I’d been looking for a good universal remote, and I’d not found many I liked the look of, until I found the Logitech Harmony 785. It’s very powerful, and able to control all my devices, even my no-name HDMI switcher box. It amazed me how comprehensive the remote database is, as it worked with pretty much everything straight off the bat. I had to learn the commands for the HDMI switch, but that was pretty easy to do.
For most of what it does, it uses ‘Activities’. Basically, these are a set of macros to start certain things, say for example the Watch TV activity starts your TV, digital set top box, and changes channels around to where you want them to be. It’s nicer than having to switch the remote modes between TV and Digibox, to do things. Switching between activities will also switch off things. So if I go from Watch TV to Watch DVD, the Sky box goes off, and the DVD player comes on, but the TV stays on and just switches channel.
Programming the remote is all done from the PC using the software. Setting up the activities is very, VERY long-winded, though. Apparently, Logitech thinks wizards are the best way to do everything. Not true guys! Something simple, like ‘Watch TV’, is quite easy to do; I press the button, my TV comes on, the Sky box comes on, and the HDMI switch changes to the correct input. That’s a ‘pre-made’ action, so you just basically confirm what you want it to do.
Once you’ve set up the action, it’s a case of plugging in the USB cable, and pressing the buttons to update the remote. It’ll ask you to try it, and then take you through troubleshooting if it doesn’t work, which solves most problems.
If you want to do something more advanced however, it gets trickier. I found the need to turn my DVD player on after a certain delay, and despite fiddling around endlessly, couldn’t convince the remote to do anything but turn on all the devices in the action at the same time, which didn’t work for me – I needed my DVD player to come on a few seconds after the TV. Similarly, I couldn’t create an action to use my Media Center – I had to create a custom action for that, so yet more wizards and clicking ‘next’!
What I’d like to see is a simple script editor, so I can just drop commands in, with all the delays and key presses I need. To be fair though, the software is actually quite comprehensive, and you can tweak a lot of things, but they’re – yet again – hidden deep down in the wizards in obscure places.
Once I’d finished fighting with the software though, I now have a remote which actually works very well. It’s quite responsive, and it’s quite amazing to press one button and have a few devices all spring to life, AND set themselves up. Previously, I’d be juggling remotes to do the same thing. Now it’s one press of a button!
The remote features a help button, which will re-send commands if they fail or mess up for some reason. At one point, my TV was already on, and I pressed ‘Watch TV’. The remote thought the TV was off, so sent a power command, thus the TV went off. The help button steps through all the actions and can reset things to get you into the right place. It can also help out if something in the action config is subtly wrong, and in concert with the software (and ANOTHER wizard) reconfigure things so that it always works.
There’s some niceties in the software though. Because it’s all so wizard-based, it’s fairly easy to get the main things going, like the Watch TV or Watch DVD actions. It’s also clever enough to allow you to have two output devices (I have a TV and projector), so you can select which to use. I added a second ‘Watch TV’ action, which turned on the projector, Sky box, and my Amp for audio, as well as setting all the right input and outputs. Plus, the configuration is flexible enough to allow the remote to be set up with the buttons bound to various random things. All buttons are independent, so the audio controls control the amp, whilst the channel buttons control the Sky box.
The little LCD screen is quite useful too, and can have those odd special keys set up that are unique to the device. Other universal remotes don’t have the capacity to take those keys, so you end up with strange things like the Sky button being bound to the Teletext key, or something equally confusing. I can actually create a button on the LCD screen which says ‘Sky’, and make it press that button. And also only make it show when I’m actually controlling that device as part of my action. The custom keys can also accommodate favourite channels, complete with a channel logo. Digiguide has a handy directory full of little channel icons, so I picked those up and loaded them in.
Actions can be overridden and you can go into device mode, and control devices directly. My TV has a tendency to ignore the DVD player sometimes, so I have to flip channels to re-gain a picture.
With some fiddling (OK, a LOT of fiddling), I think I’ve actually got something very workable. I’ve only gone to another remote once now (my DVD remote) and that was because I needed to do something in the menus as I was upgrading the firmware, and wanted to use the ‘real’ remote, just to be sure I was doing the right thing.
Despite the really oddball software and all its wizards, the Logitech Harmony 785 is a great remote. Due to the screen, and the software, it’s far more flexible than most other universal remotes on the market. It’s just a shame the software is so annoyingly long-winded to configure.
I´ve tried a lot of universal remotes and the last one was Harmony 670 which was ok. Now I tried Logitech Harmony 785 and this is so much easier and greater, thanks for the tips.
They’re extremely fiddly to set up but you have to persevere. I have an old (’98) Sharp TV that has a long delay when switching on, and the most obscure input switching menu ever – it shows a preview of each input but there’s no telling which one is highlighted, and it responds very slowly when stepping through them. It gets ever so confused sometimes (it’s an 885).
Also, you do have to remember to keep it pointed at the pile’o'kit otherwise something will miss the signal.
The main problem is that it’s quite a dear piece of kit. My kids have eventually cracked the plastic over the LCD and it’s most ugly – and the 0 and volume buttons don’t work either after a couple of years of heavy use. I’m dying to replace it though, and I’m really tempted by the 895. It adds an RF repeater to the mix, which basically lets you a) hide your kit in a cupboard and b) not have to keep the remote pointed at the boxes. Nice.