Date: March 24, 2006 - Author: Rob Williams
Are you an Xbox 360 owner and want an all-in-one remote control? Logitech was on the ball and produced such a remote, and it can control probably every device in your gaming room. Let's take a closer look to see how user friendly this thing is!
Harmony Remotes from Logitech are considered to be some of the best on the market because of their functionality and reliability. One reason many people have held off picking one up is because of their relatively high price. Some people just don't care to pay around $200 for a remote control, and that's understandable. Today we are taking a look at a new remote from their line-up which has a price tag much easier to swallow.
What makes this particular remote so interesting is the fact that it works seamlessly with your Xbox 360. This is the first Harmony or even multi-function remote I have ever personally used, so it's a good experiment to see just how easy it is to set up. Besides the fact that it supports your Xbox 360, it can also control 11 other devices for a total of 12. I will be testing it out with a few of my devices I have on hand to see if they are even supported, or work reliably with the remote. Let's first take a look at the remote itself.
The remote comes in a clear blister pack as most Logitech products are. Sadly, it's one of those ones that will require you pull out a knife to slash it open. Personally, I like the product I buy to be in secure packaging, but I also like to be able to open it with little effort. At any rate, the packaging includes all the info you need to know. It comes pre-installed with batteries, so pushing the Activities button while it's still in the packaging will give you a quick tour of the remote.
After hauling the remote out of the packaging, you can remove the inner packaging to remove the CD-Rom, Manual and four spare AAA Duracell batteries.
I have to say that this is one of the best looking remotes I've ever seen. Many "All-In-One" remotes focus too much on looking hardcore instead of looking 'cool'. Since this is for the Xbox 360, it only makes sense that it have great styling, and Logitech seems to have pulled that one off.
The plastic that the remote is constructed of is even better than what I had expected. It's hard to describe, but it's 'softer to the touch' than the plastic of the original Xbox 360 remote, or even the controller for that matter. The back of the remote is contoured to fit in your hands really well, and it does. Overall, it's a very comfortable remote to use, and is not too heavy.
For a quick comparison look, here is a picture of the original Xbox 360 remote compared to the Harmony remote.
The remote has almost 55 buttons, so let's start from the bottom up. At the very bottom are your normal numpad keys, including an asterisk and pound key. Here's where my first gripe comes in.. these are small keys. If you watch TV often, then you will in turn be using these keys often as well. I will get more into this later though. Directly above these are the Mute and Prev button. The Prev will function differently depending on which device you are currently using.
There are ten more buttons directly above these, which control your volume, channel, back light glow and navigation. The navigation will work as you'd expect in your Digital Cable box menu and the Xbox 360 dashboard. Chances are regardless of what device you are using, if there is a menu then this will support it.
Next up are four buttons: Exit, Menu, Info and Back. They do exactly as they say, again depending on which device you are currently using. Just like on the original Xbox 360 remote, there are YXAB buttons available, which can primarily be used for Media Center mode. If you have your Xbox 360 hooked up to your Media Center PC, you could access Live TV quickly. Next up are the video controls for DVD viewing. If your cable or satellite allows you to watch movies on demand, you can use the controls for that also.
Finally, the LCD and buttons that surround it. The LCD is backlit Green, since for an Xbox that only makes sense! This screen is the information center for everything... it can help you use the remote, change how things are done, and allow you to access other controls. At any time, you can control up to four different actions, which is why there is four buttons around it. In the chance that the particular thing you are doing has more than four options, then you can use the Left and Right buttons below the screen to proceed through all of them. At the bottom of the screen, it will say what page you are currently on and how many there are total. For my TV, there is a total of 18 pages!
At the top of the remote is the Device and help. If you want to access one of your devices directly, you can access it here. It will become the primary control when it's selected.
The first thing I did was install the included software. Up to now, I still had no idea how the remote worked, but it's completely dependent on the software. The first step was a matter of downloading a newer version of the software, then installing that. Because the Harmony remote will contact an online database, they require you create a login to do so. This is somewhat foolish if you ask me, but they make very quick work of it. You must then choose your 'difficulty' level, depending on how well you know your equipment.
Step two is simple.. make sure you plug the USB connector into the top of the remote and then your PC. Step 3 is where it begins to get interesting. Here is where you add all of your devices, which amount to only two for me since the Xbox 360 is pre-configured. So first up was my LG 26LZ50. After selecting LG from the drop down and inputted the model number, it went online and see if it could find a match. In my case, there are 5 TV's from LG with a similar model number, so I had to select the appropriate one from the list.
After you set that up, you can select another device. On the list, you can choose from another Television, Amplifier, Channel Decoder, Video Recorder, DVD, Music Player, Game Console, Mini System, Computer, Home Automation... etcetera. Yes, if you have the proper setup, you can even have this remote control the lights in the room! Seriously high-tech stuff here... .
Next up are a bunch of steps that require you to set up your activities. To make this a simple explanation, say for instance you want to set up the Play Xbox button. You would set it to turn your television on, put it to component 1 and turn on the Xbox. If you want to watch TV, you can have it switch back to channel 3 or what have you, and turn your cable box on. This was actually quite simple to pull off; the instructions were all very clear.
After finally finishing up the remote setup, you need to allow the software to update the remote itself. This takes around 4 minutes but may vary on the updates. I had figured that setting up the remote would be difficult, but it definitely wasn't.
This is a kick ass remote, and I am enjoying it quite a bit. Of course, there are many things that I really enjoy about it, but there are a few things I am not crazy about. I will point out all the key points here. One thing I do really like, is the fact that Logitech keeps their online database updated constantly. This means, that if you buy a brand new TV now, or six months from now, Logitech will have the appropriate setup to download into the remote. This is one of my favorite parts about the remote. When you buy a product that states 'future proof', that's a good thing.
Another thing I love are the looks. It's straight out a great looking remote that just happens to have tons of functionality. My family, who are not tech savvy and hardly realize I spend all day working on a tech site, agreed that the remote looked 'very cool'. Logitech did a great job of designing it, that's for sure. It looks great beside your Xbox 360.
The LCD is another good feature.. but it's actually pretty necessary. It's well back light though and ultra clear. Navigating through it's menus is very easy and I didn't encounter any problems. If you happen to have multiple menus for one of your devices, it can get tedious scrolling through them to find a function you need, but that hasn't really been that much of a problem. If it is for you though, you are able to go into the software and remove the functions you don't want. You can even rename or rearrange anything in there, to help make it your own.
As for the things I don't like... the primary is the software. The software is somewhat clunky, and navigation to find exactly what you need can be confusing at first. After my first setup, I realized I wanted to change up a few things, and really had no immediate clue where I was supposed to go at first. Another issue is that one screen allows you to rename and change functions around for a specific device, but it does not easily allow you to delete or re-arrange the functions. If you wish to re-arrange anything, you will have to manually set each function. This may actually be the best choice anyway, so that you don't have a bucket load of functions in there that you will never use.
While the software is really my primary issue, there are a few things about the actual remote I am not too impressed with. The first thing is the fact that the numpad down at the bottom uses very small buttons. The only reason I have a problem with this is because it will make it difficult if you want to change to a certain channel without having to look at the remote, which is usually what I do in the dark. If you push the Glow button though, it will light up those buttons very clearly, so it's not that huge of a problem. It would have been worse if they were not even backlit.
Again with the buttons though... some are hard to push. There were a few instances when I have had to push the button more than once in order to get it to react. Not only that, but for some reason, all of the silver buttons 'click' rather noticeably every time you push them. I found it annoying after a while of channel surfing and volume control. Lastly.. I am not impressed with the layout of the buttons. I would have rather seen the numpad in the middle of the remote and have the DVD control buttons down near the bottom. This could be personal preference, but it would make more sense to me.
This is an impressive remote control, especially if you have never used an all-in-one solution like this before. The fact that it works with the Xbox 360 may be the selling point for anyone. The remote packs some awesome functionality and the online database makes it feasible to add not-yet-released products to the remote when the time comes. It works just as you would expect an all-in-one to work. It's clunky occasionally, especially with the activities. If you have the TV already on and choose to play Xbox, it may turn off your TV depending on how it's set up. This is a problem with all remotes like this though. It's too bad they cannot detect whether or not these devices are already turned on or not.
Truthfully, this will be my only remote from now on. I love the fact that I can disregard my three other remotes and control everything with a single solution. Even still, it has a few problems I would love to see fixed. Primarily it's the software. If you are a newer tech user, it may be overwhelming to say the least. Granted, I didn't use the easy mode, but the software was clunky nonetheless. The hard to push buttons is probably the second largest problem, but may not bother you as much as it did me.
One great thing about the remote that I did not mention yet, is the price. From our affiliates below, you may see the remote on sale for under $100. For a remote that has so much functionality, it's an outstanding price. Especially compared to the other Harmony remotes from the Logitech line. Despite the issues I mentioned, you will not regret picking up the remote for this price. I am awarding this remote a 7 out of 10.
If you wish to discuss this review or ask questions about the remote, feel free to include your comment in our related thread!
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