I have seen plenty of comments in different threads including a pre-release thread but not a user review - sorry if there is one and it didn't come up in the search.

Firstly the price is between $181.95 and $399!

With a couple of ebay scammers (or one playing 2 roles?) that start to sell them from $0.99 but ALWAYS magically reach around the $200 mark (+ $19 to $36 postage). If you look at the bidding although anonymous it seems the same group of people (on a rotational basis) who have only bought a few items over many years as being ebay members seem to bid almost solely with the same seller. The concept is to let you win for a few days and then gazump you with a few hours to go and some people will increase the bid to over $200 and get it - or let the seller win it. If you trace back often the sale is not recorded in the feedback for the buyer or the seller - but done enough times to give them a good rating. One of the multiple "successful bidders" also sells the same remotes for a higher cost with a Buy Me Now price - so I think it is the same person. I haven't contacted eBay as they don't seem to care about this sort of thing - as long as they are paid their fees - they are happy.

I bought mine from Trade Club for $181.95 + $9 postage - about a week from purchase to delivered.

Now about the remote...

Firstly I am VERY happy with it. My previous universal remote was an early Pronto with a "black and white" screen whereas the One has a colour screen. Also the Pronto (like the Harmony's big brother 1000i) needs two hands to hold it - the One is like a wand with the majority of buttons easily accessed with the one hand. However I have also (maybe out of habit) used two hands sometimes when using the touch screen. if you are fairly dextrous you should be able to operate everything with the one hand.

The package consists of the remote, charging station, 240v connector, USB connector, Lithium rechargable battery, brochures, software CD and polishing cloth.

The charging station has a tunnel underneath in which to conceal the power cord and allow it to lay flat. There is a light to let you know it is on - which I believe is a little too bright when I am watching a movie on the PJ.

The remote is in a bright piano shiny black finish with a rubbery texture underneath and fits your hand like a glove. It seems to me just the right weight and balance - heavy enough for you to respect it but not too heavy to fatigue you. There is a motion sensor in the remote to make it light up when you pick it up. The length of time the light stays on is configurable to 4 settings. Being shiny black with a touch screen it is a fingerprint magnet - I suppose that is why they give you a little black polishing cloth...

The touch screen is at first divided into three wide macro buttons - Watch TV, Listen to Radio, Watch a DVD etc.. these "Activities" are configurable - I have 9 which is 3 pages of 3. Some are Watch TV, Watch TV on PJ, Watch Blu-Ray on PJ etc.. There are arrows that appear to scroll to the other buttons. The macro can be as simple as to turn your TV on - or turn your TV on, your TV input, turn your set top box on, go to a certain channel, turn your receiver on and select TV on the output etc... You can customise the order in which each device is turned on, the delay (if needed) and also add other commands like open the tray to the dvd etc...

Once the TV is on, the touch screen can then show the icons for 6 channels at a time and as many pages as you need in any group configuration you choose.
You can also choose device and go to another screen to show more buttons like Red, Blue, Yellow, Green, brightness, contrast etc...

The "normal buttons" are mapped to your selected devices eg channel up and down on STB, volume on receiver etc.. all configurable. These also light up and are easy to navigate. If I could change one thing I would have preferred the volume and channel selection toggle buttons to swap places...


The software provided on CD - once installed takes you to the Logitech website where you open a free account and list all your devices and configure the remote accordingly. Once you are happy with the setup you plug your remote into the computer via a USB cable and download the file. The connection time for me is about 2 minutes...

Before you start I recommend that you go to all your equipment and write down the make and model number and think about what you need to happen - it will save you a lot of time in the long run. If your device is not listed - obscure/really old or very new it will suggest possible matches or you can learn the IR commands/buttons from the original remote. The device list is huge including air conditioners, lighting systems etc...

Once you have added all your equipment and decided what macros you want the procedure is very easy - a series of very easy questions come up which the software already guesses the configuration and you click Yes 99% of the time. EZPZ.

Then comes more fun - you can rename the macros, change icons, customise most things and add FTA and Foxtel icons etc...

So in a nutshell I am very happy with the remote and more importantly my wife is - she was having a load of trouble just working out which remote to use - let alone which button to press.

Pros:
Nice colour screen and ergonomics
Easier to program than the Pronto
Nice overall feel and looks
Well lit
No more batteries to buy (for a long time?) - my Denon 3805 eats batteries big time!

Cons:
Not exactly cheap!
Dust/oil/fingerprint magnet
No good if you have really big/fat fingers

Nice review Mjr69, I love mine as well (got it free on redemption with a Dlink wireless N router for $280 a while back at HN).



There is an on/off switch for the light on the charger base which should solve your problem. Also, check this site out for TV/Foxtel/Austar icons.

http://www.iconharmony.com/icons/watchtv?category=harmonyOne

Cheers

FD13

Thanks Fire Dude 13 - I didn't know about the switch - great deal with HN!

How do you find the hard buttons? Good feel?

Does the remote squeak and click when you press buttons (a minor quality issue with 525s) or is it relatively silent?

Are the hard buttons rubberised or hard plastic?

How are the commands printed onto the hard buttons - will they easily wear off?

The hard buttons feel real positive and do make a small click - which like the touchscreen shows that you have selected something. - I haven't done it but I think the noise the touch screen makes can be turned off...

The buttons are a hard plastic... I can't say about how they are printed but looking real close (magnifying glass) there is no feathering of the edges and the text is crisp so I don't imagine they will easily wear off.

Over the years I have bought a few Logitech products and they have always been well made.

I know in Adelaide they have one of each remote in the range set up at Myers in between the TVs and computers - although they are dummies you can get a good idea of what they are like... probably in Sydney too?

Double Post

Yeah, I have a 525 and am very happy with what it can do for such a cheap device. The build quality is really my only beef with it - but it has been punished pretty hard with twin 6yo boys using it as well as Mrs diesel and it's still going strong. Just feels a little cheap.

Thanks for the feedback regarding the One

Very happy with mine so far!

Don't worry about the printing on the hard buttons wearing off, It's a backlit remote the printing on each button is actually molded in (translucent plastic) to allow the light to pass through.

I got one from ebay $194 delivered. Fantastic unit!!
I love how you can put icons on for your favorite channels.
best source for these icons I found was s q u a r e e y e s i c o n h a r m o n y edit: as previously mentioned

What's the response time on the One like when pushing a button - for example channel changing? I'm hoping it's the same as the normal remotes. Had to buy a Toppy 7000 Pvr to alleviate my frustration at the slow channel change of my Pio Lx and am hoping there is no delay in response time on the One.

Cheers.

There is no problem after you adjust the default times down to their bare minimum


I bought my One for about 350$ when they first came out.

I *love* it. Its my favourite bit of AV kit.

As far as I can tell its a perfect product. Which is fairly amazing.

The Toppy should be much quicker in channel change, and the Harmony is almost as the quick as the original I find with my Beyonwiz. It's a split second slower when pressing it repeatedly, ie deleting file names etc.
Just be aware that you'll use the coloured buttons quite often on the Toppy, so move them onto the front page of the touchscreen.

Also just got a Harmony One from an Ebay trader - came to ~$190 with shipping using "buy it now" :-)

Really like the functionality it provides. I find the feel of the keys is not too pleasing and it's hard to press a button accurately on the touch screen AND have it pointed at the 55 devices it's powering at the same time :-) Hopefully practice will make perfect. It's a breeze compared to remote juggling.

I had a few problems getting some commands to "stick", especially my dimmable lights, but after doing a bit of internet hunting, found out about RAW mode, which is the best way to learn a command from another remote, as it always seems to work, unlike the "standard" learning mode . . . strange that there is even a difference.

So in short, easy to program, easy to use. Touchscreen a little fiddly, but that's understandable given the size of the remote. I didn't like the feel of the keys, but I'll live and get used to it. The positives far outweight the negatives, and for less than $200 it seems like a very good buy to me!

Which of the times do you reduce and to what? There seems to be varying numbers and choices and I don't want to bugger up the whole works for a small increase in response time :-)

Ive had my Harmony remote now for about 4 months and I must say im very disappointed with it.

It is forever turning on the wrong component, not turning on the correct one, choosing the wrong input etc etc.

I emailed logitech technical and they fixed it, a few times later its all crap again. I always go through the help menu to fix it but it obviously cant remember for next time.

I wouldnt recommend one of these unfortunately.

Never had this problem myself with my Harmony One.

Only issue I have is that because of the way my equipment is set up the TV's IR reciever is partially masked from the seating position and I sometimes forget to hold the remote high enough when turning things on and off....

Are you making sure you hold the remote facing the equipment until after it has finished transmitting (little icon onscreen)?

no issues with that. It looks like my "self learning" remote is the dunce of the class.

whats this RAW vs STANDARD learning?
Just curious as i have a issue with my remote curtains, and ive tried learning the command.

A good tradesman doesn't blame his/her tools.

Whilst i admit it can be trocky to setup a Harmony remote, once you have it setup right, it works like it says it does. I have never had any issues with devices going out of sync, wrong inputs etc.

I would say it just needs some tweaking in the setup D-Train.

Under troubleshooting. There will be a question along the lines my device responds too many times or too slowly.

You will then be able to reduce the signals from say 3 to 1.

For example, when I first got mine, everytime i changed volume the Harmony sent two commands, so the volume always increased/decreased by two levels. i went in and reduced this to 1 command per press and hey presto.

You can also use this similar method to increase/decrease the delay time between commands being sent to different devices and commands per device in an activity.

Im not sure Diesel, its all connected fine via the pc settings. Logitech themselves even tweaked it for me. Next time I use it I get different results. Perhaps I have a faulty one. I dont think I can be blamed when all I do is push a "watch a bluray" button and it doesnt work.

D-Train: The "Help" is the only thing I don't like... it tends to mess things up. Just don't press it. From what I have figured out, it fiddles what commands it is sending because it thinks your are telling it "This doesn't work", and instead of asking you what went wrong it tends to just jump in feet first and start changing stuff. Try resetting and starting from scratch, and for each actual device (not just activity - go find the device as well) you can go in and adjust what you want it to do.

One common problem is that you may not have everything you want to manipulate in the transmitter range; I found my AV cabinet was reflecting the signals due to the thick smoky glass, which I kept nice and shiny. After I pulled a few of my devices forward and tilted the cabinet slightly, everything worked great.

Stick to doing everything yourself in the computer programming side - I've found it works just fine, even though it required a little bit of figuring out. Once you get it all set up, you're laughing. I love mine.

thanks mate, will give that a go.

cheers

D

The Help function is a god send for non technical users. Mine always asks questions about the setup to which you answer Yes or No and then it works out what is wrong and sends the right command.
I have no idea how pressing the help button sends off commands before you tell it what is wrong...???

Not too sure why they have the "standard" and not just RAW as a couple of things only worked when I used RAW - maybe "standard" takes up less memory or soemthing?

Do you need to know how to find RAW mode progamming?

The problem is I use the help function until it fixes the problem. From there it is supposed to remember that correct? the only thing is it doesnt remember.

Not quite D-Train

The Help function just gets things back in sync, in case a command wasn't picked up by a piece of gear or kids run out in front of the IR whilst it's setting up and activity, or somebody has used an original remote to switch something. By using the Help function, the activity is back in sync, so when you change activities it knows what equipment is on and using which inputs.

If I understand your problems correctly, by using the Help function it fixes the issue, then it sounds like you need to tweak the inter device delays in your setup D-Train. Sounds like all the commands are mapped correctly, but when you start/change activities, the remote fires off too many commands too close to each other for all the devices and it doesn't leave a big enough gap that some commands get missed. You can increase the delay between commands so it gives each bit of gear enough time to recieve the command, action it and be ready for the next one.

If for example the TV doesn't always go to the right input, but by using the Help function this fixes it, then go to your TV in the harmony setup on your PC,
click troubleshoot on the TV device
select TV doesn't seem to recieve every command correctly
select when commands are sent one after another, the device recieve some commands but not others
you can then increase the delays

Thanks mate, will give that a go.

Another important delay is the device startup delay. For example my tv takes over 12 seconds to turn on and be ready to recieve commands! It never used to enter the right mode when I first started an activity until I set the startup delay to 12500ms

My bluray player had a similar issue

My Pana plasma takes 5 secs, and it took me a while to find out where to adjust that delay

Yes, i would like to try and learn my curtain remote via RAW to try and see if this fixes my issue, and im not sure ive seen this feature in the logitech menu!
I do the normal learn method, where i press open/close/stop on the original curtain remote and learn it to my 525 harmony.
All works great and then after a few open/close sequences, it stops working and i have to go get my original curtain remote! Once ive pressed at least one button on the original curtain remote ( be it open or close) the harmony 525 starts working again without needing to reprogram ( then stops working/responding again after a few presses)

thats the only issue ive got with my 525.

In regards to the help button people are talking about, i find it useless.
I tried using that for my curtains problem, and it ask's me a series of questions with yes/no answers, and as im answering it stupidly turns off my projector ( wich i dont want), then i have to wait for a while as im not going to turn it on straight up after a hot shutdown.

The help button doesn't work properly with inputs that start at the top of a list each time. It's trying to work but only ever steps from input 1 to input 2, every try. Works fine with sequential inputs so I expect it's a Harmony problem.

Odd. My lights wouldn't work at all, but somewhere online I stumbled across reference to a RAW mode, which, after some fiddling managed to find.

Go to devices tab, then "learn IR" for a device, then down the bottom right is a "custom" button. When the page reloads you now have an option to "Learn RAW" or "Learn selected commands as RAW".

Hope that makes it work for you, it certainly did the trick with fiddly things I was having trouble with.

Thanks for that, i will give it a go and see how that go's
Was on holiday and just got back, so just seen this reply

/me holds breath expectantly

I had a Harmony 1000i as a show piece for over an year - I did not like it a bit ...

Just bought a new Harmony One which is lot better than I thought and easy to use by one hand!

Since they both run on the same software and I was too lazy to create a new account/devices/activities I used "Replace Remote" option. After the remote was updated everythng is working just fine except for the Beyonwiz DP-S1. It just doesn't want to swith on - I went through help but no luck.

Has anyone experienced this problem previousely?

Cheers

Dham

I had previously updated a new 525 from an old one (replaced under warranty) with no issues.

I take it all other commands on the S1 work OK? how about just learniong the power codes through the original RCU and then updating it into your setup. Beats having to create another S1 in device mode.

EDIT: I had considered upgrading to a 1000i but having to use two hands put me off ever investing in one.

Have you tried using the 'Devices' button (just above the hard HELP button,) selecting the Beyonwiz and then going through the various control pages until you find something like PwrOn, PwrOff, PwrToggle? It may also be that you have set the remote to 'leave other devices on when I leave this activity,' in which case it might assume that the Beyonwiz is always left switched on.

I deleted the device and added again and it started to work normal ... probably the code I had for 1000i had to do something.

Thanks anyway.

Cheers

Dham

Been using it now for 2 days and it seems to work, but it is very VERY slow to respond.
If i click "open" curtains start opening, then when i click stop, it takes about 2 seconds for it to respond, so its got a very bad delay.

Previously the respond was instant.
I'll have to have another look see if that can be fixed.

It's a start. It's working, so now it just needs tweaking

At least it's working, so that's progress :-)

Apparently you can change the delays and timings of commands, but I've been too chicken to mess much as my setup is working pretty well :-)

There are several topics in the FAQ. Check out 'I don't know which speed setting to modify. What do I choose?' There is another on what to do if the volume/setting changes to many steps, to help you pick which of the four speed settings to adjust.

andy08

Which FAQ are you referring too for the harmony info ?
Sorry for the silly question (yes i have tried to find it, but no joy).

koaz

The 'more info' button in the 'tips' section of the Harmony Remote software brings up a page headed Search/Manuals/FAQ etc.

I resolved the problem with two of my devices today but still have one that is improved but not fixed totally even with a setting of 0.

Have you resolved this andy, or have you gotten 'close enough'?

Yes thanks mate. I set the PVR back to the default 3 sec and it was no worse or better than 0. Only the subtitle button plays up now but is ok with a very quick press. Ch change, sound etc. no problem.

Once I got beyond the power on delay problems with the Philips Plasma even the wife is talking to me again. Both 525 remotes A OK.

Good to hear.

Was spurred into action after my two year old poured water on the AVR remote last week. So I picked up one of these on the weekend and am really impressed. Much better than the Harmony 525 that I hadn't bothered to use for a year.

Set up was pretty easy and even the wife is grudgingly accepting of its value.

Trying to make it as easy as possible for her by assigning icons to channels.

Found a site Icon Harmony with a lot of them but wondered if there are any other sites that people around here use?

Remotecentral is always a good reference point