CONSUMER ELECTRONICS REVIEW

Logitech Harmony 550 Advanced Universal Remote

RATINGS Quality Geekness

Overview
If you are like me you probably have several A/V components that contribute to your overall home theater experience. A television, a DVD player, surround sound system, DVR, VCR, game console ... each with its own multi-function, 100+-button remote control. The sheer number of remotes required to control the average home theater setup complicates what should be a simple task. In order to watch a DVD without getting up from your comfy sofa you would use a remote to turn on the TV, set it to the right input, use another to turn on the DVD player, set it in play, use another to turn on the A/V receiver, set it to the right input, then use one remote to control the volume, one to change the channel ... I think you get it.

Enter the Logitech Harmony 550 Advanced Universal Remote. Logitech aims to consolidate all of those remote controls and reduce thumb-fatigue by taking an activity-based approach to controlling your home theater system. With one or two button-presses the 550 can send a flurry of commands to up to 15 of your components, turning them on, setting them into the right input modes, and automatically playing a disc, all while removing the complexity and clutter of having multiple remote controls for all of your gear lying around. It also eliminates the damage to your wallet (and the environment) of keeping enough spare AA, AAA, and 9v batteries on hand to keep all those remotes running.

Achieving this level of simple sophistication requires you to spend some time upfront teaching the remote about your system and the activities that you want it to reign over--but we will get into that later. First, let's take a look at the physical aspects of the Harmony 550.

The Harmony 550 eschews the oblong shape of its sibling models for clean, thin, rectangular lines. It has a glossy, modern-looking finish on the top face with a silky, rubberized, feel underneath. The bottom of the 550 is contoured in a way that feels comfortable in your hand, with the battery compartment in the lower half of the unit housing four AAA batteries. The approximate measurements of the remote are 20 cm x 2 cm x 2 cm.

The buttons on the remote are logically laid-out with the Activities, Devices and Help buttons positioned prominently at the top of the unit. Pressing the Activities button will display the activities the remote is configured to control in the LCD window. Pressing the Devices button will give you access to device-specific control commands in the LCD. Likewise, the Help button will display an interactive help wizard. The LCD displays menus that contain up to four items per page. Items in the menu change based on whether you are in Activities, Devices, or Help mode. The LCD is surrounded by menu selection and navigation buttons.

Below the LCD are the Stop, Play, Fast Forward, Rewind, and Record buttons for controlling your DVD/PVR/VCR components. Guide, Info, Menu, and Exit buttons follow and are useful for calling up channel information and program guides from your set-top box, as well as for recalling device-specific setup menus. A multi-directional navigation pad, surrounded by Vol (volume) +/-, Ch (channel) +/- and Glow (to activate backlighting) buttons, takes up the midsection of the unit, with a set of numeric keys (used to input channels directly) at the bottom. Obligatory Mute and Prev (previous channel) buttons are there as well, plus Sound, Picture, and A and B buttons.

The LCD and buttons are brightly backlit in an attractive blue color that makes using the remote in low-light situations a breeze. I also found (to my surprise) that, after long periods of inactivity, the 550 detects when you walk within close proximity and its backlight activates automatically, as if to say, "Hey, I'm right here." I have not seen this feature in documentation, so I'm not sure how it is managing to do this (I just know that it tickles my inner Geek).

Configuring the Harmony 550
Like most high-end universal remotes, the Harmony 550 requires some programming in order to work with your components. It needs to know what A/V components are in your system and what they do. Configuration of the 550 starts with installing the Logitech Harmony Remote Software onto your computer (PC and Mac are supported) and connecting the remote via the supplied USB cable. An active Internet connection is required for performing the configuration. The configuration utility reminded me of an online survey with endless questions that you answer from a multiple-choice list. Plan on spending 30-45 minutes setting up the 550 for the first time, and make sure you have the make and model numbers of your gear on-hand before starting.

I installed the configuration utility on my home PC running Windows XP. After completing the install, I plugged the 550 into a vacant USB port, which put the remote into USB connection mode and automatically launched the utility.

I first went into the Devices screen and began the task of identifying all of the remote-controllable components in my system by indicating the component type (Television, DVR, DVD) , manufacturer (Sony, Panasonic, etc.) and model number of each. Once complete, I had a listing of devices, as shown below:

I have to say that I am really impressed with the breadth of device coverage that Logitech has. I recently purchased the newly released Monoprice 5x1 HDMI Switch (to make up for the lone HDMI input on my Panny plasma set, which I highly recommend!) and was a little concerned that it was going to be either too new or obscure to be in Logitech's database. Much to my delight, Logitech had it covered--kudos to Logitech.

I then went into the Activities screen. Based on the components I added in the previous step, the configuration application made some assumptions as to what activities my system would be performing. In the list were Watch DVD, Watch PVR, Listen to CDs, and Listen to Radio.

For each activity, I confirmed and adjusted (where required) how my components would participate and how the 550 would control them. For instance, while setting up the Watch PVR activity I specified that presses of the 550's Ch +/- buttons would send commands to my set top box (PVR), while the Vol +/- buttons would control my A/V receiver, since I prefer to disable the speakers on my television in favor of my surround speakers.

I found after setting up my devices and activities that a few of my frequently used commands that once had dedicated buttons on their respective remotes were now only accessible by going into Devices mode and navigating through menu pages. Fortunately, the configuration utility has a screen where you can map your favorite commands to any of the remote's hard buttons or have them show up by default in the first menu page of the LCD.

Another nicety is that you don't have to settle for the Device, Activity, Command labels that the 550 displays on its LCD. In my case, Watch PVR was easily changed to Watch TV by giving it a custom label.

It is possible to run into a situation where one of your components is not represented in Logitech's database. This is where the 550's capability to learn IR commands from another remote control comes in handy. In the IR Language screen you name the commands that you want the 550 to learn. You then point your device's remote at the IR sensor located at the bottom of the 550 and the 550 will capture that remote command. From there you can map commands to buttons or custom menu items.

Updating the 550
Once I finished configuring the 550 I was ready to update the 550's firmware with the changes. This is done by going into the Update Remote screen. The utility will start the process of updating the remote automatically--Geeks will be drawn like moths to a light and click the Show Status button to see the messages that the utility generates while updating. A progress bar at the bottom of the screen displays how long it will take. My experience was that it takes less than two minutes for the update to complete.

I disconnected the USB cable and the LCD panel glowed warmly and displayed a welcome message. Testing the configuration, I was able to move from watching a DVD, to watching cable, to listening to radio, all with the 550 orchestrating my system in perfect ... erm, harmony. It was looking like I could hide away all of the other remotes and never have to play the role of A/V Tech Support Guy again! Or would I?

The 550 uses what Logitech coins "Smart State Technology." This means that as you select Activities, Devices, and power your system on and off, the 550 is keeping track of the state that your components are in. But there are situations where things can go awry. Say, for instance, that my house temporarily lost power while I was in the middle of watching a DVD, effectively turning off my entire system. When the power is restored, I might press Watch DVD on the remote to restart the movie but nothing would happen. This is because the 550 has no clue that the power went out and your components shut down--it thinks that they are already powered on. There's nothing to do in that situation.

A more frequent manifestation of this problem happens with my children. All too often they will go directly to the TV and press its power button. Then, when someone inevitably picks up the 550 to change the channel or volume, nothing happens. Why? Because the 550 assumes that the components are off.

Pressing the Help button is the answer for situations where the internal state of the remote becomes out of synch with your gear. The 550 will go down the list of asking you to confirm the state of your components, and it makes the appropriate adjustments until your components are back in synch with its internal state.

Conclusion
The Logitech Harmony 550 deserves a place in any home theater setup. I was able to consolidate my various remote controls into one intelligent one, and that's no mean feat. It can be customized to handle the intricacies of just about any A/V system and it looks great. At $130, it delivers good value.

Ratings Defense
The Logitech Harmony 550 Advanced Universal Remote gets 4.5 Geekheads out of 5 for Quality. It is an elegantly-styled remote and does a good job at what it is designed for. I had to take half a Geekhead away for the volume and channel buttons. Unlike most of the other rubberized buttons, the volume and channel buttons are made of hard plastic and are designed to be flush with the face of the remote. The resulting lack of tactile response and a heavy "click" factor leads to thumb fatigue for these commonly used controls. Also, re-synching the 550 with the state of of your components whenever it runs into a hiccup can be tedious.

The Harmony 550 gets 4.5 Geekheads for Geekness as well. After all, programming your A/V remote with your PC is pretty geeky.

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