Harmony 1100 Advanced Universal Remote Control with 3.5-Inch Color Touch Screen

The Logitech Harmony 1100 gives you powerful home-entertainment control through a customizable, 3.5-inch full-color touch screen. Controls are easy to access and are backlit, so you can easily find them in the dark. One-touch, activity-based controls turn on the right devices in the right order with a single command.

RF wireless capability lets you control devices without direct line-of-sight, so you can keep components in a closed cabinet or even another room (requires Logitech Harmony RF Extender, sold separately). The on-screen commands are customizable, so you get the commands you want, when you want them. The Harmony 1100 supports more than 5000 brands and over 225,000 devices.

Winner of CES 2009 Best of Innovations Award
Logitech Harmony 1100 Advanced Universal Remote – powerful home-entertainment control through a customizable, 3.5-inch full-color touch screen.

The Harmony remote makes it easy for any family member to use the home-entertainment system without help – and start any activity with just one touch of a button. NO more navigating a variety of entertainment components with multiple remotes and/or a complicated sequence of commands, which often require a set of written instructions.

The Harmony 1100 is a powerful, customizable remote with a stunning brushed metal and piano-black finish. Harmony 1100 — a brilliant addition to your living room.

Simplify your home entertainment
One touch to your entertainment: No more complicated lists of what to turn on or which button to select. Everyone can select what he or she wants to do. Just press the “Watch a DVD” button and the Harmony 1100 powers on your TV, DVD player, and stereo receiver, sets all your inputs, and even starts your movie.

Personalize your touch screen. The way you want it.
A brilliant, 3.5-inch, full-color touch screen lets you access the most-used buttons with one hand or two, and it’s backlit so you can see your icons and commands even in the dark. Customizable icons and controls let you choose the commands you want to see, when you want to see them. You can even choose the icons you want to use for each command.

Enjoy guided, online setup
Simply connect the Harmony 1100 to your computer and the online software will guide you through the entire setup. Live Harmony customer support is available too.

Control virtually any device
Be confident you can control whatever entertainment devices you have today or buy tomorrow. The Harmony 1100 works with more than 225,000 devices from 5,000+ brands — and the list grows every day.

Control your devices — even when they’re out of sight
When used with the Harmony RF Extender (sold separately), the Harmony 1100 helps you control devices that you keep behind closed doors, even those you can’t see.

Harmony 1100 Advanced Universal Remote Control Review

First, this is an incredible remote. I’ve owned a Sony Commander for 10 years and decided to try this one when my last Sony died. This one puts all others I’ve owned and used to shame. Save a few exotic features (see other reviews), this is all most people will need.

RATING:
I gave it 4 stars because of the difficulty of the software. Specifically:
1. I had to turn my firewall and virus protection off (I use McAfee). A call to tech support gave me 6 URLs the software uses, but McAfee requires the IP Addresses to add to the trusted sites list (trusted programs does not work). The tech didn’t know these, but I traced them through McAfee. Once added, I was able to leave my firewall and virus protection on. Since Amazon does not permit disclosure of URLs, check the Harmony forum; I’ve posted the IPs and instructions there.
2. Navigating through the software is not very intuitive and the manual isn’t very comprehensive. For example, there is a Device List and an Activities setup, each with several choices. Some items are listed under Activities that logically should be under Devices and vice versa. Even the tech agreed on this point- he said the software was “dumbed down” so the unsophisticated computer user could operate it. Paradoxically, simplifying it actually makes it more difficult to use.
3. The software uses a wizard, “linear” approach as opposed to a “drill down” approach used by most software. This is fine for initial setup, but to make changes, you must find the point in the wizard that guides you through the modifications you want to make. This can become tedious.

On the good side:
1. Once operational, the remote performs flawlessly. I don’t even need the remote extender.
2. Tech support is the best I’ve come in contact with (I called twice). They are very pleasant, knowledgeable, patient, and not condescending. I stumped them a couple of times, but they were able to come up with a solution. The software connects with Logitech, so they are able to see your setup and even modify it if you want them to. When completing the initial setup, you are asked to rate the device; I rated it low because of the software issues. The tech said he noticed the low rating and asked what he could do to improve it. That led to a discussion concerning the software issues.
3. Other reviews complain about the size of the remote. Consequently, I was surprised to discover how relatively small it really is (about the size of a slice of bread and about two slices thick). There are also “handgrips” of a sort on the bottom of either side so that it can be operated one-handed.
4. After an activity is chosen, there are several “screens”: each denoted by an icon. The heart represents favorites (for example, channels on the TV), the 123 is a numeric keypad, the Star is for custom controls, Stop/Play (called Transport Control) icon is for DVDs, VCRs, etc. and a Game Controller. The favorites and custom screens are individually programmable with your choice of icons, and all icons on all screens may be individually programmed to provide your choice of function.
5. Not mentioned elsewhere are 8 additional programmable icons, four on each side of the screen that provide more user defined functions (called SideBars). These are in addition to the screens mentioned above and can be programmed differently for each screen (i.e. Heart, Star, 123, etc.). I use these for utilities- e.g. TV mode or the menu etc.
6. The unit comes with a small choice of icons, but the tech referred me to a website with over 5,000 free icons including most TV channel icons. Refer to the Harmony forum or call Tech Support for the URL. I was even able to copy icons from the websites of my local TV stations and plug them into the Harmony without any difficulty (technical note- the icons use .bmp, not .ico files).
7. Each screen does have limits. For example, Favorites has a maximum of 24 icons, displaying 6 at a time (for example, 24 favorite TV channels).
8. The buttons to the right of the screen are also individually programmable.
9. There is a Learn function common to most universal remotes, but I haven’t had to use it even though I have a wide variety of devices to control (i.e. receiver, dvd recorder, Blu-Ray, CD player, home theater, VCR, & TV).

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