Digital Trends

Logitech Harmony 720 September 28th, 2006 | by Brandon King

Setup and Use

Turning on the Harmony 720 is as easy as picking it up. The tilt sensor illuminates the buttons when it senses a change in orientation. Some other remotes use a simple motion sensor that can be overly sensitive to slight vibrations. The 720 uses a tilt sensor that requires what might be called an “intentional movement,” or a movement more indicative of use. Raising and lower the remote slowly does not turn it up, but once the tilt is around 20 degrees the 720 jumps to attention, waiting for orders.

Perhaps the most unique feature of the Harmony remote line is the ability to program it through a PC. Install the software on your computer (or use the web interface for Macs), plug in the remote, and a start tweaking. The process for initially setting up the remote takes approximately 10-15 minutes, but more inquisitive users could spend anywhere up to hours messing with each parameter and tweaking each setting. Most people with the skills to use a regular remote will have no trouble setting up the Harmony 720 in most configurations. Power users will find the extensive use of Wizards and question based solutions a little annoying. For instance, we still cannot figure out how we managed to get our Yamaha receiver to toggle the 6 Channel Input when it leaves the Home Theater PC activity. But, it works. Users can adjust everything from the slide show that displays in the cradle, to the pause between commands being sent to individual components. Finding the screen where they’re done can be slightly annoying, but with a little work, it all comes together.

Updating the remote with a new program takes about five minutes, which can seem like an eternity if you are trying to tweak specific settings by trial and error. Also, while activating an activity, the remote will lock out any input until it is through issuing the appropriate bursts of sweet IR energy. This can be annoying if you set the volume nice and loud for that movie you watched in the afternoon, and then sneak downstairs late at night when you can’t sleep. You’ll the greeted by blaring sound while the harmony patiently waits for your TV to warm up before switching its input and allowing you control.

Just as s reference, we used one of the most universal remote un-friendly setups that exist today. A Samsung DLP (with moderately long warm up times and questionable discrete codes), a Yamaha RX-V2200 (with several toggle modes and separate power on and off buttons), a home built Home Theater PC (with Windows Media Center Edition 2005), and a Motorola HD cable box (with poor reception and ridiculous lags between commands). Overall, we were very pleased. Some advanced tweaking needed to be done in order to make the Yamaha receiver play nice, but we were pleasantly surprised.

One final note: The Logitech Harmony 720 is exceedingly hard to find. It was released in July 2006 to a few retailers, and as the 785 in the UK, but the Logitech site has not yet posted a product page for this remote. Rest assured: it is new, it is supported, and it has not been recalled.


Conclusion

If you’re looking for a great middle range universal remote with all the bells and whistles, the Logitech Harmony 720 should be at the top of your list. The unique combination of stylish aesthetics and an intuitive interface is sure to impress everyone at first sight. Not only does it look nice and operate well, but it is affordable and solidly built. If the $200 price tag puts you off, the cheaper, monochrome 550 model offers many of the same features for less.

Pros

• Color screen
• Tilt sensor
• Easy setup
• Intuitive interface


Cons

• Might annoy some power users with lack of access to direct editing