Rechargeable Tv Remote Control

Review by Andrea : This Remote May Save Your Marriage

I have been using this remote for 8 months (since Christmas) and I am madly in love with it. I am a very non-technical person, and this review will surely make that clear. Our situation is this: in our living room we have an HD TV, a cable box with built-in DVR, a surround sound system, and a DVD player - each with its own remote. And then my husband has a complicated stereo system with several components, many of which I cannot identify, involving several additional remotes. I will now describe the scenario BEFORE and AFTER getting the Logitech 700. BEFORE: You decide to watch a DVD. It is necessary to operate a minimum of three different remotes for this to happen. Your husband is faster than you and grabs them first. As you have many times before, you grit your teeth and watch him cluelessly pressing random buttons trying to get the system set up. As the DVD plays on and on with no sound, you finally shriek "Just GIVE me the damn thing!" and rip the remote from his hands. Then you confidently press the wrong buttons and not only fail to produce sound but sometimes lose the picture, while your husband ridicules you. Finally, the DVD is playing correctly and you settle on opposite sides of the couch, no longer on speaking terms. AFTER: You decide to watch a DVD. You pick up the Logitech 700. You smile fondly at your husband as you press the "Watch DVD" button. The radio turns off, the TV but not the cable turns on and selects the correct input. The DVD player turns on. The surround sound selects the proper setting. You press "Play," cuddle up on the couch and enjoy the movie. I'm not exaggerating, this thing is incredible. The first time we tried it, and it worked just like it was supposed to, we stared at it with reverent awe, probably not unlike the cavemen who first discovered fire. In the interest of full disclosure, I have to say the initial set up, where you have to connect the remote to your computer and enter all the serial numbers of your equipment, is an enormous pain. The numbers will usually be located in the most inaccessible spot on each appliance. So while you're wedged upside down between the wall and the TV, tangled up in various cords and cables, squinting at the back of the TV with your flashlight, you have to guess which of the many random strings of numbers is the serial number. And then enter them all into the computer. So yeah, that part sucks. But after that, bliss. I noticed another review said the remote felt flimsy, but I don't feel that is justified, it seems well made and sturdy to me. Also the lack of a docking station is a good thing in my opinion, as the last thing I need is something else I have to plug in and clutter up my living room. When the remote needs a charge (and this has only happened three times since I got - the battery seems to last forever) I just take out the cord and plug it in to charge, really not a big deal. So to reiterate, this remote is worth every penny and I would recommend it to anyone.

Review by Neil Gandhi "chilldizzle" : Love the buttons and Software works well with Mac

I've had the remote for a couple of days now and I've got to say its a great remote. I am an owner of the Logitech Harmony 890 as well. The 890 has RF capability as well as a larger LCD - and it's also about double the price. Obviously there are things that the 890 has over the 700 but I really found the 700 to be a better remote in terms of the "feel" it has. I'm using the remote to control a bunch of electronics. I have an Onkyo receiver, Panasonic Plasma, Xbox 360 (which it doesn't control), PS3 (which it controls through a separate attachment), a Blu-Ray player, and a Tivo. To program the remote, you download and install software (Mac or PC), plug in your remote to your USB port with the included cable, and start the wizard. In the wizard, you enter the devices you own and it automatically figures out the infrared codes for the remote that comes with your device (you can still manually enter buttons from your old remote to the new one, but its not necessary). You then choose activities you want to perform like "Watch TV" or "Listen to Music", etc. For each activity, the software asks you a series of questions about what channel to turn the TV to, or which source to turn the receiver to, etc. After you configure each activity, it programs your remote and you are good to go! Simple as that! Software was pretty standard and I had the same great experience with my old harmony. What was different was the feel of the remote. I honestly LOVE the feel of the Harmony 700. The buttons have a great feel to them; they are responsive and springy. When you press down on them, you can really feel the quality of the remote. The remote feels great in your hand; heavy enough to feel like a quality remote, but light enough not to get tired holding it up. The ergonomics are great and it fits well in your hand. I also love that the buttons are raised (unlike the 890 where the buttons are all flat) because I can feel my way around the remote without having to look down on it. While I think its a great remote, I do have a few minor gripes. First of all, I wish the resolution of the LCD were a little better. There are only a few "activities" and controls that fit on the screen, but I supposed if I was far-sighted, I would not be complaining as much. Also, I wish that the remote came with a cradle and RF like the 890, but then again, the 890 costs about twice as much. The way you charge this remote is by plugging in the USB to the top of it...Its much like the first few generations of iPods; there is this wall block that you plug the other end of a USB cable (the same one you use to plug it into your computer with). Finally the Macros can take a few seconds to all kick in (Turn on TV, turn on receiver, turn to channel, etc.). I wish there were some way to speed those up. Again, the gripes that I have are very minor. I really love this remote and highly recommend this one. I think its also at a great price point for what you get.

Review by Linda S : Simplifies my life! Solves many problems well. Great service.

We have been living with an A/V setup in my family room with mostly new equipment--large LED TV, Samsung Blu-ray DVD with built-in Netflix streaming, Apple TV, and an A/V receiver to power all the sound. This remote has made everything easier to live with. Not only has it eliminated our remote clutter, it has actually solved quite a few niggling problems for us. It is also simple to use and even the kids and my husband are comfortable with it. I don't have a cable set-top box or Tivo. I DO get a ton of digital stations on sub-channels via basic cable with the tuner on the TV. Due to the foibles of digital tv, every tv tuner tunes a bit differently, so my two digital tv's have different channels for the same stations. I was tired of remembering them all. Plus, it takes a bit longer to tune a channel with digital. If you make a mistake or need to hunt for a channel, it takes much longer than in the "old days" of analog. I went ahead a set up favorite channels to program in almost all the channels we watch regularly. I downloaded logos from a 3rd party site to use on the remote. Now we have cute logos on a screen to select from and they can be reordered and changed easily any time. No sub-channels to remember any more. My blu-ray device works fine. Even Netflix streaming works. The buttons were not set up completely by default. I think I was missing the "red" button that would bring me to Netflix in one click. I bought this remote partially because it has the red, blue, yellow, green buttons that were familiar to us and we really need that red one for our Samsung. I called customer support to get walked through adding in that functionality. The agent surprised me with wonderful service. She started by asking what my user name in their system is. Then she asked me what I needed. Then she told me, "Okay--update your remote." I did and it worked! We get this service for 90 days with this product. I have no doubt that I could have called before I set anything up and had them do it for me, but I like to learn things and be somewhat self-reliant, so I did most of it by myself. The Apple TV works better with this product. I did have to follow a faq that they link to in the setup program to "unpair" the device to make it be able to control the Apple TV. After I did this, the Harmony works BETTER than the remote that comes with the Apple TV. In our family room, our seating is fairly far from the Apple TV and the little remote that came with the Apple TV sometimes only worked if we moved closer. What a pain. The Harmony works very well. I really like this product. The setup takes a bit longer than I expected so it lost a star for that. Also, the mac program doesn't look and work "mac-ish" and sometimes had glitches (I just quit and restart to make it work properly) so it lost a star for that. It is pretty easy to use the program after getting used to it, so I only took off the one star.