in over the last month.

And they can be purchase on eBay (new) for significant savings if you're lucky and/or not in a hurry.