I've been looking and all the Harmony's look darn near the same. The 688 has 4 activity buttons, the 880 has 8, and the others have 3.

The 688 looks like it has glowing (backlit) buttons that would be easy to see in the dark.

It looks like the decision is between the 880, 688, 659... can anyone give me some help here. The cost is not an issue, just the functionality and features.

Also, has anyone with a Harmony used the RF battery connectors to turn an IR remote into an RF remote? like this one...
[Link: summitsource.com]


thanks for the help deciding!

All the 6xx series operate exactly the same. The only difference is button layout. The 880 adds rechargeable battery, coulour screen, and tilt sensor for backlighting. All have backlighting on the keys and screen.
If cost is not an issue, I would probably go with the 880 purely for the rechargeable battery and "cool" factor.

I'm intrigued by that RF battery thing.....how on earth does that work???

The buttons on the 688 are not optimal - they're hard to distinguish from each other.

The 659 is by far the best bargain. Only complaint is the transport buttons are at the bottom so if you're a heavy DVR user they MAY not be convenient. Some don't mind them there at all.

I'd hold off on the 880 - there are some technical issues like the charging contacts and they haven't reached the online retailers yet so we're not sure about the final discounted prices.

Instead of the 688, consider the 676 or 680. Very similar to the 659 (button wise) but the transport buttons were moved to the center of the remote. The price is just a little bit more than the 659 and they're available now.

Some have tried the RF battery thing with very limited success (more often disappointment).

As stated above, the 6xx remotes all operate the same, so take a look at a detailed image of the different button layouts and decide what seems most natural given your particular devices and usage preferences. Such an image can be found here:



I'm sure you're already aware, but the presence of 3 or 4 "hard" activity buttons does not indicate that there is a similar limit on the number of activities available - the More Activities button gives you access to all activities regardless of whether or not they are mapped to the hard activity buttons. I think you are able to create approximately 15 activities, although it may be more - I don't think I could come up with more than ten activities given my equipement...

Maximum number of activities is 255

And maximum devices is 15.

Steve.

The RF battery devices I've seen from knowledgeable sources all say "DOES NOT WORK WITH HARMONY REMOTES" So I would not even consider them.

I would go with the 880. I have the 688 and the 880 and I see a lot of threads where people say the 659, 676, etc. are great so the 880 is not worth the extra price. True, the 880 doesn't add much, but it looks SOOOO much cooler :-)