Harmony 676 Remote $50 at Amazon - Good Deal?

[zed]

Amazon has the Harmony 676 remote for $50, shipped. Is that a decent remote and price?

[madcat]

It sure is. I have the 880 and very happy. I guess this one is almost the same, minus few bells and whistles and minus the color screen (which is nice, but not that important).
However, I see 59$, not 50$ (not a huge diff). Still sounds like a good deal. Probably less than half of any good deal you could get for a 880.

[zed]

It was $49 yesterday...$59 today...gotta act fast...

[bdgbill]

I have a 659. I absolutely love it! Software takes a little getting used to but beats the hell out of programming a remote on the remote.

One thing to remember about Harmony remotes. The Harmony needs to "remember" what state all your devices are in. Whats on, whats off, which input everything is set to. If someone uses another remote (or the devices themselves) to change something it screws everything up.

I hid all the old remotes - no more problems.

[FlatEarth]

Just out of curiosity, how do these universal remotes that do not have the "color" buttons (red, yellow, blue, green) work with GBPVR? Do you lose some functionality, since GBPVR has some actions tied to these buttons?
I have always thought the Harmony remotes would be great from a general home theater standpoint, but did not get one because of the lack of the "color" buttons.

[bdgbill]

Just out of curiosity, how do these universal remotes that do not have the "color" buttons (red, yellow, blue, green) work with GBPVR? Do you lose some functionality, since GBPVR has some actions tied to these buttons?
I have always thought the Harmony remotes would be great from a general home theater standpoint, but did not get one because of the lack of the "color" buttons.

The Hauppauge remote is in the Harmony database. You can assign the color buttons to any buttons on the Harmony remote. Their database is awesome and since it's online it is constantly updated with new devices (a huge problem for all other universal remotes).

They even had the remotes for my cheap Korean air conditioner and my Sirius Satelite radio.

[soccerdad]

Just out of curiosity, how do these universal remotes that do not have the "color" buttons (red, yellow, blue, green) work with GBPVR? Do you lose some functionality, since GBPVR has some actions tied to these buttons?
I have always thought the Harmony remotes would be great from a general home theater standpoint, but did not get one because of the lack of the "color" buttons.

I think the xbox Harmony remote has the colored buttons. Does anyone know if this works as well as the 676 or 880? Do they all program the same way? I have seen the xbox remote for ~$50.

[madcat]

One thing to remember about Harmony remotes. The Harmony needs to "remember" what state all your devices are in. Whats on, whats off, which input everything is set to.

Not entirely true. If the device (TV/Receiver/Hauppauge/etc) has discrete IR codes (e.g. separate IR for "ON" and for "OFF"), then it works regardless. If they don't have the discrete codes, then you're right (for example, my TV has separate codes for each input). Mind you that even if your original remote doesn't show the different buttons, it still might be that the device will accept discrete codes (good example: Yamaha HT receivers - they all support both IR for "ON", "OFF" and "POWER TOGGLE", but some Yamaha remotes have 2 buttons [on/off] some have one [power]).
One more point, the Harmony has the great "Help" button, which is exactly for those cases where the remote got "confused" (was not in sync with the current state), or just missed an IR sent (someone walked in front of you while sending the command sequence). It tends to solve those issues in 5 seconds. Believe me - it's not me I'm talking about (I could send the commands in machine code :p), it's my wife and my 7yo daughter who use it with no hick-ups. That's a huge testimony I think.

I hid all the old remotes - no more problems.

That's a good idea for sure. Also, looks much cleaner in the living room, no?

[bdgbill]

Good points MadCat. I was thinking about my own setup. My Phillips sound system is particularly problematic. It has one "input" button to toggle between the sound inputs but adds an extra item to the rotation when a DVD is present.

I am still shopping around for a new TV. This is something I need to check on before I choose one.

[HtV]

Just out of curiosity, how do these universal remotes that do not have the "color" buttons (red, yellow, blue, green) work with GBPVR? Do you lose some functionality, since GBPVR has some actions tied to these buttons?
I have always thought the Harmony remotes would be great from a general home theater standpoint, but did not get one because of the lack of the "color" buttons.

I thought all the Harmony's had the color buttons, at least my 525 does, it's the cheapest one available afaik.