Very good Post NMO - well done.

Now, can someone post something similar but telling us newbies what you can do with these remotes regarding programming/customising them.

I have heard that they have limited customisation but individuals have found work arounds.

Would like to hear more about what people are making these remotes do that is beyond the basic setup.

Internally they all work the same - Devices and Activities. Activities automatically takes care of turning things off and on and selecting inputs. You can map any command from any device to any regular button (LCD buttons or hard buttons excluding the special buttons like Activities, Devices, Media, Sound, Picture, etc.).

What you can't do:

Directly control the startup order of devices. You can indirectly control it through power on delay settings or support can fix it for you.

Customize the OFF button. OFF simply exits the current activity without starting a new one which results in all devices being turned off (if the harmony turned it on).

Do unlimited user macros. A limited version of this is returning shortly with the ability to send multiple commands to different devices with one button press. If it also allows you to send multiple commands to the same device then this will work for most macro situations (it's limited to 5 commands but you can group commands together by learning them in RAW mode first, so theoretically you could get up to 15 or so commands). The good news is most people don't need any macros and this new feature should work for most of the rest.

You can use activity startup and stop commands to do certain actions: you could have two watch TV activities - one regular and one CC - such that the CC activity turns on CC and mutes the receiver upon startup and turns off CC and unmutes the activity upon exit. Then you can just switch between activities to turn CC on and off.

Hope that helps.

Many thanks Akirby - that kinda helps.....

......now I am going to have to sound real thick here & ask what a 'cc activity' is?

If you can send multiple 'on' commands to multiple devices, why can you not send multiple other commands to multiple devices.....or even to one device?

I guess the 'RAW' mode exactly records your button presses in real time? if so why can this mode not be used to record & store say 10 button presses?

Not having one of these remotes, but being in the market place for a new learning remote sure opens up lots of questions in my mind on how these Harmonies work vs 'normal' programable/customisable remotes.

That was the example of having two watch TV activities - one for regular and another for Closed Captioned (CC). The power and input settings are controlled by the harmony smart state software internally and it's calculated dynamically as needed. That's different than allowing the user to specify a string of commands. As for the RAW mode - yes, you can learn a sequence of commands in raw mode but I don't know the limit on how many. 3 or 4 seems to work fine, more than that is probably hit and miss. The timing has to be just right.

Thanks akirby for your response again. A few more questions I am afraid (to you or anyone else experienced who may feel like answering)......

......what is 'closed Captioned' - what is the different between this & regualr 'watch TV'.......it might seem like a dumb question if you have a logitech Harmony remote, but when you don't the terminology is lost on me I am afraid.

So, going back to the capablities of the harmonies, & to summarise:-

1) They can be used to replicate an existing remote pretty well.
2) They can be used to set up 'activities' that turn your whole system on/off & select the necessary inputs.
3) They can provide some basic 'hit & miss' sending of strings of commands up to three or four commands at the push of a button, via teh 'raw' mode
4) They should be able to support real macros in the not too distant future (September ish?) up to about 10 commands.

So comparing the Harmony 1000 with a Pronto like remote:-

a) the Pronto permits full customisation of backgrounds, while the Harmony 1000 doesn't - although you can have the existing background replaced by an image

b) the Pronto permits full customisation of touch screen buttons - both look & functionality of those buttons - the Harmony 1000 doesn't.

c) the Pronto permits full customisation of numbers of screen pages (memory permitting) & the navigation between them, the Harmony 1000 doesn't, but does allow extra 'pages' to be added via extra activities.

Have I missed any other major differences?

With the Harmony 1000 - on the 'devices' pages is it possible to change / customise the buttons that you see at all?

Is there a limit on the number or type of 'activities' you can setup?

Assuming that there is no way to customise the buttons on the Harmony 1000 in terms of numbers of them (hide / show) / layout or function - what is the advanatage of the Harmony 1000 over the other non-touch screen Harmonies? I would imagine that the whole advantage of a touch screen is the ability to customise the view you have of the butons - ie layout & numbers shown & on how many pages they are distributed over (rather than what the buttons actually look like). Would you not be just as well off by sticking to one of the cheaper hard button Harmonies? I just don't understand what the 1000 gives you that the other Harmonies don't, assuming you can't customise the views in any significant way.

& while I am trying to compare remotes, there seem to be just a vast choice of harmony hard buttoned remotes why would anyone choose the 890/895 over say a 550/555 if fundamentally they both offer the same level of creative control / flexibility in setup.

I am really not trying to put the Harmonies down - I am just struggling to understand thei advanatages & selling points vs a fullly customisable Touch screen (apart from cost obviously & the fact that some prefer hard buttons to touch screens). The main selling point to me of any Harmony vs competition seems to be teh online vast database of remote codes (this seems like a great concept) - & great if you have lost or damaged on existing remote (as I have) & require a universal remote with the best chance of having your equipment covered - but then the entry model Harmonies give you this, so why go any higher up the harmony ladder?

......Also, can anyone with a Harmony 1000 post any pictures of the different control screens available under teh Harmony 1000 - I've only every seen teh same 'activities' screen with about 6 activities shown such as 'watch TV', 'watch DVD', 'Listen to Music' etc.

I'd really like to see some of the devices screens & maybe any other screens that are available that I have not heard about & what you can & can't do to modify / set them up. Some example screens would be wonderful to see.

I am genuinely in the market for a remote, I just can't make my mind up about what to get.......& am attracted to teh Harmonies for two reasons:

1) according to the PC software I downloaded from teh Logitech site, they have my equipment in their online database (none of the prontos except for teh top of the range 9600 do)

2) cost, i can get a Harmony 1000 for about a quarter of the price of the philips 9600

......but I have a worry that I may end up regretting not putting the money that i would have spent on the Harmony towards getting a Philips Pronoto 9600 if the Harmony proves too inflexible in giving me what i want.

CC or Closed Captioning has nothing to do with the remote - it's the text that is sent along with the tv broadcast and is usually enabled by default when the TV sound is muted or it can be turned on and off through the menu system. It displays the text of what the people are saying.

In my opinion you would be better off with a regular harmony rather than the 1000. I do think you can customize the buttons and commands that appear on the 1000 - you just can't do your own layouts and designs like the Pronto.

With the 1000 you get Harmony smart state that controls your equipment power and input settings automatically. With the Pronto you have to do that yourself and it's not easy to do it right. It also takes a lot more programming to customize the Pronto.

If you want a touch screen remote without having to do all the customization and programming then I guess the 1000 would work for you.

Thanks once again akirby - I think Ill post the question about screen shots of teh 1000's screen on the main forumn, I'd like to see what you can & can't do with teh Harmony screen - it might be sufficient for me, on the other hand the touch scren might be a total waste of time & money for me if I am so limited on the button customisation that I might as well get a hard button Harmony.......in which case, I think you are right, one of teh entry level Harmonies will probably be sufficient for me.

I'll get there in the end!.....or die trying!! Many thanks again for your responses.

i'm looking to get a second harmony (have 659 now). my other tv set up has just a few things (hd tv, replay tivo, 211 hd dish receiver). thinking of using the 659 there and perhaps getting the 676 or 670 for my main system (info below). other than the media button i don't see much difference between the two remotes. i read about button issues on both... just want to get opinions regarding these two remotes (and others if you wish).

i have RCA HD
Denon A/V
Dish 733 VIP PVR
sony dvd
directivo HR 10 (temporarily in the set up till we clear the hard drive!)

I just want to bump this thread. Is there some way we can make this a sticky so it is easier to access?

I did not see this mentioned before but I believe there is another difference between the 520 and 550 not listed. I just bought a 520 for the bedroom and it does not seem to have a tilt sensor. I programmed a 550 for someone and I am almost positive that one did.

One other observation. The plastic seems a little cheapier on the 520. I got a great deal on it so it is fine for me but if the prices were closer to the same I would say definitely go for the 550.

Edit: I just pulled up the account info for the 550 I programmed and there was no option to turn off the tilt sensor. Can anyone confirm or was I just imagining there was a tilt sensor on the 550?

The 520, 550 and 360 all have tilt sensors. It does not work properly on any of them.

When you say does not work properly, what do you mean? My 890 works fine. This 520 never lights up when I pick it up.

Regarding the images of the nicely-styled, but impractical remotes shown above:

Similar to what Artie Johnson (Laugh In) would have said.

Verrry interesting (pretty), but schtupid!

This thread contains many pictures... you be more specific as to which image/remote you are referring to?