Logitech Harmony 628 Advanced Universal Remote (Blue/Silver)

The Harmony Activity Remote Control is the only remote with Smart State Technology Activity Control. Just press an Activity button such as "Watch TV" or "Watch a Movie", and the remote will automatically set up your entertainment system in seconds without you ever having to program a 'macro'. It supports most infrared-controlled devices made by any manufacturer, including TiVo, HDVCR, HDTV, plasma displays, monitors, projectors, DVD players, fireplaces and more. Imported.

The Logitech Harmony 628 Advanced Universal Remote with Interactive Display and Software CD Control enables you to control your entire system with the press of just one button. Simply select an activity and your remote will evaluate the state of all your audio/video components, then send the correct commands to make your system do exactly what you want. The intuitive layout and one-touch Activity Buttons of the Logitech Harmony 628 makes it the ideal choice for controlling your entire entertainment system. The Harmony 628 integrates all your device remotes with no macro programming. Setting up the remote is easy using the Web Wizard. Just tell the wizard the make and model of your devices, and Logitech's patented Smart State Technology does the rest. After completing the Web Wizard set-up, program the remote by simply connecting the Harmony Remote to your computer with the supplied USB cable. One-touch activity buttons allow you to watch TV, listen to music and more with ease. Lastly, the easy-to-read interactive display keeps you in control and informed of what's going on, and backlighting makes the buttons and interactive display glow brightly for easy use in the dark. What's in the Box Harmony 628 remote control, Harmony software installation CD, USB cable, 4 AAA batteries, and quick start guide.

I have the 628 controlling a TV connected to the following: Cable - through the tuner Satellite - via comp. video DVD - via hdmi PC - via pc input The system works fine until I select tuner(cable) it then loses track of which input it is on. I then have to find the TV remote and correct the input problem. I works again until I go to cable. The set up software is awful (I am a software engineer - I expect software to be usable by a novice). I am waiting for a response from Logitech.

I have three different Harmony remotes -- I'm a big fan. This one is in my bedroom. Of the three that I have (880, 659, 628), this is my least favorite. Why? It's missing a few hard buttons that I miss, and the remaining buttons have a layout that I have a hard time remembering. Let me elaborate. First, as I indicated above, I'm a big fan of Harmony Remotes. You can program them to do everything that any of your devices' IR remotes can do. In general, the dedicated buttons on the remote are enough to handle the tasks that you do 90% of the time. Less frequently used functions can be configured to appear on the LCD screen, which displays 4 (or 6 - it's configurable) items at a time, and can scroll. For really seldom-used functions, everything that the device's remote can do is accessible in "Device" mode. I have never had any trouble with the website's programming applets. Some folks hate them, but I'm not one of them. There have been occasions where I have had to try a configuration, and go back to tweak it, because it wasn't working exactly the way I wanted it to. I would rather do this on my computer, using the website's huge database of devices and IR codes, than to try to program it manually, the way I used to have to do with older universal remotes. I also do not have the problems that some other folks complain about where the device state gets out of sync. I always program my devices using what they call "discrete codes", where there's a different command for "On" and "Off", instead fo a single "Toggle Power" command, and different commands for TV input selection. I never have to try to find the discrete code settings, even if they're not provided by the device's original remote, because Logitech's online device database already has all of the discrete codes for all of my devices stored and ready for me to use. The Harmony 628, in particular, is my least favorite of the three Harmony remotes we have. It is missing dedicated buttons for "Exit", "Menu", and "Info". I use all three of these regularly, so I ended up configuring them as items on the LCD. This isn't too horrible, although it's a little inconvenient. The other issue I have with this remote is that I just can't seem to figure out the button layout. When I'm watching TV, if it's dark in the room, I can never find the Play, Stop, Pause, FFwd and Rev buttons. They're always in the same place, of course, but it's just never where I expect. I always end up having to turn on the backlight. Overall, this is a solid remote, at the inexpensive end of the awesome Harmony line. If your remote usage does not involve the "Menu", "Info" or "Exit" buttons, then bump my rating up by one. For my uses, though, this device is OK, but not great.

I have had various universal remotes, and this is decent but wont solve all your problems. Plus the light broke after about a year, though they did replace it. Main problem is that the remote still doesnt know what the TV/Reciever/Sattelite is actually set to. So when inevitibly there is some timing issue or a command is missed, its all out of whack. And with IR its going to happen unless you point it at each device every time. Wish it was all RF. Also i still had to program keys on my remote. Critical keys for satellite DVR were not represented, especially the commercial skip

Be very careful with the initial programming of this device. If you need to change something later, you're SOL! It's now just sitting in a drawer...

I spent 6 hours and 37 minutes on the phone (includeds hold time) with Logitech support to figure out the issues I was having with the remote. Finally at one point it would no longer update. They diagnosed it as a bad internal memory and I sent it back to Amazon. I ended up buying the H659 and have been happy with it, although the extra couple buttons (compared to the 628) are useless for my setup, so I spent an extra $20 more for nothing. To be fair, the time with support mentioned above included helping me getting minor problems worked out with the 659. I will say this about Logitech support. I called 4 times, once for something minor, and the folks in their Tier 1 support in Las Vegas ALWAYS transferred me to Tier 2 support in Toronto. Vegas knows little and was of no value. Toronto on the other hand has a very polite and very sharp support staff. Omar and Melissa in particular were fantastic. My only complaint is I waited 2, 26, 42, & 51 minutes on hold waiting for Tier 2 to answer. Actually, the 2 minute wait was nothing, but the wait time averaged 30 minutes on hold over my four calls. I'm now using the H659 and I'm happy with it's performance. I suspect the 628 could have made me just as happy if I had stuck with it. I think the memory issue is isolated so I didn't kill the product with a poor rating.