This is the first harmony remote that I've purchased. For some reason I decided to ignore the reviews saying that the RF transmission range was poor and bought it anyways. Sadly the reviews are dead on. I have my equipment in the next room which is less than 10 feet from the couch I sit on, and about 20% of the time the remote pops up with a message saying that the RF blaster is out of range even though the product is advertised as 100 feet. From what I've read the 890 works much better for RF and is cheaper.
For $400 this system should work much better.
November Update:
I wanted to provide an update after dealing with the customer service folks at Logitech. I have had a case open for 1 month now with Logitech and they still have not resolved the problem. The level 2 technical support manager admitted that the H900 does indeed have wide-spread RF range problems and that at this time they are not sure if it was HW or SW. They asked me to send pictures of my setup so they could see the distances involved. After a week or hearing nothing they sent an e-mail wanting to have me pay for shipping from them and back for them to send me a trial remote to see if it helps my problem as an experiment.
Outrageous.
December 29 Update:
The problems continue... They did finally send me a new harmony 900 remote and as I unfortunately expected the problem conitnued. The new remotes range was 1-2 feet better but no where near a reasonable amount. My case with them has now been dragging on for over 60 days without resolution. Calling customer support means you are on hold for 45 minutes and when you talk to them they say they need to have someone call you back which never happens. E-mail support is even worse.
Avoid this product and manufacturer at all cost...
If you plan to use RF make sure you read the online reviews. LOTS of people have range problems with the RF portion of the remote. Logitech Harmony 900 Rechargeable Remote with Color Touch Screen
First I had the Harmony One and absolutely loved it. The One worked perfectly, was super fast, & easy to use. However, I grew tired of having to point it for 15 seconds at all my equipment while it turned my equipment on some of which has long power on times so the remote has to wait between the power command and the input command. For example, it knows that my TV takes about 10 seconds from power on to being able to change the input to the right source. But with IR, you have to keep pointing it broadly enough to hit all of your equipment. I can just set it at the edge of my couch and it normally would catch everything. It also makes it a little difficult to use the LCD screen if you have to point it at the equipment as you press a soft key because you need to tilt it towards you to read it or you have to sit up and look down at it while pointing.
So then I bought the 900 so I wouldn't have keep pointing it at my equipment. The RF really lets you do this (more on this below). I also really like the 4 extra programmable keys (red,green,yellow,blue). My Tivo doesn't currently have the color commands you find on some other PVRs, so I like to program them to the most frequent soft keys I use because I find buttons easier to press by context than soft keys. For example, I set blue to LiveTV, and yellow/green to swap between full screen and zoom to help when I watch a wide-screen show in SDTV.
On both, the biggest thing I liked is that I could program any of the keys, and additionally had soft keys on the LCD too if I wanted. It offers additional commands that aren't on the original remote. The biggest benefit for me was TV input and TV ratio commands to change directly to AV1, AV2, HDMI1, HDMI2, ... or switch between full screen, wide screen, and zoom without having to cycle through inputs or bring up menus using multiple buttons on my original remote. The software is great for setting it up. You can have moments of frustration, but it is really powerful and once you have it setup you forget about it and using the remote seems so simple & intuitive becuase you set it up for your preferences. It takes a while to setup, and longer to keep tweaking for your preferences to add, remove, and move soft keys and setup activities exactly how you want it. For a month I would use it and think that I wish something were moved, added, or different and would make a note to go tweak it and update it later.
TOUCH SCREEN:
The 900's screen is supposed to be a better resolution than the One, but I prefer the screen on the One. I find the One's screen brighter and easier to read. The 900's backlight seem yellower and the text feels more washed out to me. You can pick between 4 themes on the remote, one of which goes back to the One's theme, but with that theme I couldn't read the 900 as well compared to the One when I held them side-by-side. The default theme on the 900 is the easiest to read of the themes on the 900 in my opinion. The 900s touch screen is less sensitive than the One, and especially for changing pages which is a good improvement from the One which was way too touchy. On the One I was always accidentally changing pages instead of pressing the soft key I wanted, or accidentally doing something. This seems to intentionally improve that. Changing pages on the 900 is still very fast, but switching from Activity pages to Device pages takes much longer. The One changed pages and between activities and devices super fast. The 900 dims and brightens as it switches between them and takes longer. I miss the speed on the One when pulling up device-specific buttons to fix something, however I don't do that often. Within the task, page changing is sufficiently fast.
RF:
The RF is supposed to let you use the remote through cabinet doors and without pointing at the equipment. I have glass doors and just didn't want to point it at them all the time. Also my equipment is spaced apart enough that if you aren't careful you miss equipment even when pointing with IR. The RF has completely solved this. It really works. I don't know how to clean the screen anymore because I can't do it without turning things on. The best I can do is clean it quickly while it is starting my devices with a long power on time. If I press a button in my kitchen pointing nowhwere near my equipment in the living room, they follow the commands. However, the RF has some disadvantages. It is very slightly slower than IR commands, except for hiccups if you've place the emitters well. I've "raced" my One and 900 to navigate around my Tivo. They are incredibly close when it works. But was really slow when I didn't have my IR emitters placed well. I used the 900 and One to compare speeds until I got the commands working nearly equivalently on the 900 as my One. There are hiccups where you can see it fail to communicate with the RF receiver by an icon on the 900's LCD. You can also see the remote send the commands, and sometimes it gets backed up. So I press a ton of buttons really fast to test it, it seems to hang up or stop working, and eventually fires them all off. Every once in a while it will get backed up or fail a command, but is sufficiently rare. For example, once in a while I'll be fast forwarding and can't stop it until it has gone way too far. So for RF, take care to place them and test positioning to make sure it is most optimal. Do not overlap emitters or that can cause problems.
EXTRA BLASTERS & PRECISION CABLES
It comes with 1 blaster that is the RF receiver and 2 mini blasters that connect to the back of the blaster.
You can buy additional blasters and precision IR cables. The 900 supports up to 5 blasters each with 2 mini blasters or precision IR cables. They are all available from [...] if you have the URLs or part numbers and I have bought all of them in January 2010. I bought 2 extra blasters, extra shelf emitters, and precision IR cables. However I couldn't find them by searching or navigating the site and only obtained the URLs by other forums and contacting support by email. Adding a blaster is very easy. On the remote itself, you go into options and RF setup and will find an add blaster button there. Then when you enable or disable RF for devices, it indicates blasters by number so it knows which ones are covered by which.
Amazon edits URLs to other websites from reviews, so the best I can do is give you URL hints, part numbers, and correct names as they appear on Logitech or the parts store. You can find some if you know the correct exact name or part number, but for the cheaper parts store you will have to use an internet search engine or URL hints.
You can buy the additional blaster as an expensive complete set, or by 1/3 the cost by buying the parts separately from the parts store. Note that the part numbers on the parts when ordering do not match the part numbers on your equipment, but when it arrives it is the same as the original. You can buy the expensive complete set including a blaster, mini-blasters, and AC adapter. Or better yet you can buy the parts separately and was quite cheap in my opinion. I bought the parts. I can't say prices in a review, but I thought the set was very expensive but the parts were very reasonable. I bought 2 extra blasters, 8 sets of 2 shelf emitters, 2 AC adapters, and precision IR cables for 75% of the cost of a single official extra blaster set. As parts, just note that the AC adapter and mini-blasters are sold separately from the blaster, but are still a ton cheaper. The parts descriptions are extremely unclear, but I ordered and can tell you what I found.
Additional Blaster Set (extra "Harmony RF System") (Blaster, mini-blasters, & AC adapter)
How to find: Search Logitech site for "Harmony RF System" or "6228". Descripotion will say for 900.
[...]
Additional Blaster Parts (sold separately)
How to find: Search Logitech site for "Harmony 900" or "5874", open product page for the Harmony 900, click "Support", then "Replacement Parts". Or do an internet search for "[...] parts store harmony 900". Or from the parts store ([...]), use URL hint.
[...]
- Blaster (without AC adapter or mini-blasters) is called "Receiver for Harmony 900" P/N 993-000188.
- AC Adapter (same as for remote charger) is called "AC Adaptor for Haromony One, H900 and H1100, 100-240V,5.5V,800MA" P/N 993-000377
- Mini-Blasters (set of 2) called "IR Shelf Emitter" P/N 993-000191
You can optionally buy Precision IR Cables that replace the 2 mini blasters with 2 cables with 4 mini stick on emitters each. It comes in a pack of 2 cables to fully replace 2 mini blasters and cover 8 devices. It also comes with large square stick on black-out covers to hide the signal from any other equipment, but if the equipment is visible, it might look ugly. I haven't tried the Precision IR Cables yet but bought some to try later. I hope to use them without affixing the black-out covers which seem optional.
Precision IR Cables (set of 2) (P/N 915-000095)
How to find: Search Logitech site for "Harmony RF System", "6230", or "915-000095".
[...]
UPDATE (after 4 months):
I love the H900 and prefer using it over the One, mostly for the 4 extra buttons, and I like that the screen isn't as touchy so I don't accedentally change pages or press soft buttons like I used to. But there are drawbacks that are noticeable. RF is slower than IR. When I switch to my One if my H900 battery needs recharging, the One seems so fast by comparison. I even adjusted my inter-key delay to 0, but still feels a bit sluggish especially when entering in search words into Tivo. But I still like using my H900 for regular use. The H900 RF fails to communicate once in a while, but has not been a concern for me. The battery life is noticeably shorter than the One. I get about 3-4 days between charging on the H900 and 7-9 days on the One. The biggest problem is that the H900 locks up on the charging cradle and sometimes while watching shows and you must force a reboot by removing and replacing the battery. All but once it came right back up, but it loses the current time. It is annoying, but at least only happens every 2-3-days or so when on the charging cradle. Logitech support has always been extremely responsive and has answered many email questions as well as dealing with the lockup issue. Support is shipping me a new one as a replacement for warranty repair for the lockup issue. I hope to find improved battery life and no more lockup issues. Still, I am still happy with the H900, but the lockups make it feel buggy compared to the stellar One that has never had a problem, but let's hope we can chalk that up to a defective unit.
UPDATE (after 6 months):
Support sent a whole new box with all assessories & battery, not just a remote shell which was nice. The replacement works much better and I haven't had any of the problems from before. It hasn't locked up once, communication mis-fires are back a rare occurence, the battery life seems much better and I don't feel like I am charging it all the time, but still more than my One, but maybe not by much. The screen is back to a clean white backlight instead of a yellow tint on my original that bugged me and I thought made it harder to read, so it looks exactly like my One now. Sync'ing the new remote was incredibly simple, just clicked update and it was synch'd with my same setup as my old one. - Harmony Remote - Touchscreen - Universal Remote - Harmony'
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