Hello / Good Bye...

[xnappo]

Here's a link to an old Cnet review of the H668 aka SST-668 fo mo info.
.

You are fast - I deleted that part of the post after remembering that

xnappo

[eferz]

You are fast - I deleted that part of the post after remembering that

Hee, hee. Good luck on your purchase btw, I hope it turns out to be genuine or at least be functionally the same (if not better).

[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]

Even though that seller is US based

I was actually talking about this one(China based):
http://www.ebay.com/itm/230618955646

But yeah, same thing. No real box, warranty..

Actually kinda tempting

xnappo

If folks would bother to read and perhaps comprehend, they might find that there is no reason to suspect counterfitting here, as the ebay listings for that seller clearly state "used" or "seller refurbished". That is a reasonable explanation for why he's selling really old stuff at low prices.

A.A.

[DavidEC2955]

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.
.

That's funny as both of my H688's and the image you displayed from an older web page does have the "media button", the quarter moon button above the arrow ring.

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

That's funny as both my 980 and my new 650 has a sticker in the battery compartment which is the serial number for the device.. now the serial number does not mean that it would match the ESDI which identifies the device type/model to the web/desk-top interface and the rest of the ESDI is created from the USER LOG IN ID, So when the web interface connects to Logitech it sends a string equal to "Hello this is DAVIDEC's 688" and does not send the serial number of the device, from what I have been told the serial number is only used for warranty.

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.

It could also be easier for their customer relations and support department to allow these to access their data base than to block in hopes that the end user would update to a newer official model.

If folks would bother to read and perhaps comprehend, they might find that there is no reason to suspect counterfitting here, as the ebay listings for that seller clearly state "used" or "seller refurbished". That is a reasonable explanation for why he's selling really old stuff at low prices. A.A.

If the three that I purchased were USED / REFURBISHED then I would be surprised as they still had the clear LCD protector on. And not a nick or scratch on them. I purchased one silver from a USA seller and two black direct from a china seller. A friend liked the 688 so I sold him one of my black models since my wife did not like button layout. And for a outdated model one eBay seller at one time had over 500 of them about a year ago. {It has been a while since I last looked at the eBay price! But I paid less than $25 W/S&H each for the three that I had purchased and now the average price is $50}..
Its a shame that a fellow JP1 user was unable to get a custom JP1 remote made with the USB interface in the remote that was talked about here a few years ago, they were going to try to clone the HT-Pro lay-out but with more memory. The last I read it was the production start up costs that stopped the project.


:David

[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]

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.

Is that the one only sold in the USA under the brand name of:
Acoustic Research ARRX18G XSight 18-Device Universal Learning Remote

From what I have read it is a fairly heavy and large remote, larger than the HT-PRO.

:David

[xnappo]

And unlike harmony, it can do macros.

The Harmony can do simple macros... It isn't as powerful as an extended JP1 remote, but the capability is certainly there. It is called a 'sequence'.

xnappo

[eferz]

It is called a 'sequence'.

I believe the actual Logitech process is called, "Harmony Activity", but the individual command within them is a sequence. The most common activity is called, "Watch TV", which essentially powers on/off and maybe switches the input of the devices which you've determined that influences it.

[xnappo]

It is called a 'sequence'.

I believe the actual Logitech process is called, "Harmony Activity", but the individual command within them is a sequence. The most common activity is called, "Watch TV", which essentially powers on/off and maybe switches the input of the devices which you've determined that influences it.

Well activities are definitely the obvious 'macro' capability, but the sequence function lets you define any arbitrary 5-buttons on any key:
http://blog.logitech.com/2010/05/18/har ... ny-remote/

(we may be saying the same thing..)

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]

Well activities are definitely the obvious 'macro' capability, but the sequence function lets you define any arbitrary 5-buttons on any key:
http://blog.logitech.com/2010/05/18/har ... ny-remote/

The way I understand the topology of Logitech "macros"; Activities contain Sequences and Sequences contains individual device commands.

(we may be saying the same thing..)

I think we are, in spite of it being silly Logitech semantics.

[xnappo]

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)....
.... Since the OP was considering a 700, I was trying to warn him about this loss in functionality.

Completely agree. I was coming from the idea that a knock-off 688 could come close to replacing a JP1 remote for simplistic uses.

I am definitely committed to JP1 and Atlas remotes (I think I have like 10 of them now, I keep buying them because they are so cheap!). I just wish UEI would make something a little higher end that we could hack!

xnappo