» Logitech Harmony 550 Universal Remote

Logitech Harmony 550 Universal Remote Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Remote
Comment: The Logitech Harmony Universal Remote is great. We just needed it because we lost both our TV remote and DVD player remote... We couldn't use a "universal" remote that "learns" or is trained by the original remote, so this one was perfect, it allowed us to just select the type, brand, and model of our appliances and then it worked! Nice and simple. The only complaint is just a small preference for the layout/functionality of it. Unless I'm not doing something correctly, the power button on the remote doesn't control the power of the appliance it's currently set to control but rather the remote itself, which I think is ridiculous because power button is one the most frequently used buttons you want to be able to control for your many appliances and yet it isn't in an easily/quickly recognizable obvious spot. Instead you have to put it into the little list of commands, another button, or an "action". But that's a small issue that doesn't affect the great power and utility it does have.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: It Works!
Comment: Super easy to use. I thought it would take at least an hour to get this working. Wrong. The software is easy. You tell it what you have and what you want to do, and you are done. There is no reason not to get this remote. I even got it working with my air conditioner.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Completely Customizable Wonder Remote
Comment: My wife and I have had this remote for 3 weeks now and rave about it. We have already convinced to other families to buy one as well. The set up, although takes a while, is pretty simple and well worth the time spent. You can customize everthing, for instance, you can pick what turns on when you want to do a certain activity or even something as specific as how long to wait after the tv is turned on to try to change the input which is good for us since it takes about 7 seconds for our tv to warm up and allow us to change the input. The only complaint that I have (which won't effect daily use) is the fact that if you make any change to your remote settings it takes about 5 minutes for it to link up and update through the program... this is after you change the settings and click update. I guess not a big deal since you only should have to wait when you make changes/updates to your settings. All in all it is a great product and a must have if you have multiple devices to control. Just think of the money you'll save in batteries, and this does more than just tv stuff, with it you can turn on your fan and adjust the thermostat (if they are the kind that already has a remote) We have a TV, Surround sound system, DVD, Xbox, Wii and CD player ceiling fan and thermostat all connected. The controller cant do blue tooth, so actually controlling the wii is done through the wiimote but it does turn the tv and reciever on the right settings. Man how cool is that. Again this is a great product and definetly worth its price.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: 30 minutes setup and universal control!
Comment: I bought this as a spare universal remote in case my sons broke my Grundig GDDR8250HDD hard disk DVD recorder remote. It was broken before and I another player too. Before getting the remote, I did "test drive" the Harmony 550 at logitech website and was able to find my models inside. When the product arrived, I opened it (it was easy to open albeit it was plastic sealed up), the 4 AAA Duracell batteries are already loaded (there's 4 Duracell spare batteries too!) and plug it to USB (come with USB cable) port, load the CD and install. I got Internet access (which is essential) and I setup a user account, add a few devices, including my Sharp TV, Dell TV and most importantly Grundig DVD recorder (I could not find GDDR8250HDD but I could find GDDR8160HDD which is essentially same model with lower HDD capacity. It doesn't matter anyway.). The software is updated, firmware of Harmony 550 updated and finally the remote is updated with the devices I wanted to control, all within 30 minutes! I tried to control all my devices and it worked all to my expectation! Everything in 30 minutes! It could also control air-con units (a bonus which I didn't expect). One last thing, there are 2 IR ports, both in front and back. One thing I always hoped for is for a skin to be available, to protect these Harmony remotes against drop/scratches/water?, especially the higher end ones. This remote deserves 5 stars, it is not perfect but I couldn't find any better and worth the value.

Update (4 Jul 2008):
I realized I can use the control without any 4AAA batteries at all. My Grundig DVD recorder has a USB port. I just plugged in the USB cable and the control can work without any batteries. Save the EARTH!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent Product
Comment: I purchased the Logitech 550 after my Sony programmable remote bit the dust. My items include a Samsung 50" DLP hlt5075S , a motorola DVR DCH3416 , a Sony DVD player, an Xbox 360, and an Onkyo Receiver ht-r430.

I installed the setup program on OS 10.5.4 without any difficulties. After inputting my devices, the remote was basically setup perfectly the first time. I was able to select discrete TV inputs for each source, even though the original TV remote only toggled through the different sources. The DVR is operated perfectly by the remote without any changes

After setup, I only made a few changes to list the activities in a different order on the front panel.

Overall a great product that is very easy to set up. There was no need to program sequences of key presses, although the remote has that learning capability. I expected to have to do minor tinkering in setting timing etc, but to my pleasant surprise, none was required.

The component compatibility list is extensive, so if you have relatively mainstream manufacturers, you should have no problems!

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