...Now try telling that to the guy who bought the Harmony. lol...you're less likely to start a conflict with a difference in religion, then breaking the news that his nuts were just cut off.

EH just lost my subscription.

Hahaha - had a client just buy a sony pre-built sound bar system he wanted "custom installed" and he asked about Harmony - I told him the harmony is not custom and the sony sound bar would sound cheap. Harmony does and the sony did, shocker.

Funny read though - for DIY'ers who want to waste a few hundred.

My favorite is the guy with the 70k Benz, million dollar home, Elite plasma, etc. that still wants the Harmony.

My answer: "Vizio does look good on my TV"

I tell my customers to stay the $#* away from Harmony DAILY. BUT, they must be doing something right...

The only thing GREAT about Harmony is their marketing dept.

I would say it's the best paperweight on the market, but without batteries it couldn't hold down a piece of paper. That is truly funny it must have been a survey done from Circuit Cities liquidators.

Harmony, the Bose of the remote world!

Always the optimist! ;)

I pop in to Remotecentral.com once every month or two just to have a look around. I came across this thread today and it made me very curious. I have no knowledge of the politics or history around here, but why the bashing of Harmony, Harmony users, and AVS? I'm not defending anyone. I'm just trying to understand.

The bashing of Harmony is because it is just plain crap. It is very cheaply made product and the capabilities are next to none when compared to other remotes in its price range.
For these guys to compare Harmony with Pronto, URC, Nevo, and others is a lot like comparing a yo-yo with the space shuttle. The fact that the Results (based on AVS users) came back the way they did should answer another of your questions.
A large percent of AVS members are simply morons who will argue with you regardless of weather or not they have a clue! There are some very knowledgeable people over there as well but It's just not me to tolerate the mountain of dung you must climb to find one.
As for Harmony users I don't see a whole lot of bashing going on unless the user was educated before making the choice and they are now feeling the pain. It's kind of like telling your little brother not to get in the liquor cabinet and then laughing at him while he pukes his guts out with his head stuffed in a toilet.
Hope I helped. ;)

The way I look at it Harmony always looks good next to high end remotes because they are very limited in what they allow you to do, how they allow you to do it, and what they are even capable of. They make a product thats very easily managed and supported. Why? Because most people are happy with the remote that looks just like any other remote, turns things on and off in a very logical controlled order without introducing any complicated scenarios. They dont need 2-way, they don't need the buttons to be moved around, they don't need special things to happen for certain sources. Bring in an RTI (who by the way do make remotes in some of Harmony's price points) who are constantly developing and trying to satisfy the CUSTOM (key word) CUSTOM integrators demands and requests and now thier product becomes more complicated, harder to manage, packed with more features which can satisfy almost every level of demands and control as well as superior technology (processor for those who need to ask). BUT the cost is bugs, prices and the like. So your right, you can't compare these products, yet Harmony always seems to make it into the AVS forum surveys. Personally I dont think that means anything because almost every enthusiast is a member of AVS forum. There are those who say thier toyota is better than any mercedes - probably a lot more of those. Most people who have Harmony never had anything else that was way up on the higher end of the market. BUT most people who have higher end have had a harmony, and that is why in almost every household that the owner has a high end control for an elaborate system there is indeed a old harmony tucked away in a drawer somewhere....

This was not to bash Harmony. You can't customize them and offer the personal experience like you can with other types of remotes.

The Harmony 1000 is a joke IMO. $600 (remote & RF extender) for this junk? When i pick that thing up the word CHEAP CRAP enters my brain.

The Harmony One @ $250 is decent. $250 is a high price for the typical HTIB guy but if he spends it, he gets all of his devices consolidated and he doesnt need to pay someone to configure it for him (most of the time).

This works out just dandy for people who have line of site for everything and no products that share IR commands. There are A WHOLE BUNCH of systems like this so Harmony has its place and its not a bad option @ $250.

One thing that drives me crazy is the idea that companies like URC or Harmony need to have 50 options. This one does this but doesnt do that, that one does this but cant do this. If URC wanted to kick Harmony's @ss in the consumer market they would follow these instructions..

#1.Get rid of everything you have now.
#2.Create a CONSUMER remote & base station package that is wizard based and PC programmable so the consumer has the option. IR routing & the ability to manage IR via the blaster and remote. So basically.. rewind all the way back to the MX-850 and MRF-300.. make it pretty.. bundle it.. make it $350.00.

BAM! DONE! CHING CHING!

All your energy goes into 1 product that covers every possible consumer situation. Anyone whos needs go beyond this can call a CI.

So please URC.. please do your part in saving us from Harmony! Its your duty!

Harmony: it is not a bad remote but it is a bit like Bose or Monster, way overpriced and only people that don't know better that buy it. If you want a capable remote (customizable, can do many fancy stuff....) the Harmony is not for you. And if you want a plane remote then you can do 99% of what the Harmony does with a 10$ or 20$ remote. The issue is not Harmony nor Logitech, but the Harmony buyer who bought it and now pretends he has something he does not. Like WV said "compare Harmony with Pronto, URC, Nevo, and others is a lot like comparing a yo-yo with the space shuttle." It is not bashing but an understanding that we are talking of two very distinct worlds.

As for AVS. A long time ago AVS was for the enthusiast, you would look at threads there and people would be discussing every aspect of the device and even open them up and discuss every component in them (maybe they could be tweaked by changing parts to make them better). But the management wanted a "popular" site. And for that they needed to dumb it down. The issue is two fold, that all the enthusiasts are long gone or keep quite and so most posts are from idiots that don't know anything and don't care but that because they bought X, feel it is important to keep saying "X is the best and anything better is a waste of money and anything cheaper is not good enough" and marketers have a ready group of morons to brain wash (so they go there and start the "X is the best and anything better is a waste of money and anything cheaper is not good enough" . So it has become useless people giving useless opinions. The funny thing is as the quality of the info has gone down so has its own self importance (or the assumed importance by its members).

Harmony owners are content in their own little world, and this thread is a prefect example of that.

Notice how you never see any of the Harmony forum regs anywhere else on RC....? There's a reason for that...ignorance is bliss. ...and trust me, when you dip your toe into "their" forum and make waves they come out guns a blaze'n.

It can be a Harmony or anything else for that matter... if you don't know any better, you'll believe what you have is the best there is.

My problem has never been with Harmony. Not even the vast majority of owners. However what makes my skin crawl are the die hard idiots that push these pieces of garbage onto the unexpecting public, passing them off like the end all to be all.

....and AVS is jammed full of those types of people, and RC has a handfull. Bet you'd never guess that I don't get along very well with them...lol