JP1 Remotes

[xnappo]

[eferz]

[DavidEC2955]

I was told by a rep at Logitech / Harmony support the only way to tell the difference is.. if it is a 'True Harmony' in the battery area would be your serial number {as this is where the serial number is for most all the rest of the Harmony line of remotes}, the clones do not have this sticker, also the H688 was never produced for sale in the USA as the media BUTTON function that would access a 'TV GUIDE' like feature was never set up for use in the USA.

But the two of them I have program just fine... my wife did not like it due to the buttons being too close together and hard for her to read.
Its just a bit larger than a 'Tivo Peanut' remote.
And it will not learn the higher IR Frequencies as used by some devices.. {Maganvox SetTop DVD+R's} so if the device in not in the Logitech data base you can not add the function using the learning feature... but if you use another Harmony remote to learn the key press, and you get a nice tech support person, they can transport the learned code from one device to the other. and then the remote will work learned code.

Note: The batteries will only last about six months so it is best to use rechargeables.

:David

[Kevin Timmerman]

You got a lot of wrong info from the rep.

The 688 was sold in the USA, it does not have a media (hard) button.

The 676, 880, 890 and other models sold in the USA do have a media button.

The ability to show a TV guide on Harmony remotes was removed many years ago, and is not related to having a media button. The 745, 748 and 768 have a scroll wheel that was used to navigate the listing.

The number in the battery compartment is not a serial number.

The safe mode boot block has a unique ESN (electronic serial number) that is sent to the backend whenever you do any updates to the remote. It would be very difficult, if not impossible, to make fake ESNs that would be accepted by the Harmony software. It is *very* unlikely that there are fake Harmony remotes.

[Kevin Timmerman]

In 2004, Harmony remotes where only sold in USA and Canada. TiVo was only available in USA.

Several years later they began sales in Japan (as LogiCool) and Australia. The 688 was no longer a current model. It was never sold outside of USA/Canada.

[cauer29]

[DavidEC2955]

[mdavej]

FWIW, UEI does make a very harmony-like remote called the Xsight. It has a color touch screen LCD, 18 devices, favorites with icons, USB interface and web based programming interface. The RF Touch model runs about $70 and competes with the $250 harmony 900. The Color model is quite a bit less and competes with the 700. And unlike harmony, it can do macros.

[DavidEC2955]

[xnappo]

[eferz]

[xnappo]

[mdavej]

Agreed that all harmony's can do "activity" macros, but few can do the arbitrary 5-button ones (sequences) anymore. They've removed that capability from most new models (1100, 900, 700, 650, 600, 300). So if you want to put a simple macro on a button (not counting activities), you can't do it anymore. This is the main reason I sold all my harmony remotes and went back to JP1 (never really left, but my main HT remote was harmony for a while). Also, their low end models used handle a dozen or so devices. Now they're limited to 5 or 6. So harmony is really going in the wrong direction IMO.

A harmony activity is a very specialized macro that is only for power on, input switching and key group mapping. You can add your own commands in some cases to the beginning or end. But if you want to make a button do a simple macro like toggle captions for example, an activity won't work, and the sequence capability that would have worked no longer exists in current models. That's a huge deal breaker IMO. Since the OP was considering a 700, I was trying to warn him about this loss in functionality.

[eferz]

[xnappo]