Introduction

I’ve been using Sony branded universal remote controls for well over five years now. My current home model is a Sony Integrated Remote Commander Model RM-AV3000 and it certainly served us well for over two years. However as my home theater grew and became more complex, the Sony remote control quickly became outdated. It was time for a change and I decided to check out the latest Logitech Harmony remote control - the Harmony Advanced Universal Remote for Xbox 360. Why this particular model you might ask? Well it’s the only remote control that specifically supports the new Xbox 360 console (which I own) AND nearly every other home theater component out there. So join me today as I take a look at the new Logitech Harmony Advanced Universal Remote for Xbox 360.

Features

First off, this Harmony Remote doesn’t come with a model number of any sort. It’s only known as the Harmony Advanced Universal Remote for Xbox 360. There are four major features found on the remote:

  • Simple One Touch Activity Control – You can control your entire home theater system including the Xbox 360 using user defined preset activities such as “Watch My TV”, and “Watch a DVD”. Each activity is actually a macro of events that get fired by the remote control to access different components in your home theater setup.
  • Built for Xbox 360 – includes all the important controls for the Xbox 360 game console including the Y, X, A, V functions and Windows XP Media Center PC controls
  • Controls Your Devices – Past, Present, and Future – You can control up to 12 devices with this remote using information stored on Logitech’s online database which includes well over 3000 manufacturers and over 100,000 IR devices. If you own it, chances are Logitech knows about it.
  • Easy to Set-up – The remote is extremely easy to set up using the Logitech Harmony setup wizard. Simply connect the remote to the PC and answer the wizards’ questions

Other features on the Harmony Advanced Universal Remote for Xbox 360 include:

  • Fully backlit keypad – press any button and the keypad glows a cool green making it easy to see the remote’s buttons and display in the dark.
  • Learning port – just in case you can’t find the remote you want to emulate, you can always program the Harmony remote using the learning port located on the bottom of the remote control.
  • Interactive Display – The display is a cinch to read – providing useful and intuitive information to the casual user.
  • Help button – a simple touch of this button will lead you through simple troubleshooting techniques to solver your problems

System Requirements

The Harmony Advanced Universal Remote for the Xbox 360 has the following system requirements:

  • Either a Windows 98, 2000, Me, XP or Mac OS X 10.2 system
  • USB port
  • CD-ROM drive
  • Internet access
  • 10 MB of free hard drive space

Overview

The package contains:

  • Logitech Harmony Advanced Universal Remote for Xbox 360
  • USB Cable
  • Installation CD
  • Installation Guide
  • 4 AAA batteries

Here’s a picture of the packaging – front and back.

Let’s take a look at the contents:

Finally, let’s look at the front of the remote.

The top of the remote has the Activities button, the devices button and the help button.

Below these buttons, you’ll find the Harmony display and two buttons to the left and right of the display which can be used to select items on the display. There are also two buttons below the display which are used to flip through pages on the screen.

Below the display are the standard controls for navigating content – stop, rewind, fast forward, play, record etc. You’ll also find the row of four specific Xbox 360 buttons nicely color coded to match the console’s controller buttons.

Four other buttons lie below which offer Exit, Menu, Back, and Info selections. The Back and Info are particularly useful for the Xbox 360 and the Microsoft Media Center PC user interface.

Finally you’ll come to the navigation buttons which are surrounded by volume controls on the left and channel controls on the left.

There’s a mute and a prev button below the navigational controls followed by the numeric keypad. Finally, you’ll see Clear, Display, Title, and Enter – useful short cut keys for DVD players and Cable boxes.

When you view the Harmony remote from the side, you’ll notice that the bottom of the remote is thicker than the top. This shift in weight translates to a very comfortable feel when using the remote on a daily basis. You simply grab the remote and it feels right at home in your hand.

The top of the remote is the IR transmitter and the USB port connector.

The port is hidden underneath a rubber covering to prevent dust from getting in. Having the port up on the top seems a bit odd but it doesn’t affect daily usage. I would have expected the port to be on the bottom of the remote next to the Learning port.

Setting Up

Before you can begin using the Logitech Harmony Advanced Universal Remote for Xbox 360, you’ll need to set it up first to work with all of your components. The first step is to install the Logitech software that comes with the remote control onto your PC. You’ll also need an available USB port and a connection to the Internet.

You then connect the Harmony remote control to your PC via the included USB cable. Windows will install the Logitech device drivers and you’ll be ready to program the remote. Before you can go on, it’s important to catalog all of your home theater equipment. You should get the make and model numbers of all of the equipment that you plan on using with the remote control. Bring along the original remote controls too if you still have them. In the rare case that Logitech doesn’t have your component, you could always have it learn the command codes for your equipment.

Once you have your equipment information, you can begin to program the remote. There are basically two steps to programming the Harmony remote (although the actual setup wizard states 5 distinct steps but it boils down to these two). Step 1 is to identify all of the devices that the remote will control and Step 2 is to identify Activities that the remote will manage. Activities are basically command macros to control one or more devices in your home theater setup. An example of this is watching TV with your Windows Media Center PC. You would first turn on the Television set, set the proper input channel, turn on the receiver, set up the proper inputs and then switch to My TV on Windows Media Center.

The installation process is governed by a software wizard program which directly connects to the Logitech website for equipment information. What this means is - your remote control can always be programmed to control the latest equipment thanks to up to date online information from Logitech. The wizard steps you through five different steps to program the remote - front connecting the remote, to identifying the devices, to figuring out activities and programming the remote.

Here are snapshots of the setup wizard process when it comes to identifying devices.

Here are snapshots of the setup wizard process when it comes to setting up activities.

Setting up activities will be the central aspect of the Harmony remote control. The complication with today’s home theater setup is the myriad of devices that a person may have in any given home. To perform a simple task of watching television, one may have to turn on 2-3 devices and set up the proper connections. Logitech’s Harmony remotes are designed to help simplify this process and make it nearly brainless.

Based on the devices that you’ve set up on the Harmony, the set up process will try and figure out what commands to assign for a given activity. Some of the activities on my remote control include “My TV”, “Listen to My Music”, “Watch DVD”, and “Play Xbox 360″. Every activity is a combination of many different commands being sent to a wide variety of devices in my home theater.

Depending on your equipment, the setup process can go smoothly or can be a bit complicated. An example of this would be people who have Windows Media Center PCs or even set top cable boxes. The Harmony remote control is a stateful remote - meaning it keeps track of the current state of all your devices based on what commands it has already sent out. What does this mean? If the remote had to turn on a device to make an activity function, then it will know to turn it off when another activity is started. Of course if you decide to press the general off button on the remote, it will turn off all known devices that are on.

However, certain devices should probably never be turned off - case in point - the Windows Media Center PC or your favorite DVR component which would probably also depend on your cable box being active. In order to support some of these more complicated setups, you can go into the Logitech setup wizard and customize the device options to tell the remote to never turn on or off equipment. Pretty nifty although somewhat complicated for the average joe if you ask me.

There are other setup customizations that you can perform. If you’re not happy with the rate that commands are sent out by the remote control, you can change them and make them shorter. When setting up activities, you can manually change which buttons on the Harmony remote are assigned to which component.

Once you’re satisified with your setup, the Logitech setup application will program your remote control over the USB connection. When the programming is finished, you’re ready to use the remote.

Using the remote

As I mentioned earlier, the Logitech Harmony Advanced Universal Remote has an excellent feel to it. You can control the entire remote using one hand and it won’t weigh your hand down either. The lower half of the remote has more heft to it than the top half which makes sense since the lower half is going to reside in the palm of your hand. When you hold the remote, your thumb will naturally fall right into the middle of the remote where the navigation controls are. From there you can easily reach all the other buttons on the remote.

When you look at the Harmony remote control, you can’t help but wonder if it can actually control all of the devices that you have. After using a Sony remote for so many years, I had come to the incorrect conclusion that size was a direct measurement of how capable a remote was. Oh how wrong I was. Although this remote is no larger than many of the individual component remote controls that I have, it’s obviously far more capable. Why? It’s all about the programming that I mentioned during the setup. The ability to configure this remote for any device out there is the key to the Harmony remote control.

For my home, I have to manage a Sony WEGA Direct View Television set, a Harman Kardon receiver, an Xbox 360, a Microsoft Windows Media Center PC, a cable box, and a Harman Kardon CD player. After a little bit of tweaking, the Harmony Advanced Universal Remote was able to control all of it without any difficulties.

I use the Activities button for nearly all of my daily home theater activities. The way activities work on the remote is as follows. You press the Activities button top of the remote control. A selection of activities is shown on the display. You then select the activity that you’re interested in performing (such as watching TV, or watching a DVD or listening to music). Then the remote kicks in and performs all the necessary steps. Once the remote has finished issuing the commands, you’re ready to rock and roll.

If you need finer control over a specific device, you can press the devices button below the activities button. This will list all the devices that the remote control manages for your setup. One of the cooler features is the order in which devices are presented to you. The remote remembers what Activity you are currently in and will present the device list in the order of priority for that particular Activity. As an example, if I’m watching a DVD using the Xbox 360, the game console device selection will be tops on my device list. If I’m watching TV, the Media Center PC will be tops on my device list. These are the small usability features that I really appreciate on the Harmony.

The only thing I wish the Harmony Advanced Universal Remote had was a color display although it’s really not that big of a deal. The monochrome display that the remote uses is more than adequate enough - especially with the backlighting enabled.

Of course you’re probably wondering how it performs with the Xbox 360 - well I can tell you that it controls the game console perfectly. You should dump the media remote control that came with the 360 in favor of this remote. It puts that media remote to shame! The other major feature that I totally love about the Harmony remote is the support for Microsoft Windows Media Center PCs. One remote does it all. You can’t go wrong with that!

Summary

Life is absolutely chummy with the Logitech Harmony Advanced Unversal Remote for Xbox 360 - so much so that I’ve put the Sony remote up for sale now. The key to making the Harmony remote work for you is in the setup/configuration. Once you have the configuration down pat, this will be the only remote control that you’ll ever need - especially for Xbox 360 console owners.

Check out the product webpage for additional information.

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