Logitech Harmony remote first impressions
So, all in all I guess so far I am disappointed with the new fancy remote I bought a few weeks back. I spent time yesterday aftenoon tinkering with it and getting in programmed just right. It has quite a few flaws in my eyes. It's not ergonomically optimized to manage a PVR for one thing, which is inconvenient, because it's the device I use the most. The buttons are a little too low and make you grab it in an awkward way. I could get over that if it were the only thing, but the configuration process is not good either. You have to always hook it up to a computer to change anything, then use a clumsy interface, then re-flash the remote to transfer all the new instructions. Trouble is the flashing process is less than smooth and it hangs almost every time. You have to kill it, unplug the remote, pull the battery and do it over, then it works. Tsk, tsk. It's been around for a while now, did not expect beta-like bugs. Anway, let's see if I change my mind once I get more used to it. The range is way better than my old Sony Remote Commander, that part is good. But something as simple as making the PVR control the amplifier volume without having to change devices (which is 2 keystrokes minimum) can't be done straight away and you have to go into "learning mode" and send the actual IR key to it while hooked to the computer. Lame.
Anway, we'll see.


