I read the review, loved the concept, and bought one. I'm somewhat of a tech-weenie, have my anal tendencies, but still I'm not totally comitted to being an asshole. Mainly what I wanted was a remote to understand my components and do the work of tieing the components together so me and my girlfriend and my friends could all, say, watch TV or listen to CD's. After all, what you spend all the money on is so you can watch beautiful, gorgeous TV, right? Or listen to ravishing, insightful music, right? Not control and link up your projector, amp, preamp, surround processor, etc.
I have three computers; a Sony Vaio desktop, a Compaq Armada laptop, and an antique Sony 770 laptop. When I got the Harmony I wasted several days trying to capture IR signals from all my remotes through the Sony. All I ever got was "Poor IR signal". I literally spent hours trying to get one good signal. It was so bad, so futile, I sent the remote back to AVsmarts.com as defective. Graciously, they sent me a new one. I had the same problem. Customer service thought I had a problem withe USB connection. I decided to try the USB ports on the Compaq, rather than the Sony. Now, very occasionly, I got an IR signal to sneak through to the website. But, I never successfully downloaded a configuration. Finally, I tried the old IBM. Nirvana. It received all my IR signals from my original remotes, I was able to modify my component configurations on the website, and successfully update the Harmony remote from the website! BUT, goddamnit, my projector and my stereo preamp were still not recognizing the IR commands that the Harmony was sending.
Now I was frustrated. I finally had the USB ports on a computer working and the basic operations of the remote and the website appeared to be working but I still didn't have a fully working remote! I turned more heavily to customer service. The cust svc guys at Harmony are great. Top notch. They responded quickly and insightfully to my e-mails. They proactively analyzed my IR sequences that I had uploaded to the website, worked some magic which I don't fully understand, and made my remotes work.
Okay, so on the plus side I now have a fully functional, menu driven remote that genuinely controls my modestly complex home entertainment system
(Lexicon DC-1 surround processor,
VTL 2.5 tube preamp,
Sony SCD-1 SACD/CD player,
Arcan DV88p DVD player,
B&K power amp to Gallo Nuclues speakers for rear channels,
Lectron JH-50 tube power amp to JMLab Micro Utopias for front L&R channels,
Sony VPL-W10HT projector,
Scientific Atlantic cable box,
RCA DC-100 HDTV STB).
The Harmony really controls it, simply, in a way that a normal person, not just me, can understand. That is, I really don't need the 4 pages of instructions I used to need to explain how to use the previous universal remote (Marantz RC-1200). Instead, you really just scroll to and select "Simple Television" and everything turns on and you watch TV!!
On the downside, it took several weeks and the active intervention of Harmony's customer service over multiple contacts to get the damn thing to work. On the one hand: totally great service. On the other hand, it would have been better if I didn't have so many problems to overcome to get where I wanted to be. I admire and respect that they've made my remote work. It's the best, simplest control I've ever had over my system (by the way, this is probably the eighth "universal" remote I've bought over the last 6 years). But, it just took too much effort. The average consumer won't have three different computers available to try to find a USB port that works. But, if you're reading this forum you probably do!
If you're willing to put in the effort to overcome the hurdles to get this thing to work, and you're willing to show some genuine patience waiting for customer service to get back to you, and you want a genuinely simple way to control a complex system, the Harmony is it. Best remote I've found and, to me, worth the effort.
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