CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

papalek · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 1536 Location: Longs SC

I have a friend that is thinking of buying a Harmony 900 remote but wants to know if it is one of the best or are there better ones. One that is easy to set up and anyone can use it without being a rocket scientist.

aenglish · Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2011 4:15 pm Post subject:

I have the Harmony 900 for my theatre as well as a Harmony One for the living room (and two other lesser harmonies elswhere). I have found both to be fairly easy to set up and excellent in performance. If you don't need the RF functionality, the Harmony One is excellent and allows you to program 'macros' to buttons unlike the 900. I know with my Marqee I had to go with the One or 900 in order to control the projector (higher IR band) as the 'cheaper' remotes would not work.

There's my 2 cents.

Alan

ecrabb · Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2011 7:36 pm Post subject:

I think the Harmony remotes themselves are decent and work pretty well.

However, after setting up a Harmony 1000, I found the desktop software you use to set up the remote sucked ass, and I didn't really like using the end product. That's why I gave up on the idea of a programmable remote and went with iRule. But, while iRule's end product is awesome and the best/coolest remote I've ever used, it's way beyond what most people are willing to spend time and energy to set up.

So, the Harmonys are probably about as good as it gets without spending a lot more time and money.

SC

JustGreg · Joined: 07 Mar 2006 Posts: 3098 Location: Kenosha, WI

I'm using a Harmony 1000 and I dunno, I thought it was a snap to set up. With the RF extender (ebay ~$39US) it does everything I need.

As a joke I also set it up to control the 51" RPTV Hitachi up in the livingroom; and at random times I'd just turn up the volume or change STB channels. After about a week of this my wife called me upstairs and asked me to look at the TV, "Because it's possessed or something". Mr. Green

I bought a couple 1000's on ebay as fixer uppers and between the two made one working one. I don't recommend the 1000 tho because it suffered random failures due in large part to shoddy manufacturing, and if it didn't die from that it did so due to software issues. I'd get the 1100 in a heartbeat if one came along at a good price. (The 1100 was released in a brushed black bezel whereas the 1000 only came in silver).

greg_mitch · Joined: 03 May 2006 Posts: 5320

I have a Harmony 1000 as well and the software is super simple to use.

The performance is a bit lacking after spending any amount of time with a fairly updated smartphone or other newer touchscreen device. The touchscreen is horrid and the response time after making a selection is pretty bad. It is pretty powerful though and has came through in all of my non-standard instances I had programmed.

I would love to go to a wifi to serial setup but I don't have the source equipment or the remote equipment. I just get sick of IR being sort of flaky sometimes.

csamos · Joined: 10 Jul 2008 Posts: 59 Location: Austin, TX

I use a Harmony 550 in my theater and living room and an 880 in my bedroom. I actually prefer the 550 over the 880. The buttons are easier to find/press, and I don't really care about color or touchscreen remotes. You can get the 550 for cheap, too.

stefuel · Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 12:39 am Post subject:

Crestron

jatelo · Joined: 04 Feb 2008 Posts: 46 Location: mass USA

anyone get the 900 to work with a sony g90, i get no response after setting it up ?