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I couldn't be more happy with the purchase. Press two buttons and voila. The motion sensor is an awesome touch. This is a must have if you have more than three remotes. No more jumping back and forth between remotes. No more 5 remotes sitting out on the coffee table. If you are moderately technologically capable, set up is a cinch. The remote must have some vibration sensor as I come near it, it lights up to tell me where it is.
Heck, if you even have more than two it is a must have. Watching a movie. The back lighting is great too, as I can see exactly what I am doing in dim/dark lighting. Turns on all the components I need for each activity and turns off all the ones I don't when I change the source input.
So why did we not hide the old remotes. Enter this in a household with kids - spouse - relatives - friends and you are poised for problems. So you can tell it to start "playing a DVD" for instance. On our TV for instance there are 8 inputs. The problem (for Logitech) is that the signal to turn a TV on is the same as the one for turning it off. If you are the neat person in a neat family this is a good choice. By the way, the buttons with which you answer those questions are small too. Again we humans can SEE the screen to find out what the current input is and can press up or down to get to the right one, but the Logitech can not.
We humans can SEE if a device is off or on, but the Logitech device can not, a real problem. I even gets worse when the Logitech has to choose a specific input on your TV. As soon as any of those happens, the Logitech remote gets all confused. If it did not it will then ask you to press a button, ask you again, press a button, ask again, on and on until you say yes. This Logitech remote and its siblings try to be smart about how your devices work. This remote is good if it will be the only remote you'll ever touch, you have a steady supply of batteries and you never drop it.
It should turn the TV and DVD on, and then set each to the right settings, and presto it all works. Therefore, the Logitech remote tries to remember status of all your devices (on-off, currently chosen input etc. So if it remembers it wrong it can ask me eight times "is it working now.". it all works. I'll try to explain why. It can do this as long as you or your kids have not touched the on-off on the TV, the power was not turned off or someone touched the "original" remote, or any combination of the above for that matter.
Some things are just much easier on the old remote and other times someone will just press the buttons on the TV to change input for instance.So yes if you can plan to strictly adhere to the Logitech logic, have really good eyes, never touch anything else and have a steady supply of batteries, then this may be the best thing ever, otherwise the cheap universal remote is much better since it does not try to be smart.And yes about that reliability: It dropped of a 10" high table and stopped working, so recycled it will be.Bart To counter this; the Logitech remote will ask you after you chose something like "Playing a DVD" if everything worked OK.
I programmed it to do several different configurations with the same few components and it works perfectly. I can only turn that one on and off. i've had this remote for some time now and i must say, i don't know how i lived without it. if i had the old remote though i could teach it to do everything. but once it's done and you use it a few times life becomes so easier. only problem is with a stereo i had for approximately 15 years and lost the remote. all work great, sometimes you need to hit the help button to manually turn on a component but it only takes a second longer.
programming does take a little time if you have a lot of items to install in it. a few examples is to turn on the cable box and tv, add the stereo to taht which changes video input, add PS3 and change the video input again, and so forth. I will never be without this or a similar remote again. I also added some old components and it worked well too.
I am very happy that I made the leap. The number keys can be a little overly sensitive at times as well--it's not uncommon to take 2-3 attempts to enter a channel because I'll get 5011 or 5001 instead of 501.All in all, I love this remote, and it has eliminated the need for every other remote in my family room. I believe there are other Harmony remotes that have the four colored buttons to remedy this. I initially bought this remote because my dog ate two of my other remotes, including the one for the TV, and I couldn't find anything cheaper that would control the aspect ratio on the TV. It was a breeze to set up, with no issues at all. If/when I have the need, I would not hesitate to buy another. It's easy and simple enough to use that my wife, mother-in-law, and my wife's cognitively disabled brother had no problems picking it up and just watching TV.The only complaint I've got about its design is that the red, green, blue, and yellow buttons from my DirecTV remote are now assigned to function buttons next to the LCD, which is just a little strange, and I have to page once to get to them.
Well worth the price.No need to fiddle around with 5 different remotest for the TV, DVD player, Cable, Sound system, Netflix player. Programing it is also quite easy. Want to switch to just listening to music, again, just one click and the TV goes off, the sound system is turned on to my ipod and music starts to play. This is the best remote I've ever had in my life. This remote is so smart, it keeps track of what state it thinks each devices is in and what input has been selected. Plug into the USB port on the computer and follow the wizard to customize the remote and add devices. To watch a DVD, it take but 1 click to power on all the appropriate devices.
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