Logitech Harmony 515 Universal Advanced Remote Control

This remote really does "what it says on the tin". I have previously owned (for 2 years) a Kameleon remote which worked ok, but never quite did everything I wanted it to. Which sounds ok, but if there is just one thing you need the remote to do which it doesn't, and you have to keep reaching for the original, then what's the point?

The harmony 515 on the other hand does everything, and you can even check if all your devices are compatible on their website. Simply go to Logitech's website, go to the remotes page and click on the "Will Harmony control all your equipment?" section on the right hand side (about half way down). In terms of how the remote works I'm really impressed, and would have given it 5 stars if it had not been for a couple of niggles.

Bad points:
- If you use a Mac you might have issues loading the software from the supplied disc. Mine refused to accept the disc, which appeared to be in good condition, and as my drive was accepting everything else I threw at it I can only assume there was a compatibility issue (I'm running the latest leopard OSX)
- This leads to the next issue - you then need to go to the Logitech site to download the appropriate software (you need this to set the remote up properly). You need to navigate to the Logitech site, and then go to the support centre and find the 515. The 515 is not listed so you are left wondering what to do! Happily I tried the closest option (the 525)
and found that downloading this software worked perfectly.

Now that really is it for the bad points, on to the good ones:
- Set-up
This is pretty straight forward, you use the software you have downloaded and follow the on-screen prompts to set up the remote. This is far easier in my view than plugging in a whole string of codes to find one that works (how the Kameleon works). You will need the model numbers of all the devices you want to control, and be sure you know how they are all connected. It took me about 15 mins to set them all up (TV, amp, DVD player, Digital TV Recorder)

- Activities setting
One of the coolest things is that you can set up activities like "watch TV" or "Watch DVD". What really makes this stand out is that if I select the "Watch DVD" activity on my remote it switched on TV and sets the correct input channel, turns my amp on and again selects the correct channel, and also turns my DVD player on. Cool in itself, but then it does an "activities" set-up on the remote, so that the main functions I might need I can access without telling the remote to switch devices.

e.g. If I am watching a DVD I want to control the sound through my amp, have play/pause etc contol on the DVD etc. The only prob is that if you need to anything more than the basic controls you need to switch to the device mode which breaks the activity set-up. If you try to go back to it whilst everything is on it turns the whole system off (as it assumes everything is off when you select an activity)

- Devices
These are easy to find through the navigation on the screen on the remote itself. The only slight downside is that you have to scroll through a few screens sometimes to get to the function you need - you may be able to customise this but I have yet to investigate

It is by far the best universal remote control I have ever bought (I've had a few) - it even feels nicely put together

I bought this remote for my dad as I already own a Harmony One. He hasn't got as many products as me! The 515 controls 5 devices, still uses a very straight forward software set up. You create yourself an account then list your products from Logitech's database, then you create an activity using your products together. Watched my old man set it up and it all worked ok. He's well impressed and even my mum's using it! Who says old people and technology don't mix!

Bought this remote after just returning an "all in one" to argos as it didnt operate my av receiver or blu ray so I was a little dubious as to whether or not this one would work.

I should not have panicked, what a fantastic remote and a great price!! All you do is plug the remote into a usb port on your PC (I have a MAC and it works fine), tell the software what devices you have and load them to the remote. My av receiver wasn't recognised as I purchased it from Europe, but no problems, just send the remote commands from the original remote to the 515 and it worked fine, didn't take long at all to do.

The best thing about this remote is you can customise the keys and create activities. For example it was very simple to be on my cable box and control the volume on my av equipment without changing the remotes device to av (as you have to on most other universal remotes). As for the activities, well to play a blu ray before I had to use the tv remote to switch av, then the blu ray remote to play the disc and the AV remote to control the sound. All i do now is press activities and then "play dvd", the remote does the rest! two buttons and thats it!

I presume this remote is at this price cos it is an old model or the fact it only controls 5 devices, neither are an issue for me and I would more than recommend this remote to anyone.