Hi,

I am trying to decide which Remote to buy MX-810 or Harmony One.

I had the MX-810 and traded up to the MX-980 for my Main Home Theater setup in the Family Room. I Love this Remote but this puppy is too expensive to buy 2 for the Bedroom. (Bought from an authorize dealer)

I have a second Home Theater setup in the Bedroom and I need two remotes for this setup. I do not need RF and considering street price on both of these remotes are in the low $200’s, price and RF are not a issue.

I have had many universal remotes in my lifetime including many JP1’s, One for All, Radio Shack, Phillips, Kamleon, Icon Remote and URC MX’s. I have never owned a Logitech.

Since I have used the MX-810 software I know its short comings.

Here are my Questions:
1. Since these are for the Bedroom I am a little concerned about the Harmony One’s Touch Screen. Will I have a problem with tactical feel vs. not having side keys.

2. Can the Harmony One do a real macro, the MX-810 has a limitation where you can only create a Macro by creating an activity, so can you build a Macro for a single key (hard or soft) in the Harmony One?

3. Can the Harmony One do macros with delays?

4. I have read that the MX-810 software is capable of more Customization, could anyone give me some a idea of what the Harmony One software limitations are?

5.Can the Harmony One automatically do a page jump and go to certain device page after i.e. powering on, or after selecting a device?

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Bedroom Setup:
1.TV- 40” Samsung LN-T4071F
2.PVR – Tivo S3 -- SD-1561 / HD-165 Hours
3.PVR – ReplayTV - RTV 5250 – 250GB
4.Cable Box SA 3250HD (for ReplayTV)
5.DVD/VCR – GoVideo DV1030
6.A/V Recv –Sony AV650 (to be upgraded in the future)
7.CD Player 100 CD’s – Kenwood DPJ1070

The Harmony remotes are Activity based remotes. You first add all of your devices, then you set up your various Activities WATCH TV, WATCH PVR, WATCH DVD, WATCH VCR, LISTEN TO CDs, ETC Each activity includes the devices needed for that activity. Once you start a activity it turns on all devices needed for that activity, sets the inputs for your TV, Receiver, If you were in a previous Activity it will turn off any devices not needed in the new activity. for each activity any commands needed for any device in the activity can be mapped to the LCD screen. Thus you don't have to be in device mode when you start an activity. To answer your questions in regards ending up in a particular device, no you can't. When you are done press the Off button and everthing turned on by that activity will turn off.

The Harmony remotes track power and input state for each device and will turn the devices on and off and select inputs automatically - you won't need macros for that. It even works if you have a list of inputs to cycle through - it keeps track of where it is in the list and dynamically figures out how to get to the next requested input.

In an activity you have access to all commands for all devices so, e.g., the volume buttons can control the receiver while the transport buttons control the DVR and yet more buttons control the TV display mode.

If you don't like the touchscreen look at a 670. Functionally it's identical (all harmony remotes are identical as far as how they control the equipment) to the Harmony One. The only differences are button type, layout and feel, battery type, LCD screen and whether it does RF or not.

One! ;)

Thanks to all that responded, it does answer some of my questions.

Can anyone else add their thoughts.

Thanks in advance

2 & 3) The Harmony supports activity startup and activity exit macros but these only run once. You can add delays in these activity startup/exit macros. The activity button mapping also supports sequence of commands mapped to a button. The current limits are 5 commands per sequence and 10 sequences per activity. However, one sequence can not call another sequence. The activity sequence feature does not support adding delays, but uses the inter-device delay settings.

5) All Harmony models have 2 modes. Activity mode and device mode. When you press the device button, you then select the device. Pressing the device button again will toggle back to the activity. You should be in activity mode most of the time. The device mode should be used only for debugging or accessing rare commands that you don't want to map to the activity to prevent activity button cluttering. Some Harmony models also have a Picture and Sound buttons. These are shortcuts to the Display and Sound devices used by that activity. They have their own button configuration independent of the device and activity button mapping.

This thread has lots of pictures comparing the various Harmony models: [Link: remotecentral.com]