Anyone any experience of using a Logitech Harmony One with the HDR? I'm thinking of getting a Harmony One remote and wondering how it will work with the Hummy.

The Harmony gets good write-ups except that it doesn't have dedicated red / green / yellow / blue keys. As the HDR uses the colour keys quite a lot, is this a big problem or is there a work-around?

I use the Harmony One for all my audio/video stuff including the Humax HDR, it works fine but as you say there are not dedicated colour buttons, but you can customise the remote and I have them on the first page of the LCD screen you can also use the "Activities" button to access them. It does take a bit of setting up to get it exactly how you want it but that's mainly because it offers so much in the way of being customised.

I use an older Harmony 885 with it's colour buttons. It might be worth getting one of these if possible and probably cheaper now. The software is the same.

I have the Harmony ONE, and let me tell you- it's great! It feels so right for the hand- shaped perfectly. The buttons are all in the right place. I have the four colour buttons displayed on the first page of the PVR's screen, and they work a treat. The battery lasts for several days too, and the charge dock is well made, letting the remote sit in it nicely while its charging.

I can't recommend the remote enough. Best remote I ever bought.

Thanks all, these replies are very helpful indeed.

No probs. One thing I forgot to mention- what I really like is the Play/Pause button being nice and big and being placed right in the middle. This makes it extremely easy to find without having to look down at your remote.

It does take a little time to get used to the software (which runs on Mac or PC) which you use to arrange all your buttons. But once you have arranged them and learned the buttons that aren't there (I think I had to tell it to learn the Opt+ button for example) then you don't need to use the software again except for any updates, which doesn't happen often as it already works as it should.

Let us know what you decide on.

It has colours on the softkeys. I have no problems using the Harmony One with my Sky HD box or my Humax 9200 - both of which use colour keys.

As many posters have said over the years - it's the best multi-remote I've ever bought. The only one that has 'just felt right' out of the box. Programming it is a bit klunky but it works and you don't have to do it very often.

Logitech have released two new models, 700 & 900, for the UK Market with the coloured buttons.

Rgds.


Les.

Didn't know that Savvy- thanks for the heads up. Looking at the Logitech website, prices are £99 for the 700 (no touchscreen- buttons at the side of it instead), £299 for the 900 (looks the same as the One, with touchscreen + additional colour buttons), and £169 for the One.
So ok, you have a cheap model with the colour buttons but no touchscreen, or a more expensive model with touchscreen and colour buttons, or a model in between with a touchscreen and "soft" colour buttons (on touchscreen) that is more expensive than the cheaper option, but A LOT cheaper than the 900.
The 900 looks to be the mirror image of the One, except for the additional colour buttons- worth an extra £130?

The 900 also has remote IR "blasters" which it talks to via radio waves, not IR. The blasters are positioned somewhere near your AV boxes (they could even be inside a closed cabinet) so you can control everything without line of sight, even in a room next door. This is very attractive to me, no more kids walking in front of the remote as it's going through a sequence of IR beams to get all the kit in the right modes and thereby being messed up. However it's a lot of money and positioning the blasters could be tricky. The Humax can be a bit sensitive to picking up the IR signals too, so it would likely improve this. I'm waiting for a review and to see how small the blasters are before thinking further about getting one.

Finally, the colour buttons are fundamental to how most of our kit works, be it TV/Freeview/Freesat or games consoles and to get a remote without them would imho be a bad decision. Hope that helps!

You raise a good point Mark. Whereas I have no use for the colour buttons other than with the Humax (it isn't an issue for me to have them as soft buttons), someone such as yourself, who has more devices that use them, might feel more inclined to pay that extra for them.

Hmmm. I thought I was happy with my Harmony One but after looking at the 700 I'm beginning to think that dedicated buttons might be an improvement. At least it'll remove the fingerprints from the screen and it does put them closer to where your fingers rest.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10335332-1.html

Hmmm.

Not so good at getting to activities though. I have six programmed on my H1.

Pity no-one seems to be selling it yet.

The activies are somewhat addressed by the more activities button, which then displays your other less used activities on the colour screen below, so after the first three activies, the next 4 would be two button presses, the following 4 three presses etc. This is based on how my current Harmony works, may have changed but I doubt it.

I always think the dedicated HELP button is a waste, it'd be nice if Logitech gave you the option to program that button as well, perhaps implement the help function via a long press or something in that instance.

The more I look at the 700 the more I am being tempted, the buttons seem better laid out and they've replaced the infrequently used ones (Device, Sound, Picture) with better choices (Skip>, Skip<, Info). I'll wait for a review first!

If your TV lacks discreet "source" codes, or your HDR isn't directly in front of you, the help button is probably the most used after the Activities!