Logitech Harmony 880 $157.99 or $109.99 AR

[abre]

Just got this in my email. Comp-U-Plus has the Logitech Harmony 880 for 157.99

There is also a $50 rebate floating around which is good until April 25.

Rebate PDF

 

[Thorin78]

Shipping is $14.95

 

[TitaniumJohnson]

Oh I'll jump on this. I've been looking for a decent universal remote for a long time (to replace the 5 I have on my end table now) and this price won't break the bank.

Thanks for the find.

 

[BDawg]

Any reason to pay more for the 890 (new version, right)?

 

[NuKe9]

Nice deal, will the rebate go through though?

*edit*
Had one in my cart previously, try this Linkage.

$154.55

 

[TitaniumJohnson]

Originally posted by: BDawg
Any reason to pay more for the 890 (new version, right)?

When I looked...differences were small. Sure, a backlight on the keys is nice...it will automatically turn off anything that is on and not needed for what you're doing, again nice. But for an extra $300?

Noooo thank you. 880 ordered and hopefully arriving early next week.

 

[TitaniumJohnson]

Originally posted by: NuKe9
Nice deal, will the rebate go through though?

Will let you know. Model number matches the rebate form, it's NIB and not reburb, so can't think why it wouldn't.

Edit: then again, by time rebate would come back, would be too late for ya. D'oh.

 

[NuKe9]

Stilla good price though, isn't MSRP $249?

 

[Electric Mayhem]

Down to $154.55.

How does the 676 compare to the 880? I can get the 676 for about 75$ after rebate from newegg.

 

[abre]

As to the rebate, I bought the 676 from Comp-U-Plus for $112 about a month ago. I just got a confirmation email on the rebate this week. Looks like it is going through, but I don't have the cash in hand yet.

 

[abre]

The 676 was good enough for me. The 880 has the color lcd and a charging base. The button layout is different, which seems to be the most important thing. I'd recommend taking a look at the buttons and see which remote has the ones you need. You can add any number of "soft buttons", but you those are a little more difficult to work with. Also, the soft buttons on the 676 are really small. I find myself needing two hand to push them - one to hold the remote and one to push the button. For me, $50 cheaper was the deciding factor.

 

[abre]

Originally posted by: BDawg
Any reason to pay more for the 890 (new version, right)?

The 890 does support RF and has a remote IR blaster. You could stick all of your components in a closet or cabinet and still control them. In a nutshell, the remote talks RF to the IR blaster in the closet which then sends the IR commands out.

You could probably control ceiling fans too

 

[Thorin78]

I just bought the 880 via the Dell deal for $124 AR. It's definitely worth it. The remote can be very customized. It took me about 3 hours the first night to figure out how to work it and set it up and I still didn't get it right. But I got the hang of it and it's working great now. The LCD resolution isn't great but it's a nice feature to have because you can put logos of channels that you'd like to have as your favorites

 

[Ike0069]

Anyone use a 676 with a DVR? If it's works well, I'd like to get one as the 880 is a little over my budget.

 

[abre]

Originally posted by: Ike0069
Anyone use a 676 with a DVR? If it's works well, I'd like to get one as the 880 is a little over my budget.

I'm using the 676 with a Scientific Atlanta 8300HD DVR. The only issue I have is that the stock remote had A,B,C buttons and the 676 only has A and B. This leaves you assigning C to a soft button or picking some other hard button to assign it. C is used by my DVR for certain DVR functions (Search, etc). I don't like it as a soft button. I also had to assign Live TV to a soft button. I use that one less, but still no good hard button mapping. Take a look at the buttons on your DVR remote and figure out if the important ones map to hard buttons on the Harmony you choose. If not, you'll assign them to soft buttons which are a little less usable.

 

[Thorin78]

This is one of the high points of the 880. The LCD has pages of custom buttons along the side for either the activity or the device. You can program all 3 ABC buttons onto the screen and use those rather than using the buttons on the bottom. It's very flexible.

 

[Poohbee]

Those of you who bought the remote.. Are you having problems charging the remote with the base?...How does your charging cradle metal contacts look like? Mine looks like it has 3 gold coloured ovals. I heard Logitech was issuing new charging cradles, but i'm not sure if I have the new one or the old one. Also, are you having problems with the battery being loose inside? I had to put a piece of paper to shim it securely.

 

[toneman]

I just received my 880 from Dell earlier this week; no charging issues w/ the cradle, although I see what some folks are talking about when they mention about how "loose" the remote sits in the charging cradle.

I got the hang of programming it, but was initially disappointed at the remote's performance; some of my devices weren't picking up the signal unless I had the remote no further than 3 ft away...then I found that if I pointed the remote towards the devices at a slightly-upward angle, then it would work fine.

If there's one gripe I have with the web programming software, it's that you can't easily reorder the custom function button list w/o having to manually reenter them in the order you want them to be displayed on your LCD...unlike the activities list, where you can reorder them just by clicking on the up/down arrows. IOW--if you want the custom function buttons to be listed/displayed on your LCD in a particular order...better figure out what order you want them in before typing them in on the web page.

 

[abre]

Originally posted by: Thorin78
This is one of the high points of the 880. The LCD has pages of custom buttons along the side for either the activity or the device. You can program all 3 ABC buttons onto the screen and use those rather than using the buttons on the bottom. It's very flexible.

The 676 has the LCD buttons too. 6 of them. That's what I meant by soft buttons. I just find those inconvenient to use heavily. Although, they are quite handy when you need to find an obscure command for a device. It is a great thing to have a remote which you can access the functionality of every button from every remote you had before. It is literally like having a remote with hundreds of buttons. But I do think the usability of the soft buttons is not as good as hard buttons for the ones you use frequently. At least, that's been my experience.

 

[Ike0069]

Originally posted by: abre

Originally posted by: Ike0069
Anyone use a 676 with a DVR? If it's works well, I'd like to get one as the 880 is a little over my budget.

I'm using the 676 with a Scientific Atlanta 8300HD DVR. The only issue I have is that the stock remote had A,B,C buttons and the 676 only has A and B. This leaves you assigning C to a soft button or picking some other hard button to assign it. C is used by my DVR for certain DVR functions (Search, etc). I don't like it as a soft button. I also had to assign Live TV to a soft button. I use that one less, but still no good hard button mapping. Take a look at the buttons on your DVR remote and figure out if the important ones map to hard buttons on the Harmony you choose. If not, you'll assign them to soft buttons which are a little less usable.

I'm not sure what you mean by hard and soft buttons.
Can I set FF and RW to any buttons I choose on hte remote, or are some buttons preprogrammed for certain tasks? Excuse my ignorance here, but I've never used any typr of learning remote before, so this is all new for me.

 

[kingdesmond]

I have the 880, its a GREAT remote. Got it last year from an ebay preorder for about 170.

The 890 is the same thing, except it cost twice as much and it can send RF and IR.

 

[abre]

Originally posted by: Ike0069

Originally posted by: abre

Originally posted by: Ike0069
Anyone use a 676 with a DVR? If it's works well, I'd like to get one as the 880 is a little over my budget.

I'm using the 676 with a Scientific Atlanta 8300HD DVR. The only issue I have is that the stock remote had A,B,C buttons and the 676 only has A and B. This leaves you assigning C to a soft button or picking some other hard button to assign it. C is used by my DVR for certain DVR functions (Search, etc). I don't like it as a soft button. I also had to assign Live TV to a soft button. I use that one less, but still no good hard button mapping. Take a look at the buttons on your DVR remote and figure out if the important ones map to hard buttons on the Harmony you choose. If not, you'll assign them to soft buttons which are a little less usable.

I'm not sure what you mean by hard and soft buttons.
Can I set FF and RW to any buttons I choose on hte remote, or are some buttons preprogrammed for certain tasks? Excuse my ignorance here, but I've never used any typr of learning remote before, so this is all new for me.

Here's good pic of the 676. The "soft" buttons are the programmable buttons next to the LCD, there are six of them.

Harmony 676

While it is true that all of the buttons on the remote can be programmed to send any command to any device, the soft buttons allow you to change the label associated with the button as well. The "hard" buttons are the rest of the buttons on the remote. They have text on the button.

On the 676, it does have A and B buttons, but then I had to stick C on a soft button. Since the three buttons are used together many times (similar functionality), it would be nice if I could've kept them closer together on the remote. I could assign C to one of the hard buttons closer to the A and B buttons, but then the text would say something else - and the wife would not dig it.

It is a minor issue though. The remote is really very good. The "soft" buttons are nice because you can have pages of them, with 6 showing at a single time. The next button cycles you through the pages of soft buttons. The only problem with the soft buttons on the 676 is that they are a little hard to mash down while holding the remote with a single hand. They are really small buttons and you have to push them really far into the remote. I usually need to hold the remote with one hand and push the button with the other. I also can't believe I'm complaining about a remote because it takes two hands to operate it in rare occasions.

 

[Ike0069]

Thanks abre. I might just go ahead and get the 676........... if the wife OK's it.

 

[TitaniumJohnson]

Originally posted by: Ike0069
Thanks abre. I might just go ahead and get the 676........... if the wife OK's it.

Remember...it's better to beg forgiveness than ask permission.

 

[Kaido]

I think I'm in for one...just gotta make sure my tax return goes through Thanks OP! :thumbsup: