It always makes me chuckle when my wife and I are explaining how to operate the television to the babysitter (on those rare occasions when we get a night out by ourselves).  What should be a simple process of pressing power and changing the channel, has become an exercise in complication.

Well, I should back up here and tell you all that in addition to mobile devices, I love stereo equipment and universal remote controls. So, my system tends to be fairly complex and includes a lot of the latest technology.  This leads to the moment I mentioned above, the look of complete panic — usually it comes immediately after explaining the five step sequence to switch from DVD mode to TV and back.  Make a mistake in the sequence and the whole system could self destruct.  This is usually when the sitter finally tells me, "Just leave the TV on and tune it to such and such channel.  I don’t want to touch anything."  Fortunately, they usually bring a book, anyway.

Really, my system was not always this complicated.  I used to have a few simple components and the Sony Universal Commander.  One of the problems, however, was that I started replacing components and upgrading one piece at a time.  Each time, I would decide that it was really more trouble than it was worth to reprogram the Remote Commander.  Reprogramming universal remotes is a time consuming chore which typically requires you to program each button individually.  Additionally, since my Remote Commander was now over five years old, I realized that many of my newer components had features that it was simply not designed to handle.  So, with each new component, the Remote Commander became less and less integral to my setup, until it eventually controlled nothing except the volume and power…and ultimately nothing at all.

The new mass of remote controls with their cryptically labeled buttons was typically what lead to the look of panic and ultimate submission of even the most hardened baby sitter.  While I could have lived with confusing the baby sitter on a regular basis, I soon realized that my wife was giving me the same look.  So, I determined it was finally time to shop for a new universal remote.  I needed one that could handle all of the latest features, as well as anticipate new features which might be included in my components, regardless of the type, function, or brand.  My search finally landed on the Logitech Harmony 890.  The Harmony 890 promised to be different from my previous remote control relationships.  It claimed a complete mastery of even the most complex systems.  Specifically, I was told to expect simple, one-touch control for each activity, not each device.  I was also told that unlike other universal remotes, setup would be easy and painless, and that its constantly evolving library of devices would always be current with all of the latest and greatest technology.  These are all bold claims.  Would this prove to be the Holy Grail of remote controls that it claimed to be, or would it simply fall flat in the abyss left by the tall tales told by salesmen?  Keep reading to find out how the Logitech Harmony 890 fared in my fickle family.

What’s In The Box: The box contains everything you need to control your entire system, or even your entire household in just minutes.  In addition to the Harmony 890 Advanced Universal Remote Control, you will also receive:

• a charging cradle
• RF Wireless Extender
• USB cable
• 2 AC adaptors
• 4 dual IR emitters
• Lithium Ion rechargeable battery
• Installation CD and user guide

Boy, I am out of breath just talking about the contents of this robust package, let alone setting it up and taking it through its many paces.

 Look and Feel: I have probably tested hundreds of remote controls and universal remote controls.  One thing many of them seem to have in common is the complete lack of thought given to ergonomics.  Often the buttons are sized and arranged in a seemingly haphazard manner, on a slab of plastic with corners that must have been designed to slice through the thin skin of the palm of your hand.  On the other end of the spectrum are remotes which are so large, they require two hands and a pulley system to operate.

The Harmony 890 eschews all of this in favor of a rounded, ergonomic remote control.  Careful thought seems to have been given to the placement and size of the buttons.  Commonly used buttons such as numbers and menus are larger and located under your thumb for easy access.  The less common buttons are further away and smaller, or even tucked into the submenus on the LCD screen. 

The Harmony also features a color LCD screen which helps guide you through your media.  From here, you can simply select an activity (such as Watch DVD) or Device to control by using the buttons on either side of the screen.  I do wish the LCD screen had been a touch screen (the newer Harmony 1000 was the first Harmony remote to feature a touch screen), however, the buttons controlling the on-screen menus are well designed and easy to access and use, so this did not present a significant concern.

Overall, the Harmony is an extremely sleek looking device, which cleverly masks the powerful engine hidden beneath its hood. 

Quick Tour: Let’s take a minute out of the review to take a closer look at the Harmony 890.

Starting at the top of the face, we find the power off button.  This will power off all of your active devices.  Beneath this are the activity and help buttons.  The activities button will display all of your programmed activities, allowing you to select the one you want (more on that later).  The help button activates the Remote Assistant which will guide you through any mishaps with your configuration.

Next, we come to the LCD color screen, which has four buttons on either side.  Use these eight buttons to select options from the menus displayed on the screen.  From here, you can select an activity, device, or scroll through the options for each device.

Beneath the screen, we come to the function buttons.  The two arrows are used to scroll through the pages of various menus.  The glow button activates the screen, as well as the backlight on the buttons.  Device allows you to set the remote to control a specific device, rather than an activity, while Media allows you to quickly access your favorite channels.  Beside these buttons are the mute and previous channel buttons.

Now, we came to the main controls, a four way D-Pad allows you to scroll through any menus your components might display on the TV screen. To the left is the volume control, and the channel buttons are on the right. Up and down scroll arrows located beneath the D-Pad allow further access to on-screen menus.

The next row of buttons allows you to access the menus in your DVD, PVR or TV.  This row features: Menu, Exit, Guide and Info.  I would have liked the List button to be here as well to quickly access the List of recorded channels on my PVR.  Instead, that button is on the screen.

Beneath the Menu Buttons are the media playback buttons.  All of your standard controls can be found here for your VCR, DVD, PVR, Blu-Ray, or any other controllable media.   Finally, we have the number pad, which is set up like any standard 12-key number pad, with the enter button in the bottom right.

On the bottom of the remote is the infrared learning port.  This will be used anytime you need to manually program a function from another remote (which is to say, rarely). 

On top is the USB connector which is used to connect the remote to your computer for programming.  An IR/RF port in this section is used to control your components.

Programming the Remote: The most important feature of a universal remote control is programming it to work with your devices.  Typically, this involves the cumbersome and time consuming activity of holding the two remotes near other, pushing a button on the original and simultaneously pushing the button you wish to program on the universal remote control.  Some remotes make this job a little easier by preprogramming several dozen devices into the remote.

The Logitech Harmony 890 makes programming the remote a simple task.  As long as you can identify the brand name and model number of your devices, then you can quickly and easily program this remote from Logitech’s vast online database. 

Once you have loaded the included software (Windows Vista users will have to download a new update from Logitech’s website) simply plug the Harmony 890 into your computer via the included USB cable.  Then, follow the on-screen wizard through the process of inputting the brand names and model numbers for all of the devices you wish to control with this remote.  The Harmony 890 will walk you through compiling your devices into activities for one-touch operation.

The remote will then allow you to further fine tune how each device interacts with the activity.  This means you can ensure that your receiver is set to TV mode, your TV is set to the proper input, and control any other fine tuning you might need to accomplish.  Once you are done, simply click update remote and all of your settings will be downloaded to the remote control.

I have long admired the Harmony 890 from afar (or as close as Best Buy would let me get without leaving drool marks on the glass display case), and using it proved to be even easier than I had imagined.  Programming the activities functions would likely take hours with another universal remote, if it were possible at all.  With the Harmony 890, it requires nothing more than a few mouse clicks and about a half hour.  The Harmony 890 does all of the heavy lifting for you by downloading all of the settings and controls for your devices from its online database, and configuring the commands to control your equipment and activities. 

Sure, there may still be a little tweaking or fine tuning to do, but that is pretty minimal.  Most of the problems I had fine tuning the remote related to simply finding the right menu to perform the needed action (and, of course, user error).  Still, this was a world apart from manually programming all of those commands. 

Adding Components: Once you have completed the initial setup, what do you do with your universal remote when you need to add or change components?  This is where most universal remotes lose my interest.  Typically, this involves the same cumbersome procedure of manually programming each button to control your new device.  In other words, the remote does not get programmed, and I end up with multiple remotes, which completely defeats the purpose of a universal remote control.

While I was testing the Harmony 890, I upgraded my television from a Sony 27" Trinitron to a 50" Samsung rear projection HDTV (with DLP technology).   Additionally, at the same time, I began having some problems with my DVD recorder and switched from a Samsung back to my old Sony DVD Record/VCR.   

With most universal remotes, these significant changes would have meant big trouble.  Reprogramming would have been a long and tedious process of playing hide-and-seek with the functions.  The Harmony 890, however, proved to be exactly the opposite.  Simply connect the remote to your computer and run the Logitech Harmony software.  From here, you will be taken to a sort of command center where you can add or remove devices, and control the activities.  I was quickly able to add the new TV and DVD, remove the old ones, and then update the activities to control the appropriate components.  All of this took minutes and was as easy as the initial programming.  With the Logitech Harmony, I no longer have any excuse for failing to keep the remote up to date. 

Activities vs Devices: Already throughout this review, you have probably noticed my extensive reference to activities and devices.  These are the two primary methods through which the Harmony 890 will interact with your equipment.  First, you can control individual devices.  This allows you to manually change settings as necessary on the fly.  This works in the same manner as any other universal remote control.  When you select a particular device, the controls for that device will be activated and displayed.

The truly revolutionary feature of the Harmony 890, however, are the activity buttons (to be fair, this feature has actually been a staple of the Harmony line of remotes for several generations).  The activity buttons allow one-touch operation of your components based upon your usage patterns.  Simply push the button corresponding to the activity to wish to perform (Watch TV, Watch DVD), and it will automatically configure your system for that activity, even pushing play, dimming the lights and closing the blinds.  In other words, if you want to watch a DVD movie, push the "Watch DVD" button and your system will:

• power on the TV
• power on the DVD
• power on your stereo receiver
• switch the receiver to DVD mode
• set TV to appropriate input and settings
• dim the lights
• close the blinds
• begin playing the DVD

All of that occurs with the press of a single button.  Compare this to any other universal remote control (or worse a system with multiple remotes) where you must manually turn on each component and adjust all of the settings individually; not to mention finding the correct remote to begin with.  Heck, if your microwave had a remote, the Harmony could probably make the popcorn for you, but I have yet to find a microwave that could handle the Harmony 890, so you’ll just have to do that yourself. 

You can even design your own custom activity.  Want to watch the images from a DVD slide show while music from a CD plays in the background?  That sounds pretty complicated.  You would have to set the receiver to ..wait, no…hang on, yeah…OK, I think I …hang on…EXACTLY!  With the Harmony, 890, even these complicated tasks can be easily programmed and executed with touch of a single button. 

Smart State Technology: One of the questions I had when I started testing the Harmony is whether the remote would become easily confused by live switching from one activity to another.  In other words, what would happen if I was watching TV and wanted to switch to a DVD.  Would it send a power signal to the TV and Receiver, meaning those components would be turned off?  Such confusion and constant shuffling to reset the controls would create obvious confusion and deter even the most savvy viewer from using this remote for long.

The answer to these questions is Logitech’s Smart State Technology.  Smart State Technology allows the remote to track the status of every component under its control.  It is essentially the guts of the remote which allow it to understand and control the complexities of your system.

Such monitoring of your components allows the remote to switch from one activity to the next on the fly.  When you switch from watching TV to watching a DVD, the remote analyzes the status of each component and ensures that each are ideally setup for the new activity.  In other words, the Smart State Technology ensures that your TV will not be sent a power off signal when you are switching from an activity that also requires the TV to be turned on to a second activity that requires the TV to be turned on.  This intuitive design means that the Harmony is not only the easiest remote to program, but also the easiest to use.  Even my four year old has figured out how to switch from watching TV to watching a DVD.  

IR/RF Wireless: Most audio-visual components are controlled via infrared (IR)waves sent from a remote control.  This works well, as long as the remote is in the line of sight with the device, aimed directly at it, and has no obstacles blocking its path.  In other words, IR, like other forms of light waves is directional in nature and is easily blocked by obstacles.  This is a problem which plagues many universal remote controls.  If the remote is not immediately in front of the IR port on the device, it simply will not work.

The Harmony line of remote controls solves this problem by sending both an IR and an RF signal.  RF waves are not direction, and will not be blocked by obstacles.  In fact, they can be used to control any devices within their range, even if they are behind you or in another room.  The Harmony 890 send an RF signal utilizing the Z-Wave network.  Although RF waves are similar to those used by cordless phones and wireless networks, the Z Wave network operates at 900 MHz, so as not to interfere with the 2.4 GHz networks used by other devices in your home.

The question you are probably asking yourself now is how can this possibly work?  The remote sends an RF signal, but the component is controlled by IR.  Well, that is where the RF Wireless Extender (seen above) comes in handy.  The RF Wireless Extender is positioned near your equipment.  It will receive the RF signal,  and translate it back into an IR signal which your components can understand.  Essentially, it acts as a bridge between your remote and components.  The RF Wireless Extender can control up to eight components at a time. 

If you still do not feel you are getting a clear signal, the RF Wireless Extender includes eight IR "blaster nodes".  Just plug one into the back of the RF Wireless Extender and attach the emitter so it is facing (or immediately on top of) the IR port on your component.  These blaster nodes allow easy and flexible control of your entire system, even if all of your components are not in the line of sight of your RF Wireless Extender.

HDTV: I just bought a new HDTV (Samsung 50" rear projection LCD TV with DLP and LED color controls).  I love my new TV, but let me tell you, all of the stories you have heard about how complicated it can be are true.  Not that it is difficult to setup or control, just complicated.  I need a 4:3 ratio picture for certain activities, and a 16:9 picture for others.  When I watch a DVD or DirectTV, I want the HDMI on, however, for other activities, I need to use the components cable.  Switching between all of these different settings can become an exercise in futility, as I hunt for the remote control while listening with no picture as I desperately try to reset the input or resize the screen. 

With the Harmony, this is not a problem at all.  When you set up an activity, simply tell it which input you want, or which settings you will need.  These are all programmed into the activity so they will be controlled (say it with me) with the push of a single button.  Press the Watch DVD button, and watch your HDTV automatically switch to HDMI mode.  Press Watch VCR and watch it switch back to Component In.

Power and Charging: One of the biggest complaints I hear about universal remotes is that they eat up batteries.  These things are power starved and not afraid to show it.  It seems like my old remote was constantly low on batteries.

The Harmony has solved this problem by including a 980mAh rechargeable battery.  Simply leave it in the cradle overnight and wake up to a fully charged and ready to go remote.  An indicator on the LCD screen will let you know how much battery life is left in the remote. 

A word on the cradle, it lies on the table with the remote sitting on top of it horizontally.  This is different from other remotes I have seen where the remote stands in the cradle like a cordless phone.  At first, I was leery of this design, thinking the nodes would be constantly bumped, resulting in an improper charge.  This did not prove to be the case, however.  Once in the cradle, the Harmony maintained a solid connection and received a full charge every time.

Customization and Themes: As I mentioned earlier, the Harmony 890 features a full color LCD screen.  What I did not mention is that, like a Smartphone, this screen is fully customizable to match your personality.  This customization is like the bonus material on a DVD movie.  Most people will never use it, but for those who do, it is truly rewarding. 

If I told you that you could change the fonts and colors of the text, you probably would not be too impressed, so I won’t tell you about that.  Switching the font and text colors, however, are only the proverbial tip of the iceberg when it comes to customizing this remote.  So, let’s just see what else we can do.  How about choosing a new background?  By default, the background is set to the blue Harmony background.  Not terribly interesting or personal.  You can customize it by replacing the background image with any .png, .bmp, .jpg, or .gif (up to 160 KB) image on your computer.

OK, here comes the infomercial part, but that’s not all…You might notice, when you put the Harmony into the cradle, a short slide show begins to play.  I think you know where I am going with this.  That slide show can be replaced with any images on you desktop computer.

I am sure I am leaving out some of the other options which you can customize.  So, I will only say that everything you see can be reconfigured from the screen to the buttons.  My advice is to plug it into your computer and play around with all of the options.  Like a new BMW, you won’t know what this baby can do until you slip into the driver’s seat.

Conclusion: I spent a lot of time trying to come up with the perfect conclusion for this review.  I wanted to avoid saying something cheesy like, "This is the best and easiest to program universal remote I have ever seen."  So, I asked my wife what she thought.  My wife, who hates gadgets almost as much as I love them, said, "This is the best and easiest to program remote I have ever seen."  Well, OK maybe she didn’t say it was easy to program, but she would have if I had not raced across the room to program it myself.  I can tell you that my wife, who always used to complain that our system was too complicated, has commented repeatedly on how much she loves the one touch control, and how easy it is to find things.  She loves it, and your wife will too.  Isn’t that what is really important here, guys?

Vital Statistics:

Name: Logitech Harmony 890 Universal Remote Control

Manufacturer: Logitech

Where to Buy: Logitech Harmony website

Price: $399.99

Technorati Tags: logitech harmony 890 – remote control – just another mobile monday

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