I was told by the rep that the version on display is definitely a prototype and that they will make some modifications prior to shipping the product in the March timeframe. One of those modifications will be to "raise the buttons" a bit - I didn't really press him for much more detail.

Again, during the ~10 mins. I played around with it I really liked it. For me, if somehow it doesn't work I'll just go back to the 659, which I really don't have any major issues with. I would suspect that Harmony will let me return the 688 if for some reason I don't like it, and if not, the price I paid was so low that I can sell it and probably make a profit.

blee: Does the web site already support the 688, or do you just use the 659?

I was looking forward to this remote as a possible challenger to the MX-700. Well...not quite...they'd have to support macros on the LCD buttons first, and make the Smart-State-Technology optional.

Anyway, this remote would look great as part of a designer decor, but it does not seem very practical. I also think they should move the Volume buttons to the more standard position, and swap them with the Page buttons.

I'm out. I'll stick with the MX-700 and the SST-659.

Ugh, this looks like a disaster.

Really the 659 was quite close; they went for too radical change here. All the 659 really had to do to make a near ideal PVR remote is swap the placement of transport/number pad, and add chapter skip buttons (which work great for DVD/CD, and jump back/forward on a PVR). That & maybe go slightly bigger so they could use larger buttons, & maybe make the LCD a tad bigger for an extra line of commands.

Guess I'll stick with my venerable MX-500 for now.

One more question for you blee: How well does the 5-way direction pad thingy work? I have seen too many remotes where it didn't work very well, and that is my biggest concern with the 688.

I was turned off at first, but after printing the pictures out and looking at it some more, I think the layout will work fairly well.

And of course you can make the page buttons control the volume if you want, as I assume they haven't taken all the control away from you.

MP3 Mike - The transition from a 659 to a 688 should be fairly straightforward. When you install the software off the CD for the 688 you would logon to the Harmony website and do a "connectivity test", and once your new remote is detected it will internally modify your configuration for the 688, or any other remote for that matter.

I agree that they should swap the volume and page buttons, although as you mentioned these can easily be remapped if necessary. I honestly can't remember how well the directional buttons worked, but I tell you, when I picked the 688 up and started pressing buttons I really loved the tactile feel. The only buttons I know for sure that I didn't like were the LCD selection buttons, as they are so close to the edge to begin with and the new button style (vs. the 659's) made this worse. Perhaps their raising of the buttons will help in this regard, but I also think my need to use them will be lessened with the 688's button layout.

That's interesting, because the LCD buttons on the 659 are really pretty crappy. They wobble in their oversized sockets, and have terrible feedback. I often push them thinking it was fine, but actually not pushing them hard enough. The LCD buttons on the 688 actually look much better to me...

I found the current 688's LCD buttons low and stiff - but since things *are* being worked on, they may improve.

My channel up and down buttons work as chapter forward and back on my 659. I love the setup.

This doesn't work great for devices that still need channel up/down for channel changing. PVR needs both. DVD-R needs both. On a CD or DVD jukebox or changer it's also nice to be able to use channel up/down to change discs, yet still retain quick access to the chapter skip.

i guess it's all a matter of preference- i use the channel up/down for chapter skip and have the disc change (DISC 1, thru 5) as selections in my LCD

I think the remote is a mess. Volume controls in a horrible location, already mentioned here. Did you see the controls at the bottom of the "circle"? The menu, exut, guide, and info buttons just blend all together. I have a 659. We use those buttons all the time with the onscreen tv guides.

And, don't get me started on the mute button. How many times have you had to quickly mute the tv or music (loud commercials, phone rings)? The mute button is in a good location on the 659. In fact, I can use any button on the 659 without looking. Although I did not see the 688 in person to know how the remotes feel (I am stuck in cold NJ), but it does not appear that I could do the same with this remote.

If they had fixed the problem with not being able to use the top two menu buttons and it still looked similar to the 659 (within reason), I would really consider upgrading. I love Harmony and I think they are doing a good job...but they need to take this one back to the drawing board.

Brian

Brian, are you at CES? if you look at the pics carefully you will notice the buttons have grooves between them. Also from what blee said the feel is not as bad as it looks on the pics and the production model will be even better (from what he was told).

The buttons will be changed on the final version to give more of a tactile separation. Daniel and I both spoke to them about swapping the location of the "Page" and "Volume" buttons. If that change happened, the "Mute" button would presumably be moved as well.

The thumbpad feel was very good, although I personally would prefer a larger one (fat thumbs ;-) ).

Mike
www.SurfRemote.com

I understand your comments about the volume buttons, but swapping it with the page up/down buttons seems like a bad idea. My reason is that page up/down typically controls "pages" of visual information on the screen, and pressing horizontally mounted buttons to scroll vertical information would not be intuitive at all.

At least the horizontal arrangement of the volume buttons matches well with the horizontal volume bar that is displayed on most televisions. I've used horizontal volume buttons and vertical volume buttons, and I have a slight preference for vertical but both orientations seemed to work well for me.