Having tired of the touch screen and the bulky shape of my Pronto NG, I was eager to purchase a Harmony 880 when it becomes generally available. In several threads here, however, I begin to wonder if the 880 is for me. First a rash of complaints about the size and feel of the hard buttons (hard buttons being the very reason for ditching the Pronto); problems with the charger; the seeming inabality to program a 30 sec skip for my SA HD cable box/dvr that doesn't have the skip built in (was able to program the Pronto to do it); and having to put the AB&C buttons on the touchscreen when I am trying to get rid of a touchscreen. Is there a hard button remote that anyone can recommend that avoids all of these problems? Thanks in advance.

The 676 is as close as you can get. It's available now, doesn't have the button issues of the 880 and it has A and B hard buttons and you can map the C button to another hard button if you prefer that over the LCD screen.

However, none of the harmony 6xx or 880 remotes will give you the 30 second skip if it requires several button presses. I have a Tivo and I don't even use the 30 second skip anymore - I just FF. Given a choice, I'd take the Harmony and give up the 30 second skip.

Uh .. why couldnt you do the 30 second skip on the harmony ? Its just a single button press for the tivo ??

i have had my tivo and 30s skip since jan of 2000 .. i can not imagine life without them

Because it's NOT a Tivo and doesn't have a one button 30 second skip.

I don't understand. I thought the Harmony models could emulate a button from just about any remote?

The Scientific Atlanta boxes do not have a 30 second skip button available. The box simply can't understand the command. To make one you need a macro with 4 button presses and a specific delay (ff,ff,ff, -delay , play). A Harmony can't do it.

I will say that the buttons on the Harmony LCD aren't touchscreen buttons - they're normal buttons with LCD labels. They press just as easily and you can find them just fine with a heavily calloused thumb - so don't assume that the experience of putting A, B, & C on the LCD is a big inconvienence you'll definitely get to the point where you are finding those buttons by feel alone. (Everyone just puts them down the LH side of the 1st LCD screen and is pretty happy.)

i had a pronto and i loved it a lot until i met harmony. the hard button is way better than pronto's touch screen, IMO.

i had 688 and 880. i actually prefered 880's button layout and button feel. don't know why people are complaining.

for lacking 30sec skip, can u have the harmony learn the pronto's 30 sec skip macro?

No, there's a time limit for a RAW mode learned command.