Harmony 890 first impressions

Don't see as many threads on this remote as the other harmonies, so I thought I'd share my thoughts on my first day with the Harmony 890.

I was leaning towards buying one of the cheaper Harmony remotes (particularly the 670) and then buying a cheap RS IR extender, but then I saw the notable discounts on the 880 and 890 Amazon had. I was all but ready to buy the 880 + IR extender since I only currently have one component (my receiver) out of view, but ultimately decided to go 890 for native RF support since in the future I may have more and more components out of normal remote view. Plus the nearly half price from Amazon made the decision easier.

Anyway, it arrived yesterday. I had heard repeatedly in the forum that the web site was a much more preferable way of configuring/updating the remote, but I didn't really find that to be the case. One of the first things I wanted was to rename one of my activities, but I couldn't figure out how to do it on the web site. Doing it with the regular software was trivially easy. I also didn't like the look and feel of the website. It seemed less polished than the normal software. Anyway, I have found configuring the devices and actvities to be pretty intuitive. I was tickled that when adding the devices, three of the example model #'s after entering the manufacturer were my exact model!

One thing that I am irritated with is the need to plug in the extender for an update any time you update anything on the remote. This is tedious since often I am not changing anything that should involve the extender. It's made worse by the fact that the power supply for the extender can not be removed from it, so you have to unplug it every time you do an update.

I found setting up activities to be quite easy over all. For the most part, the remote sets up the buttons by default very well. The only things I had to change for watching cable was mapping the replay button (rewind 7 seconds) and the fact that the MENU button was mapped to MENU for my SA 8300HD, which is just a duplicate of the GUIDE button instead of the correct function (SETTINGS).

One gripe I have is with the remote itself. It just feels very cheaply made. Several buttons seem to be very "loose" and can be moved around in their positions. I also would have liked a more tactile feel to the buttons rather than the simple click. The buttons are very close to each other with little space seperating them, making it a bit harder to navigate the remote by "feel". It feels very fragile as a whole. I am terrified of dropping it. I am not in love with the layout of the buttons. The volume and channel up/down buttons are very skinny and I would really like them in a more central location rather than on the edges on the remote. I also don't like the numeric keypad being at the absolute bottom of the remote as it makes them a bit harder to access. A little bit of space between the bottom of the remote and the numeric pad (ala the SA 8300HD's remote) would have been welcome. A lot of these issues will lessen once I learn the layout better, but the physical properties of the remote are a bit of a disappointment.

As far as how well the remote works, I love it. The RF functions work perfectly with my receiver which is off to the side. Plus, its IR range is much, much better than that of my regular remotes. We have an ottoman which really blocked a lot of my components that sit low on my tv stand from receiving signals, but with the harmony it has proven to be no problem. Also, it does a great job of controlling them from my dining table without having to point to a precise location. I am very impressed and pleasantly surprised by how well it sends the IR signals. After a few failed first attempts at performing activities, the remote assistant seemed to figure out the issues itself and now all my activities are now working perfectly (with further testing needed). It really has allowed me to put all my other remotes in a drawer and control everything at one time with one remote, which of course is the goal.

I really don't think this is very user friendly for the non-tech savvy. There is almost no documentation included with the remote. I haven't seen an electronic user guide yet either, though I am sure there is one. If my parents had bought this, I know they wouldn't have figured it out.

So far, my experience is largely positive. It seems to perform all the functions I bought it for. I know there are reliability problems reported, so I will be watching out for them.

For those wondering my devices are:

Panasonic TH-50PX60U plasma
Pioneer 1015-TX receiver
Sony SLV-N750 VCR
Samsung 850 DVD player
Scientific Atlanta 8300HD cable box
And, while not being controlled by the harmony, I have a Nintendo Wii and PS2 connected and added activities for switching to playing them.
I'll be connecting one or more CD players to the receiver soon as well.

Anyway, I hope this is helpful for anyone considering this remote!

No. When I added the "Watch CABLE" activity, one of the soft keys (by the screen) was set to aspect and toggles between the tv's (not the cable box's) various stretch and zoom modes. Since the TV has more options than the box, I found this to be preferable, but I really doubt I'll use the function much anyway. Not sure if this button is on by default for the other activities. Now if you want to automatically switch aspects for different activities, you'd probably have to configure it somehow. From what I hear this shouldn't be too difficult.

Just wanted to amend that I was looking at the web site today, and renaming an Acivity IS quite easy on the site. I am not sure what my problem was yesterday. Either I was having a brainfart, or the site was not behaving correctly (probably the former). I do still prefer the look of the regular software.

Well, here at the end of day 2, my honeymoon is over. Today I added a CD Jukebox as a 2nd RF device. Everything worked just fine. Went out tonight and came home and decided to watch some tv. Turned everything on and things were fine (remote turned on my receiver (via RF) with no issues). After a while decided it was bedtime and hit the off button. Everything turned off except the receiver. All of a sudden none of my RF devices (receiver or CD Jukebox) can be controlled. I changed nothing. It was working when I turned things on, and then just stopped. I have tried all the various troubleshooting suggestions and done several updates (my last ditch effort tonight is removing the CD Jukebox device). I'm giving up after this, but anticipate a long, painful, irritating call with Logitech support in the morning. I am quite bummed.

Well, sadly I have been upgraded to the dreaded "waiting for a call from tier 2 support" status. At least my initial waste of time call took less than 30 minutes. I am pretty sure that this will result in them shipping me a new extender and possibly a new remote. Looking at the devices, it's clear to me the remote thinks it's sending RF signals and that the RF extender just isn't receiving them even though they can connect to each other fine. I am guessing either the RF entender is broken or the remote's RF transmission capabilities are borked. I would definitely have to say "buyer beware" at this point since the RF functionality failed barely 24 hours after I got it. Guess I'll have to do some remote "pointing" for the forseeable future....

Yes, essntially what I have right now IS an 880 until I get my issue resolved. I am thinking of finding a store with a generous return policy and picking up another extender today to see if that is the issue.

I am pleased to report I got the extender working again. I tried removing the extender from my list of remotes and then adding it back. After the update, this forced my remote to resync with it at startup (as opposed to me doing it through the system menu). I have no idea if this "auto" resync is better than the manual connect function, but it started working again afterwards. I also discovered due to my forgetting to plug in the emitter, that the RF extender blasts IR quite well. I had it sitting on my sub woofer sort of towards the side of my stero cabinet, and the receiver got commands beautifully. So I will probably be able to go without any emitters connected, which is nice. I am updating now with my CD Jukebox back in the mix (also as an RF device) so if all is well after this, I will return to being happy (with some worry) with my remote again.

EDIT: to update both (RF extender controlled) devices are working well again (knock on wood)!

Definitely experiment with the RF extender without the emitters. I actually have mine sitting on the cabinet to the side (towards the rear) of my receiver. The receiver gets commands and the CDJukebox which is on a shelf below the receiver gets commands without any of the IR emitters hooked up. Nice.

"PREV" on the right side of the remote above the Channel up/down button.

This one I had to look up on the user manual. (If you log into the logitech remote web page (same user id and password you use to log into the software) and look at the top of the page you'll see a link for the User Manual.)

For the media key it says:

dcochran, I don't have a set up like yours, but I would suggest you go into that activity (in the software) and manually map some unused buttons to control the tv's channel up-down buttons (or map some screen buttons to do it). The #'s are going to be tricky. I think you'll have to choose one or the other for the numeric buttons for default use in the activity and then switch to the non default device to control the other.

I haven't really experimented much with placement. My cabinet holding the CD player is not enclosed. I have only had the extender in the position I detailed above (beside and towards the rear of the receiver which sits on the top shelf) and on my sub woofer which sits to the side of the cabinet. Things worked fine in either position. You can experiment around yourself and see what works for you. Thankfully moving the RF extender around and plugging/unplugging emitters doesn't require an update, unless you want to assign emitter points to specific pieces of hardware (to be controlled - which I never bothered with when I was still using them).