Some reviewers have said that you just need to take time to do the programming properly. Even if you do, in my case it’s just easier to juggle my 3 remotes and press ONE button to do what it would take with SEVERAL key presses on the Harmony.

My Harmony is now going to sit with the other remotes I never use and I’ll just stick to the 3 that work for me.
Rating: 1 / 5

We probably all know that any universal remote, especially those controlling multiple devices, is going to be a challenge to program. No, I’m not a luddite. I’m very technically proficient.

The manual is incomprehensible and does not match the actual device. For example, for one of the steps to use the device, the manual tells the user to click on “Remote Preferences.” There is no such button in their software. That’s just an example.

And then, there’s the kind of important section on “Controlling a Device With the RF Wireless Extender.” Kind of basic. The manual tells you what it does, but doesn’t give you a clue on how to set this option. That’s just another example.

I tried calling Tech Support. Guess what? They wanted more than $100 to talk to me. They thought my 90 days was up; it wasn’t and they wouldn’t correct their error.

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Note: I posted the paragraphs above several days ago. I received some flack from people who appear to like the device. I believe they are well-intentioned; however, I just found out two more things about it that any customer should be aware of.

1. Some devices (such as a TV and a DVD Player) communicate with each other. Let’s say you use the Harmony to eject a DVD. Well, the DVD player MAY tell the TV to turn on. If you have some devices behind closed doors, you may not know what got turned on or off or what to do about it. Furthermore, this gets the devices out of synchronization. The Harmony doesn’t know what’s on and what’s off. A nuisance but a problem.

2. I doubt that many people know this: When you use the Harmony software to program your remote, it leaves a Process running in the background on your computer. Even after you exit! Why? There’s no reason for it. On my computer it takes 25 Megabytes. It’s a bad idea and I don’t think anyone really wants an unnecessary process running that may communicate over the Internet running in the background on their computers.

I think Harmony is trying to provide a reasonble product. But this is a tough problem to solve…that is, coordinating amony many dissimilar devices. Harmony hasn’t solved it … or worse.

Rating: 2 / 5