January 2005 Reviewed by Jeff Van Dyne	Logitech Harmony 688 Universal Remote Control

Description Model: Harmony 688 Price: $249 USD Dimensions: 8.1"L x 2.3"W x 1.3"D Weight: 5.8 ounces Warranty: 366-day repair/exchange for factory assembly defects only Features Full control of all brands and devices Backlit LCD (84 x 48 pixels)	Features (cont'd) Dedicated buttons designed for digital video recorders 56 top-mounted hard buttons Page buttons for onscreen guide navigation Four one-touch activity buttons 4 AAA batteries included No macro programming required 2MB nonvolatile flash memory Backlighting Free TV listings for two months Metallic silver and gun-metal black finishes available

My quest for the perfect remote control has taken me in many directions. I’ve tried everything from the lowliest $15 remote to the very expensive and complex Pronto TSU3000. All have had some design feature or capability that I liked. However, from the lack of learning features on the cheap remotes to the size of the ungainly Pronto, none has been without one or more major flaws.

When I first heard about the Logitech Harmony 688 ($249), I’d just finished my second complete reprogramming of the Pronto, a tedious and time-consuming process. In stark contrast, Harmony promised quick and relatively pain-free programming via a wizard on the company’s website. Had they not, I’m not sure I’d have accepted the assignment to review the 688.

How it feels

Physically, the Harmony is one of the most sleek, compact universal remotes I’ve seen. Its neatly sculpted shape falls easily into the hand; it’s possibly the most comfortable remote I’ve ever had to handle. Even my relatively small hands can wrap completely around it, which made it easy to slide one hand up to the small LCD screen at the top, or down to the number pad at the bottom. Afterward, my hand would fall naturally back to the narrow, central portion of the remote. The overall design is easily one of the most user-friendly for small hands that I’ve yet encountered.

The 688’s layout is a small step removed from that of conventional universal remotes. The fairly conventional middle of the remote contains a small cursor pad for menu navigation with a large OK button at its center. Directly below that is a Glow button, for turning on and off the remote’s cool blue backlight. Above the cursor pad is the Media button, which cycles the LCD display through its Command, Guide, and Favorite Channel modes. Command allows the creation of custom buttons to handle those odd buttons that never seem to match on a universal remote. Guide displays program listings that can be downloaded from the Harmony website. (The listings can be subscribed to for an additional fee; the first two months are free.) Finally, Favorite Channel stores a list of favorite channels that the user can scroll through and select from.

Surrounding the cursor pad is an oval arrangement of buttons: Volume, Channel, Mute, Previous Channel, Chapter Skip, and Satellite/PVR Guide and Info. Above this is the three-line, six-button LCD pad, and above that is a row of activity keys: Play Video, Play Music, Watch TV, Watch DVD, and More. These activate the system and put everything in the proper mode for that particular activity. For activities other than the four listed, pressing More brings up the full list on the LCD screen.

At the very top of the 688 are an Off button to turn off everything in the system, and a Help key. At the bottom are five rows of keys arrayed in shallow arcs. The first arc contains the remaining transport keys for control of DVD, CD, and tape players. The bottom four arcs are a numeric keypad.

Still, like all other remotes, the Harmony 688 is a series of ergonomic compromises. If you make a remote large, with lots of big, easy-to-identify keys, it becomes heavy and awkward to hold, and those with small hands aren’t able to comfortably reach all the keys. This has been solved in the 688 by squeezing a full universal remote into a comfortably small package, partly by eliminating odd buttons via the customizable LCD panel, partly by downsizing all the hard keys. Of course, all of this compactness then becomes a disadvantage for the large-handed, who may find one of the larger Harmony remotes a better match. But even my small hands found the keys in the oval ring spaced so closely that it took me a while to identify by feel the Mute, Guide, and Previous Channel buttons. I did get used to the arrangement, which became almost second nature, but I’d still prefer a bit more space between the keys.

How it works

The Harmony 688 is an activity-based remote control: Select an activity, such as Watch DVD, from a series of buttons on the 688’s top, and it then runs a macro to set up your system for that activity. The trick is that the Harmony can do this regardless of the current status of your home theater. Most remotes can perform macro functions based on a single predefined state -- usually, the entire system must be turned off. The Harmony remotes are different in that they track what actions have already been performed -- at any point, the remote knows the current state of each component in your system. For example, if your TV and receiver are already turned on because you’ve been watching a videotape, the Harmony then skips the steps to turn these components on, turns the VCR off, turns the DVD player on, and switches the TV and receiver to the appropriate inputs. It’s pretty slick. And it works.

The programming process is surprisingly simple. First, write down a list of all of your components, including their model numbers. Install the software on your computer, then plug the Harmony 688 into your computer with the provided USB cable. Then go to Harmony’s website, register your remote, and create an account. After this, a setup wizard will tell you how to program your components into the 688. Once that’s done, the new configuration is downloaded to the remote and it’s ready for use. It’s that simple. The whole process takes about 30 minutes.

That doesn’t guarantee that the 688 will function perfectly on the first try, but in my case it came surprisingly close. I suggest you use the 688 for a while, making notes of things you’d like to change, including moving various functions from one key to another, adding special keys to the LCD commands, and learning the odd unprogrammed key from an original remote. Then make another trip to the computer for a short customizing session. This part is somewhat less intuitive than the initial setup -- I had to hunt around for a couple of things -- but it was still relatively painless, and took only about 15 minutes. Considering the 688’s high level of functionality, I was very impressed by the speed and ease with which it could be made fully functional. If you can install simple software on your PC and answer a survey on the Web, odds are you can program this remote.

Simple is as simple does

Once the Harmony 688 was fully programmed, its Activity functions worked exceptionally well. Within seconds of my pressing Watch DVD, my home theater was set up to watch a DVD. For many people, having a remote that can turn on and set up a complex home theater for operation with a single push of a button will seem little short of miraculous. If you want to improve the spousal acceptance factor of your theater, trust me -- the 688 will win you huge points. I have a few caveats, however.

First, the 688 has a smaller window of operation than some remotes; it performed poorly when not pointed toward the equipment or when something obstructed the signal. If this happens while one of the activity macros is running, the remote will likely go out of sync with one or more of the system’s components. The remote will then think, for example, that the TV is on when it is actually off, and will turn it on when it should be turning it off. Harmony has anticipated this possibility: You hit the Help key, answer the questions that appear on the LCD display, and the remote corrects itself. You can also just get up and correct the errant component manually.

Second, if your components are in, say, two different locations, the 688 will have a hard time controlling both at once. The solution is to move the components closer together, or to buy a remote blaster that can send commands from the primary location to another. Finally, once you’ve pressed the Harmony into service, you’ll need to put away all your other remotes: their continued use will keep knocking the 688 out of sync.

Tough competition

I’ve had two remotes in the house for some time that I use in the same space as the Harmony 688. The Home Theater Master MX-500, an older model that’s still available, was HTM’s first remote that mixed hard buttons with an LCD display. At $150, the MX-500 is the most ergonomically friendly of these remotes in the dark, with large keys that are logically laid out and easy to identify by touch. However, the MX-500 is on the large side for a hard-button remote, and the LCD panel adds considerably to its bulk. People with smaller hands will find all but the center section of the MX-500 difficult to operate one-handed. Nor is the MX-500 an activity-based remote -- it can’t track the status of the components in your system. You have to turn everything on one component at a time, or run a macro starting with everything turned off. The MX-500 is a fine remote for those who know their systems well, but probably won’t be much help to those who don’t.

The Pronto TSU3000 is probably the ultimate in customizable remotes for under $500. Its fully programmable LCD display makes it possible to tailor virtually every function of every "button" to the user’s preference. I was able to make the Pronto approximate an activity-based remote by finding all of the discrete power and input-selection codes for each of my components. In contrast to the Harmony 688, the Pronto uses the brute-force method of turning each component on or off by activity, regardless of the current status of the component. It works, though you need the right codes for each of your components.

The Pronto TSU3000’s downside is poor ergonomics. It’s big, which makes it largely a two-handed remote. Plus, the lack of hard buttons for all but a handful of functions means that many operations must be done while looking at the remote. Further, programming the Pronto is amazingly time-consuming, which will render it useless to those whose VCRs are still flashing "12:00." This TSU3000 is the remote for those who want complete customization and are willing to do the setup work to attain it.

The Harmony 688 is the remote for everyone else. Its activity-based design makes operation of complex home theaters a snap. While not as powerful as the full programmability of the Pronto remotes, the Harmony managed to get most of the way there with a fraction of the effort.

The envelope please

In my book, the Logitech Harmony 688 is a clear winner and an easy recommendation. While not the perfect answer ergonomically, it’s not far off either. As an activity-based remote, it’s guaranteed to impress your spouse, family, and friends with how easy it makes the operation of your entire home theater. Add to this the relative ease with which it can be programmed, and there’s little else on the market that competes.

If, like me, you need a remote that makes the operation of your theater simple and straightforward not only for you, but for the rest of your family as well, the Harmony 688 deserves a close look.

Manufacturer contact information:

Logitech Inc. Corporate Headquarters
6505 Kaiser Drive
Fremont, CA 94555 USA
Phone: (510) 795-8500

Website: www.logitech.com/harmony

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