Logitech Harmony 555 Review
How many remotes do you have? 3,4 or maybe even more, this is the use for the Logitech Harmony universal remote control range. Today I am going to be running you through all the aspects of the Logitech harmony 555 Remote control. At the time of writing these can be found for around about £50, which isn’t cheap so lets see if it is worth the money.
I used to have 4 remotes (computer, TV, Freeview, Amp) I can now control all of these with a single remote, and even a single button using activities which I will talk about later on.
Features
- The remote has a nice orange glow for when using in the dark which lights up every button and the screen, there is also a sensor so that when you first pick the remote it will turn on the glow in preparation for use, neat huh?
- PVR Ready, do you have a freeview recorder or SKY+ for example, this remote already has all the buttons you will need including pause rewind and record
- 2 year guarantee
- Help button for when something go quite right, the remote will ask you a few questions and fix any problems you are having
- Huge database of devices the remote can control and if amazingly your isn’t there the remote also has learning capabilities
- The only downside that I could say about the remote is that with the numbers at the bottom you may find it hard to get used to at first, but the remote has been designed to be comfortable no matter what button you are pressing.
First things first
After you manage to prize the remote out of the packaging you realize how light the remote is and that it has a feeling of high quality with a glossy black/Matt silver finish. Then you realize how you are going to setup your remote, there is a disk and a USB cable.
I would like to quickly note that all the settings for your remote are stored remotely with your Logitech account, this means that if you buy a new computer then your settings are not lost but does mean that an internet connection is needed to configure your controller.
Upon installing the software you are ran through a wizard that asks for the model number of all your devices from the huge collection of items on the database, next you will be asked a few questions about how you use your setup, after this you setup your first activity. Again this is wizard based and asks questions about how you want to use your setup.
I would now recommend going into the settings for each of your devices and running the advanced setup, if I had known this I would have saved loads of time. When setting up your TV you may notice there are buttons on the buttons selection that you do not have on your remote, my advice make use of them. If there is a separate option for each of your TV’s inputs this will make life alot easier.
Now you can add more activities and devices to do whatever you like. Remember if it doesn’t work you only have to change a few options.
Activities Explained
An activity is very much like a macro, the remote is setup to simulate certain buttons presses for each device in a certain order.
For Example for me to watch TV my remote does the following
- Turn on TV
- Turn on Freeview Box
- Turn on Amp
- Set Freeview to BBC1
- Set Amp to correct input
- Set TV to Correct Input
You can add any number of actions to a single activity, you can also tell the remote to do any number of actions when you leave an activity.
During An Activity
During any separate activity you can setup 2 pages (8 buttons) to do certain tasks. These buttons are for really for actions that do not have a dedicated button on the remote but are used fairly regulary, like widescreen/4:3 etc. These buttons can also have other uses, for example If you have the computer on but feel like you want to flick the freeview quickly you could add a button to change the input on the TV and Amp.
The software may automatically add buttons that they feel you will need but you can remove these and replace with your own if you wish, just remember you can only have 8 buttons.
Setup for these buttons are found under customize buttons and then the additional buttons tab.
During an activity you can also change what the standard buttons control for example you may want to control the sound on your amplifier rather than the DVD Player.
Wrap Up
So you can now watch TV without having to find 3 different remotes, you can now turn on all your devices with one button and you can always think of a new use for a button while watching a film.
This remote can control other devices like lightswitches and climate control if you are lucky enough to own one, this can become the center of your home, maybe even more so if you upgrade to the Harmony 1000 remote.
The controller has a nice natural grippy feel to it and you soon forget that you ever had one remote per device. The buttons feel nice and you know when you have pressed a button unlike when using a touch screen. The software isn’t great but it does the job, as long you know what your goal is and you focus on setting up one device at a time BEFORE setting up your activities.
Once you have one of these remotes, and yes you want one, you will always be fiddling with new ideas for buttons and adding more of your homes devices (up to 15).
Its not a quick setup but it is brilliant once it is setup. Its even Wife friendly because now she doesn’t turn up the volume instead of changing channel because she is using the wrong remote.
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