Logitech Harmony Remote 688 reviewed
posted October 30th 2004 1:45PM
The Harmony 688 Remote, now under the Logitech brand, is
splitting home theater enthusiast opinions over to its common-sense setup and command choices. Consensus, based
on reviews, is that it's easy to set up and easy for the wife or babysitter to use, but can be frustrating for those
who simply want to control their stuff. For instance, it comes with aptly-named "activity" macros like "Watch A
DVD" or "Play Music." While those are pretty clear as to what they do, some hardcore enthusiasts may prefer to
simply say, "Give me the commands for my Yamaha DVD player and I will choose what I want to do with it by hitting the
appropriate buttons." The brilliant thing about the 688, however, is its computer setup process, in which you
simply run a program on a computer that guides the user through a series of questions and then dumps the appropriate
codes to the remote for you.
[Thanks, Jim]
What Logitech isn't saying is that the 688 has been a bit of a disappointment. Owners are having difficulties with units dying, and even ones that work are difficult to use because the buttons are too close together.
Fortunately, units like the 676 and 680 (which are, counter-intuitively, newer than the 688) have a revised layout that put transport controls in a reasonable location, and have a much better build quality. They cost less, too.
As the owner of the 659, I can attest to the fact that HT newbies (like my wife, visitors, etc.) understand this remote immediately. Much better than being called downstairs whenever some one wants to watch a movie.
As another owner of the 659 and tested the 688, I have to say that the 659, even older is superior to the 688 in usability. But the real point here is that the harmony remotes are hands down the best universal remote. They take macro buttons to the next logical level. It remembers whats been turned on or off and what needs to be turned on when you want to go from watching tv to playing a bit of xbox or watching a dvd. Its the only remote that I've had so far that everyone can use without my supervision, which is the point of a remote and having a HT setup, actually using it. Before this remote my friends and family had no clue how to turn on the system and switch activities.
I tried out the 688 before going with the 680, and I chose the 680 because of two reasons, the transport buttons are in a more logical place, and I didn't like the feel of the buttons around the directional stick on the 688. I couldn't hit buttons by feel, I had to look at them, which to me, is very annoying.
It kinda stinks there are only 3 activity buttons on the 680, but it works fine for most setups, and the way it uses the LCD for additional activities is great.
I currently own the 688 and was a former owner of the 659. I agree with the other comments that the 688 does have usability issues, but the upsides of the 688 (for me) far outweigh the disadvantages.
The 688 looks good aesthically, but since ht ebuttons are so close together, you always find yourself looking down at the remote to find certain buttons. This is a real pain if you are watching TV in dim lighting (but the remote does illuminate).
However, the 688 has dedicated buttons for things like Page Up and Page down which are crucial for people that have devices like Tivo, ReplayTV or digital cable box. Granted, you can program buttons on the 659 to do page up+down, but it's much better to have these button available (and properly labeled) out of the box. The tactile feel on the 688 is also much better than the 659 -- the buttons on the 659 had a more "squishy" feel.
In general, Harmony remotes are miles above the competition, even against the famous Home Theater Master remotes like the MX500. Harmony remotes are dead simple to setup and non-techies find the remotes easy to use. This is proven by the fact that my fiancee can pickup the remote and use it :)
I'd like to pointlessly add my total agreement with the other posters. It's 100% worth it just for the wife being able to use it. She even feels empowered because she can fix small problems herself. That and the 10 minute basic setup that can be saved and reloaded (versus hours fiddling with a pronto) make me weep with joy.
I can also vouch for the build quality problems in the 659. My first one died after two weeks...the replacement died a few months later. That being said, their support was quick to send a replacement free of charge and even reimbursed shipping fees. Much better than trying to swap out my defective cell phone which took four months of arguing.
And to the comment about not being able to access direct controls, I'm confused by this statement. There's a button on the remote labeled device control that gives you just that. Any control you want can be access throught the LCD, so I'm not sure what the problem is exactly.
I have the 688 and think it is better designed than the others.
I tried all the models at MacWorld this summer and picked the 688. Its buttons are very easy to find without looking--the most important feature of a remove that most overlook (like those dumb sony touch-screen ones).
One of the biggest sell point of the 688 was the buttons use actually click buttons like in a mouse, not the rubberized pads like in the other models; these pads fail over time in pretty much everything they are in, and especially the channel and volume buttons that are always used in a remote. It's the same reason I had to put down my Marantz RC2000 (still the best remote ever..)
I had the 680 and . . I hated it! It's designed to do what the Logitec programmers believe is the easy and proper thing to do. Any further customization is painful. God forbid that, after 3 to five mouse clicks to insert one command in the macro list, you decide to move a command further up. You will have to erase and start from scratch and even then it's not guaranteed that it will do what you intended.
I recently received the 676 Remote as a christmas gift. It died about 11 days into using it. The remote is great, but was disappointed that a remote so pricey would be this prone to failure. Contacted support, they agreed to replace the remote, but here is what upsets me, they are asking to me to pay shipping charges to return the defective remote. From an earlier posting in this thread, it appears they have paid for this. I wonder how I should go about requesting that they pay for this. I wouldn't recommend any one pay for these remoted, especially after seeing other people having the same problem. My 2 cents.