WELA electronic SST-688 Remote Control
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- Type: Universal
- Broadcasting Type: IR
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Great concept, works well.... however a few improvements would make it awesome!
Pros
-Completely configurable -"Activity" based functionality great concept -CD Jukebox functionality sold me
Cons
-Buttons too small -A heavier build would make it seem more valuable
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
I would recommend the Harmony 688 to anyone who likes keeping things simple, but who has the technical ability to program the remote properly to justify it's cost.
With skepticism I purchased one of these after reading many online reviews each with varying degree's of product satisfaction. As with many products it's not uncommon to have polar opposite opinions from consumer reviews making decision making more difficult.
I purchased the Harmony 688 Universal Remote with the intention: if I'm not completely satisfied with the remote after a trial period I would return it. I Kept it!
Here's why:
The remote is advertised as a universal remote to replace all, an Internet configurable remote that can easily be set up and operated by the most un-technical in nature. I think that may be a stretch, but for the more technical savvy, you can basically get as much as you want out of this remote. The remote is not conventional in nature as programmable remotes go. You do not enter manufactures codes, then teach the remote additional missing IR commands (although you can), you configure the remote using the Harmony site by selecting your devices from their online up-to-date database, and selecting desired "Activities" to perform with the remote, for the most part that online utility configures the rest.
The process of initial set up went something like this for me: Install the software, install the batteries, log on to the Harmony Site, Create an account, configure my initial devices, and initial "Activities", load them to the remote and test. It worked, but I had a lot of tweaking to go.
To give you an idea of the "Activity" based operation, considering the following comparison of buttons to push on my Anthem AVM20 universal remote, compared to the Harmony 688 for a function such as watching a DVD.
Anthem AVM20 Universal:
-Press Main
-Press Power (this turned on my preamp)
-Press DVD (to select DVD as input)
-Press DVD
-Press Power (this turned on my DVD)
-Press TV
-Press Power (this turned on my TV)
-Press Input 6 times (this switched my TV to Video 6 HDD)
-Press DVD (to switch back to DVD functionality)
.... system ready to go at this point, 14 clicks later
With the configured Harmony 688:
-Press "Watch a DVD"
.... system ready to go, the series of commands to do all of the above steps is all preconfigured online then loaded into the remote through USB connectivity. 1 click.
The attractiveness of this "Activity" based functionality becomes more attractive the move "Activities" you wish to have. In my Home Theater set up, my programmed activities are as follows"
-Watch Video
-Listen to Music
-Watch TV
-Watch a DVD
-Play PS2
-Play XBox
-Listen to Radio
This comparison alone though does not necessarily do justice to the real benefits of the Harmony 688, because in reality although I saved myself a ton of button pushing, this alone does not add any additional functionality to what I had previously and at this point although COOL, I wasn't sold, and I hadn't justified the cost.
Here's what sold me, the unadvertised benefit of the Harmony 688. CD Jukebox and TV Guide/favorite channel guide. Let me explain; As part of my system, I have a Sony 400 disc CD changer. Currently to reference these CD's I use an excel spreadsheet listing the Artist, Album and Disc slot in my changer. To play a CD using my remote, I browse my hardcopy spreadsheet, click "disc select" and punch in the disc number. The Harmony remote (and I did not see this feature anywhere on the web site, nor on the product package) can have my CD collection uploaded through the configuration web site as a .csv file directly to the remote!!!! Now to play a CD, I click "Media" it displays on it's LCD screen the Artist's categorized in four groupings alphabetically, then down to the actual album names, when I find the one I want, click it and viola... the changer spins around and plays. I absolutely love this feature. This same technology is used for listing TV programming and Favorite TV channels when watching TV. During the online set up, you enter your cable TV provider, the package you subsrcibe to then select your favorite TV channels and all the programming info is also loaded to the Harmony 688. In my case it's about 290 television channels and 20 favorites.
This CD functionality, TV programming combined with the activity based usage of the remote sold me. I'm keeping it and I'm quite happy with it.
To get the remote working the way I wanted required quite a bit of tweaking, when all was said and done I probably spent 4 hours tweaking device by device, activity by activity, including signal send times and all other configurations.
I'll briefly say that in order to make this a truly awesome remote Harmony should beef up the build of the unit, and space out the buttons, making them larger. For me and my wife it's manageable, but for people with larger hands I can see this being a serious drawback to the design.
I purchased the Harmony 688 Universal Remote with the intention: if I'm not completely satisfied with the remote after a trial period I would return it. I Kept it!
Here's why:
The remote is advertised as a universal remote to replace all, an Internet configurable remote that can easily be set up and operated by the most un-technical in nature. I think that may be a stretch, but for the more technical savvy, you can basically get as much as you want out of this remote. The remote is not conventional in nature as programmable remotes go. You do not enter manufactures codes, then teach the remote additional missing IR commands (although you can), you configure the remote using the Harmony site by selecting your devices from their online up-to-date database, and selecting desired "Activities" to perform with the remote, for the most part that online utility configures the rest.
The process of initial set up went something like this for me: Install the software, install the batteries, log on to the Harmony Site, Create an account, configure my initial devices, and initial "Activities", load them to the remote and test. It worked, but I had a lot of tweaking to go.
To give you an idea of the "Activity" based operation, considering the following comparison of buttons to push on my Anthem AVM20 universal remote, compared to the Harmony 688 for a function such as watching a DVD.
Anthem AVM20 Universal:
-Press Main
-Press Power (this turned on my preamp)
-Press DVD (to select DVD as input)
-Press DVD
-Press Power (this turned on my DVD)
-Press TV
-Press Power (this turned on my TV)
-Press Input 6 times (this switched my TV to Video 6 HDD)
-Press DVD (to switch back to DVD functionality)
.... system ready to go at this point, 14 clicks later
With the configured Harmony 688:
-Press "Watch a DVD"
.... system ready to go, the series of commands to do all of the above steps is all preconfigured online then loaded into the remote through USB connectivity. 1 click.
The attractiveness of this "Activity" based functionality becomes more attractive the move "Activities" you wish to have. In my Home Theater set up, my programmed activities are as follows"
-Watch Video
-Listen to Music
-Watch TV
-Watch a DVD
-Play PS2
-Play XBox
-Listen to Radio
This comparison alone though does not necessarily do justice to the real benefits of the Harmony 688, because in reality although I saved myself a ton of button pushing, this alone does not add any additional functionality to what I had previously and at this point although COOL, I wasn't sold, and I hadn't justified the cost.
Here's what sold me, the unadvertised benefit of the Harmony 688. CD Jukebox and TV Guide/favorite channel guide. Let me explain; As part of my system, I have a Sony 400 disc CD changer. Currently to reference these CD's I use an excel spreadsheet listing the Artist, Album and Disc slot in my changer. To play a CD using my remote, I browse my hardcopy spreadsheet, click "disc select" and punch in the disc number. The Harmony remote (and I did not see this feature anywhere on the web site, nor on the product package) can have my CD collection uploaded through the configuration web site as a .csv file directly to the remote!!!! Now to play a CD, I click "Media" it displays on it's LCD screen the Artist's categorized in four groupings alphabetically, then down to the actual album names, when I find the one I want, click it and viola... the changer spins around and plays. I absolutely love this feature. This same technology is used for listing TV programming and Favorite TV channels when watching TV. During the online set up, you enter your cable TV provider, the package you subsrcibe to then select your favorite TV channels and all the programming info is also loaded to the Harmony 688. In my case it's about 290 television channels and 20 favorites.
This CD functionality, TV programming combined with the activity based usage of the remote sold me. I'm keeping it and I'm quite happy with it.
To get the remote working the way I wanted required quite a bit of tweaking, when all was said and done I probably spent 4 hours tweaking device by device, activity by activity, including signal send times and all other configurations.
I'll briefly say that in order to make this a truly awesome remote Harmony should beef up the build of the unit, and space out the buttons, making them larger. For me and my wife it's manageable, but for people with larger hands I can see this being a serious drawback to the design.
