Logitech Harmony 670 remote

Some things are so good that they seamlessly integrate into your life and you don’t realize just how good they are until you don’t have them anymore. For me that’s the Harmony 670 remote. I bought it for myself after last Christmas. It allowed me to consolidate to one remote for our DVR, TV, PS2/DVD player and lighting with future expansion options. We previously had four remotes for this. The remote that came with our DVR was not compatible with our HP TV, the PS2 had a wired controller and the lighting, well, is lighting. Note: I use a rope light from Home Depot to backlight the flat panel TV. Sort of a poor man’s ambilight.

My setup immediately became user-friendly to even the most non-technical of users. And, my wife loves it. You just push the “Watch TV” button and it turns on the DVR and TV and changes the TV to the correct input setting. Likewise, “Watch Movie” turns on the DVD player, TV and switches the TV to the correct input for that.

So, obviously, you are wondering why I mentioned that I don’t have it anymore. Well, a couple weeks ago, the LCD display went blank and no longer displayed text. The unit is very difficult to use without the LCD.

After I submitted a support request through Logitech’s web site and made a follow up call they are sending me a new remote. And, I just need to “recycle” the old one. So, normally, I would never recommend even the greatest product if it broke on me, I don’t hesitate to recommend this one. The warranty support is great. These days, many electronics products have short warranties and/or difficult to deal with off-shored support. Logitech has neither. A one year warranty and, after I submitted my original trouble call electronically and followed their instructions on how to re-flash the firmware (which did not help), when I called I spoke to a pleasant customer service person who, no follow-up questions asked, initiated the shipment of a new unit.

Logitech has several varieties of this remote. I choose this model because of the DVR integration. My wife just pointed out that Money magazine just highlighted this exact model in their article on the greatest gifts ever.