Should i buy a refurbished harmony remote

A universal infrared color screen remote for home entertainment and automation. Your Harmony allows to you merge the remotes of up to 8 of your home entertainment devices into one so you can, and should keep those other remotes out of sight.

You can create Activities or scenes such as 'Watch a DVD' or 'Play a Game', and then with a simple press you can switch the right devices to the right settings.

The Harmony is compatible with tons of devices from a wide range of brands. Setup is a snap on your Windows or Mac computer.

Bring in show time in no time with the Harmony The smart display provides help when you need it. Connect your remote to your computer. Tell us about your devices.

We take care of the hard stuff. Simplify your entertainment experience. Buttons are grouped by their functions, shaped to help you navigate, and backlit so you always know where you are. Connect the remote to your computer and tell us what equipment you have. Our online software walks you through the setup process online setup required. Pros: - With the ability to plug it into a PC and program the remote how you like it, the Harmony is very flexible. Logitech doesn't even require you to install bloatware to program the Harmony.

My entire family uses the remote, and even the least tech-savvy persons handle the remote easily as long as you program it for them.

No more turning on lights just to find a channel number. The buttons themselves feel smooth and distinguishable. No physical blemishes and no problems. Buttons next to the 4-tile screen allow corresponding actions. Through a PC, you can pick and choose which Commands you want displayed on the screen. You can even name it how you like, simplifying the technical terms for other users. One click of the "Watch TV" Button and all devices turn on correctly.

Cons: - The remote lacks some commands that I'd like to see. There is no easy return button on the LCD so you can't get back to the original Activity without a few button presses. I had to program them in through the LCD. It wouldn't hurt to put those two rather universal buttons on the remote.

Overall Review: This remote simplifies using a TV. It is great for people who are sick of using three remotes just to operate a TV. The LCD alone is a sweet feature that doesn't take much getting use to.

I would recommend this remote to anyone, though some very basic technical people might have difficulty first setting it up. I'm sure Logitech can help. The remote was cheap because of refurbishment, but it came like new.

Pros: This is a nice remote and the refurbished unit was in great condition, with a plastic protector over the learning window on the bottom of the remote. Sent to that big charging cradle in the sky. The writing has been on the wall, the floors, the ceiling, the sconces, you get it. A remote that you can program to execute a cascading sequence of actions—turn on the TV and the Blu-ray player and switch the input and start the movie—with the press of a single button.

Universal remote buying guides, to the extent anyone produces them anymore, typically comprise various tiers of Logitech devices. You can still easily find a much more basic universal remote—for cheap—at a big-box electronics store. A couple of companies, most notably Caavo and Sevenhugs , are still trying to make variations on the smart remote work.

But for most people, the death of Harmony is the death of the smart remote era. But Harmony remotes did, as a proliferation of home theater devices drove our need for more widgets to control them.

Complex home-theater-in-a-box systems slowly gave way to more broadly appealing one-stop soundbars. Harmony could do it all. Sometimes its software was clunky or convoluted , but it was ultimately more convenient than juggling multiple bars of hard-molded plastic just to watch a dang episode of ER. A former IT software developer for the New York City Department of Education, he started his business in after discovering that Logitech did not offer repairs.

They just wanted to get their good old side-arm. The first controller Werthauer fixed was his own. But he would eventually have four or five units coming in every day, from all corners of the world: remotes with cracked LCDs, broken USB ports, nonfunctioning IR emitters, busted tactile snap-dome buttons, all in need of care.

Ben has been writing about technology and consumer electronics for more than 20 years. A PCWorld contributor since , Ben joined TechHive in , where he covers smart home and home entertainment products.

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