Logitech puts the tech into channel changing (Logitech Harmony 1000)

Member Name: whatanoldbag

Product:	Logitech Harmony 1000
Date:	02/02/08 (331 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Looks cool, apparently it's a good price, does the job (nearly)

Disadvantages: Installation is complicated

My dad got one of these for Xmas and we have just spent the whole evening trying to set it up, so I just had to get it all off my chest and tell you about it.

The idea of this device is that it controls all your AV equipment so you only ever need the one remote. This is high tech kit, and you do need wireless broadband to set it up and a degree in IT. We had the first....
First things first, this device looks great - it's made of brushed aluminium and it has a full colour touch screen. It's seriously space age. According to the techy boffin who bought this, it is good value for money at £213 (OMG - HOW much nail polish could you buy for that??) and much better than the Phillips Pronto. I merely pass that on.

OK - the set up. Now I can do most home-orientated IT things. I was glad I was not alone with this one.
Like one hour later it had downloaded the relevant bits, checked where we'd mis-labelled something, and spent some time blank-screen communicating with the internet. All OK in the end and it kept asking us irritating "Is this what you want?" questions, but we got over that. Good stuff vodka.

So you can now use it to operate all the AV previously purchased by techy-boffin (TB) (if they only had a crystal set, they wouldn't need any of it LOL).
Well the one's it does operate - great, but even TB (who has a Physics degree) couldn't get it to work with Dad's Bose speakers. Apparently the Logitech Harmony don't work with Bose. (??) It was possible to set up advanced custom stuff e.g. setting delay times for the remote commands. (When I work out why you want that I'll let you know.) TB added a custom button to turn the sub woofer on or off and was very pleased with himself.

OK so it is cute. It does seem to freeze every now again, which is solved by taking the batteries out and putting them in again (that's the level of technical support I felt comfortable with) , but you feel like Captain Kirk with it in your hands. a real talking point!
Oh a word of warning. If non-techy-boffins come in, can't fathom out how to work the new gadget and get the old remote out of the drawer, it get really confused and starts whizzing between appliances and switching stuff off than you wanted on. Don't let them do it.

So in summary - not a perfect product, not a cheap product, but for the man who has (nearly) everything and a physics degree - a great buy!

Summary: A great gadget as long as you can sort out the technical issues

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