( 120 reviews )
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Posted: 08-05-2009
As an update for those of you considering this model (assuming it's being clearanced by some retailers) or the newer one, I want to warn you that my 1000 died after about 16 months. Which is of course, convenient, given the 12 month warranty period. All-in-all it was a good remote while it lasted, though casual users will be confused at first given the lack of physical buttons. Once you're used to it though, the touchscreen is great. I just feel that for an MSRP of 500 it should have lasted a bit longer... Ah well. Customer support is helpful, and the product does what's advertised. Now if only I could find a way to lease one for a year...
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Posted: 08-01-2009
The Logitech Harmony 1000 totally fails. (1) It is incredibly hard to set up. The Logitech computer software is clunky and simple-minded, the Logitech "expert" server is buggy and ill-informed. For just three items (a new Samsung LCD TV, a new Yamaha receiver/amp/speakers, and a new Oppo DVD player) it took me several days of experimentation and programming (and I've been a professional computer programmer for years). A simple task such as "Play a DVD"--turn on all three devices, play DVD through Yamaha to the TV screen--could never be set up successfully. (2) It is infuriatingly hard to use. Even when programmed correctly, it is perpetually making mistakes which take many steps to correct. Worse, it offers very limited control of devices--so you have to get your original device remotes out all the time to handle specialized functions. (3) It is very hard to get help. Logitech's service is very poor, which is understandable since they would be inundated by customers with problems using such a poor product. (4) It is always out of date. The Logitech "database" which is supposed to have instructions for all devices is very spotty, and full of errors. New devices are not there yet, so perhaps you can find an older model and try to adapt it. Older devices get confused with newer model numbers, so that instructions for older devices are lost. (My Yamaha Y-4000, $1800 "digital sound projector", seems to have been displaced in their database by a Yamaha iPod dock!) Everything about this product is badly designed to produce maximum confusion. There are other minor problems, such as that the remote fits badly on its recharging dock, and if it is slightly displaced so it doesn't recharge, it totally dies. When my unit suddenly became completely inoperable (like a brick) just 13 months after buying from Amazon, I logged onto Logitech's website to find out that I would have to pay for a service contract to get any support at all. The unbelieveably high price for the Harmony 1000 just makes it even clearer that this is one product no one should buy. The product CONCEPT is a good one--who wouldn't want a single remote to control a complex media system?--but the Logitech product is unable to come close to delivering. (Amazon reviews of the very-similar successor Logitech Harmony 1100 remote suggest that it still has pretty much the same problems.)
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Posted: 07-14-2009
Unlike what several reviewers say, you can in fact make it work with a Mac if you use your head a little. However, they ought to put a reset button somewhere on the outside of the bloody thing. It freezes every so often, just like a peecee, so you have to pop the battery out and wait for the idiotic thing to go through it's lengthy startup procedure every time this happens. (What on earth can it be doing during that?) You sure can tell whenever Windows is involved. (The blasted thing has some version or other of Windows CE inside it.)
