Review: Harmony One Universal Remote

---

Tools:
Send to a friend »

---

If you own a home theater, you're probably like a lot of people who have about 800 remote-control units to go with it. At one point in my own system, I had seven separate remotes: for the television, the receiver, the DVD player, the HD DVD player, the Betamax player, the VHS player, and the cable box. At which point I said, "Wait a minute; there's got to be a better way."

I have friends and relations who keep all their remotes in a bowl on the coffee table and continually sort through them to find the one they need. There are other solutions to the dilemma, though. (1) You could color-code all the various remotes. (2) You could set each of them on top of the components they operate. (3) You could program just one of the better remotes that has the capacity to handle the functions of the other remotes. (4) You could buy an inexpensive universal remote like the little Sony RM-VL600 I've been using for the past couple of years. It only costs about $25.00 and handles up to eight other units. Or (5) you could buy a full-blown, top-of-the-line universal remote priced anywhere from a $100 to over $1,000 that will do everything but take out the garbage.

Click image to zoom

Harmony has been a leader in the field of universal remotes for quite some time, and the Logitech corporation (of keyboard and mouse fame) now owns them. The Harmony One is the company's latest product. I don't know why they named it the "One." Maybe they wanted to remind people it's the first and best of its kind. Maybe it's a new beginning for the Harmony-Logitech collaboration.

In any case, the Harmony One is just about everything you could want in a universal remote, at a price that isn't exactly cheap but isn't in the upper stratosphere, either. It retails for $249. Does that make it ten times better than the Sony VL600 I've been using? No. Still, it is better. I mean, is a Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano ten times better than a Nissan 350Z just because it costs ten times more? No. Nevertheless, there is no question the Ferrari is better.

Click image to zoom

Anyway, first things first: What does the Harmony One look like? It is relatively small, given all the duties it can perform, lightweight yet sturdy, smoothly contoured for easy handling, and extremely friendly to the touch. Its keys are large and easy to read, with each key subtly different in shape from the others so that in a short while a person can get used to where they are and how they feel. What's more, the unit is motion sensitive and lights up the moment you lift it or press a button. At the top of the remote, there's a touch screen for major functions, while its hard buttons take care of the legwork, duplicating the duties of most other remotes on the market. This is probably the simplest and most comprehensive remote I've ever used, and it comes with an attractive recharging base, so you won't have to replace its battery for quite some time.

Click image to zoom

At any rate, I did have a small issue right away using the unit. Namely, the only color it seems to come in is a glossy black. Yeah, you see it coming. It shows every smudge and fingerprint possible. OK, admittedly, it's a minor concern. The Wife-O-Meter insists that I just like anything that has buttons on it, and I confess to the possibility. I cannot deny that the Harmony One's sculptured good looks, gleaming appearance, and myriad buttons make it something of a work of art. At least for me.

As I say, the designers have divided the unit into two basic parts: the hard buttons, laid out pretty much as one would expect on any standard remote, and a full-color touch screen, which measures about 1 1/2" x 1 3/4". Using Logitech/Harmony's Web site, the user can program the buttons for virtually any component you can name, and what you don't find covered by the buttons, you'll find programmed into the touch screens, which have room for anywhere from one to six functions per screen and a very large number of screens. For instance, my Panasonic BD30 Blu-ray player gets a full complement of hard buttons for all of its most-common tasks, plus sixteen pages of touch-screen functions at six functions per page. By my calculation, that's ninety-six additional functions the unit handles for that one component alone! Fortunately, the touch-screen menus present the functions alphabetically, or you'd be in serious trouble.

Click image to zoom

The only caveats I have here are (1) the difference in touching the screen functions (very light--featherweight light--even with the sensitivity control turned down) and pressing the hard buttons is dissimilar enough that it takes a moment to get used to the feel of what you're pressing; (2) because there are several layers of screens ("Activities," "Devices," "Options," etc.), navigating amongst them takes a few minutes to figure out; and (3) if you wear reading glasses to see up close, you might have a little trouble viewing the screen. Actually, the screen is big, clear, and colorful, so it's not a serious problem, but it might require older folks to change to their reading specs unless they're already wearing bifocals or progressive lens.

Next, how do you program the Harmony One? You use the Internet. Harmony/Logitech claim that their on-line database contains information on over 175,000 different audiovisual devices from over 5,000 manufacturers. You first save a little program on your hard drive and then simply plug the Harmony One into your computer via a USB port whenever you want to add or delete a component or function. The first time you set up the unit, the program asks you for the type, brand, and model number of each of your components and then how you are going to use them. After that, it downloads to the remote the appropriate information for each component and configures macros for whatever activities you ask of it: "Watch TV," "Watch a movie," etc. You can easily modify these activity titles, too; for instance, I changed the names of my primary activities to "Watch a Blu-ray disc," "Watch a DVD/HD DVD," and "Watch Cable TV."

Click image to zoom

The instruction booklet says you might have to spend a half an hour or so setting up the unit. That was about right. After punching in all the information the Harmony Web site requested, taking about fifteen or twenty minutes, it took another few minutes for the site to download all the information to the remote and configure it properly. Then, I tried it out.

Everything it did, it did with ease. The touch screen I found a tad too sensitive, but I quickly found a menu item for adjusting it. The buttons were responsive, and I liked the firm, individual feel of them. Although the unit lights up each time you move it, you'll probably have most of the buttons memorized by touch within a few minutes, or at least within a few hours, of use. I also enjoyed the unit's light weight, its big, easy-to-read buttons, and the way it fits so easily in the hand. I had no problem working any of the buttons with one hand, although the touch screen I preferred to manage while holding the unit in one hand and lightly pressing it with the other. I also liked the unit's ability to find its target even if I wasn't pointing it directly at the components it was operating. First rate.

Moreover, if you should ever get into trouble--for instance, if something doesn't turn on or off the way it should or a particular device doesn't work properly--there is always the "Help" button. For reasons unknown, during my first day of evaluating the product, I pressed "Play a Blu-ray Disc" and everything went on except the AV receiver. I pressed "Help," it immediately identified the issue, it turned on the amp, and I haven't experienced the problem since.

I mentioned the Harmony One is rechargeable. It's got a little battery icon in the upper right corner of the touch screen that displays the unit's current charge, and after about six hours of constant use, I noticed it was beginning to wear down a bit. I would imagine that the battery's life between charges is probably twice that figure or more, so if you remember to replace the unit in its charging cradle occasionally, it should provide years of service before you'll require a new battery.

Click image to zoom

Now, a couple of more nits to pick. I referred earlier to the glossy surface. That was really no big deal. However, the first thing that did annoy me slightly was that, like most universal remotes, there just aren't enough hard buttons to do the work of the buttons on every other remote. It's true that the unit duplicates most all button functions in its touch screen menus, but with some components, that can mean scrolling through five or ten or fifteen screens to find what you're looking for. Most folks will probably want to do what I did and manually add a few more functions to the Harmony's available hard buttons. Fair enough. But here's the issue: On most universal remotes that can "learn" new keys, this is a quick task. You just set the two remotes facing each other, punch the key on the universal you want something assigned to and the key on the original remote you want to duplicate, and, presto, it's done. Not so with the Harmony. To add a single new button, you have to go back to Harmony's Web site, navigate to the "Customize Buttons" section, choose the button you want to duplicate and where you want to assign it, and then wait for the Web site to download and reconfigure all the information in its files for your remote.

Nor are Harmony's Web-site menus all that easy to understand and use. The first time I tried to add a button, I did not save and download the new information properly. Thus, the new button did not work. It was only after going back into Harmony's Web site and reading every word of instruction on every page that I finally figured out how to do it. In other words, adding one new button takes a bit more time and effort than you might expect. I suppose Harmony wants a complete record of everything it programs into your remote in order to serve you better, but....

Of course, Harmony makes it easy to add multiple new buttons all at once. The trouble I had was that as I used the remote for each of my components, I kept finding new buttons I wanted to add. As a result, I was forever running to the computer to download and save new configurations. I must have spent the better part of an afternoon before I was satisfied with all the new settings.

Then another concern struck me. I have two disc players--a Blu-ray player and an HD DVD player--and obviously I watch a lot of movies from disc. I have no doubt I'm not alone. It surprised me, therefore, that Harmony did not include a hard button to eject a disc. Instead, you have to use the device's touch-screen menu, on which you'll find "Eject." Be that as it may, it isn't always easy finding the correct touch screen if it isn't the one currently on display, especially since there are various menus up there, only one of which is specific to the component you're using. Naturally, you can always assign an open hard button for "Eject," but a lot of people will probably figure it's not worth the effort; besides which, I never found a suitable open button.

Click image to zoom

And yet another oddity. In the upper right-hand corner of the touch screen, along with the battery charge icon, the unit displays the time and date, a nice touch, both of which the user can readily adjust in the "Options" menu. However, over the course of an afternoon, I added a number of new button functions to the unit, and each time I did so, the Harmony Web site downloaded a date that was one day in advance of the one I was in. Maybe their internal clock was off or something, but at first I thought it was something I was doing wrong. I'm glad it was their mischief and not mine.

Lastly, a word about Logitech/Harmony's customer support. During the week or so that I was evaluating the product and preparing this review, I had occasion to call their customer-support line twice with brief questions. In both cases, I reached a technician within seconds, and they were courteous, knowledgeable, and patient. Such service should not go unnoticed.

Anyway, in closing I'd like to mention a final issue I'm having with the Harmony One: Namely, I'm enjoying the review sample they sent me so much, I don't want to give it back. If I lived farther from their headquarters, it might be different. But I'm only about a half an hour away, and I'm afraid if I don't return the unit, they'll send out somebody named Luca Brasi to get it.

This thing can really spoil a guy.

Related Links:
Buy the remote from Amazon.com
Official Harmony One page

---

---