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94 of 95 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent value for money, 27 Nov 2006
This review is from: Logitech Harmony 525 Advanced Universal Remote Control (Electronics)
I've owned this remote for several months now and have to say you will be hard pushed to find a fully programmable remote control that works this well for around 40 pounds. In the past I have been tempted and bought 'cheap' universal remote controls and was always dissapointed. All of them ended up in a drawer somewhere collecting dust, because they never gave me the same functionality as the original remote. This one does. This remote is FULLY programmable, meaning that every single button (apart from the top three buttons: 'Activities', 'Devices' and 'Help' and the page scroll buttons underneath the screen) can be changed to do what you want. Even the display text beside the buttons can be modified. An activity based remote is a brilliant idea, it allows me to control up to 6 devices at the same time without having to switch the remote between devices. Meaning when selecting Activity 'Watch Sky' (activity names can be customised as well) I can control the volume of my surround system, change channels on my Sky box and change the aspect ratio on my TV all without having to switch from one device to another. At the moment I have 5 devices set up for the remote: Sony TV, Pace Sky Digibox, Pioneer DVD recorder, Teac AV receiver and Targa DVD player. The software it comes with is web based and it pulls its information from a massive online database. Every single one of my devices was found in this database, even the cheap Targa DVD player, which I bought from a Lidl supermarket. After all the devices are loaded it will probarbly not be to your liking and you have to go through every single activity and device to set up the main and programmable buttons and response timings. Yes, this is a time consuming process, I will kid you not: this will take many hours (I like setting up this sort of thing, yes I'm sad...). Some of it will be trial and error, especially setting the delay timings. But once you have set this remote up the way you want, it is a joy to use. Occasionaly I still finetune a few things.
Now for the things that were not so good: The software is web based, so if you are on dial up internet don't even consider this remote and safe yourself a lot of frustation. There was a problem with the backlight, it would not switch itself off automatically, I had to switch it off manually by pressing the 'glow' button. This drained the batteries quickly (if it was accidently left on). After a few emails with Logitech it turned out to be a hardware fault. A new remote was sent without any quibbles, very good service. Sometimes there can be a very slight delay when pressing a button. This is more an observation then a real problem. For instance there is a very slight lag when scrolling quickly through the sky TV guide, but I can live with that. It still beats having 5 different remotes strewn across the settee. During normal operation, changing volume, channels, pressing play/pause, etc there is no delay.
To sum up:
Pros:
- Excellent value for money
- Fully programmable and customizable
- Easy to use
- Good service from Logitech
Cons:
- Don't consider this if you are on dial-up internet
- If you are bit of a technophobe, the software may seem a bit daunting, especially the screens where you can customise all the buttons and activities.
- It will take many hours to set up, but to be honest I can't see any other way to speed this process up. No matter what programmable remote control you buy you still will have to go through the same pain barrier. At the end of day you still have to program (in my case) 5 devices into 1 and this will always be a time consuming process. There is no easy way around this, but worth it in the end.
The only reason I've given it 4 out of 5 stars is because the first remote I got had the backlight problem. The replacement remote has not skipped a beat. If it wasn't for this issue I would have given it 5. Since I got this remote I have not touched my original remote controls.
One more thing: I nearly bought the Harmony 555, don't bother. It is exactly the same as the 525, it is 24 pounds more expensive and all it has is 2 extra buttons. Apart from that it has exactly the same functionality and specifications.
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26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Only Remote You Will Need, 13 Mar 2006
By A Customer
This review is from: Logitech Harmony 525 Advanced Universal Remote Control (Electronics)
This is the best functioning remote I have ever had. This remote replaced every single remote from my coffee table. Works with very bit of kit I have, this includes DVD jukeboxes, Xbox360, multiple CD jukeboxes and old PVR's. Best part was when my wife just picked it up and used it first time. She has always hated the 8-9 remotes that she had to use to watch TV or DVD. All she has to do is press one button called Watch TV. The remote then turns on the TV, then the Amp turns on and selects the correct source, digital TV box turns on, then the buttons on the remote work for the TV....it's great. If you then selected Listen to CD the remote would turn off the TV, leave the Amp on but select CD source, turn on CD player and select play. Also the Off button turns everything the remotes turned on, off. The remotes buttons can be assigned to do what you want, and for those functions you use once in a blue moon you can find them by simply navigating to them via the blue screen. All functions in the blue screen can be edited to say what you want. On the downside the buttons seem cheap and plastic but it's only £50. Some less patience users will not like the fact they have to take 10mins to setup there new remote (but it's worth it). You also get a spare set of batteries in the pack as the remotes can work in demo mode.
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Harmony 525, 1 Mar 2006
This review is from: Logitech Harmony 525 Advanced Universal Remote Control (Electronics)
This remote looks great and once correctly programmed, does what it says on the box.
An online wizard creates activities such as 'Watch TV', 'Watch DVD' etc and these are available from the soft keys by the remote's display. I have a TV with external set top box and amplifier. The 'Watch TV' task turns on all these components, set's the TV to the correct AV channel, and then the volume control will be mapped to the amp (selectable via the wizard).
The down side of this remote is with the setup software's interface. The remote connects to a PC via USB and an internet conenction is required. The setup is performed via a web portal. This is EXTREMELY tedious and slow waiting for pages to update, and some people may struggle with the advanced setup. After testing the remote's functionality, it may be necessary to tweak the settings which means using the setup program from hell again!
However, after persevering, the remote works like a dream. Any missing functions can be learned via the remote's infrared port (unfortunately this means connecting to web interface again!). Some of my original remotes required aiming at the appliance with hitman accuracy, but with this has wide coverage.
The button quality is not great - a bit rubbery, but for just over [...], this is still excellent value. So far I have not had to dig up my original remotes to use any mising functions.
I have given this 4 stars - I have deducted one star for the setup program. Hopefully Logitech will one day scrap this in favour of one that installs locally.
*** Update 22 Feb 2007 - the Setup Software's web interface has recently been updated and is not as cumbersome as before. Not perfect, but much better. ***
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