# Harmony 555 remote



## Phil_Hoggins (Oct 3, 2002)

Folks, if your interested I've found this sexy little remote at a nice price £43 + £4.70 delivery

http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/322941/art/logitech/harmony-555-universal-rem.html?srcid=349


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## Rob Nespor Bellis (Feb 17, 2001)

I would be very wary about buying anything from pixmania. Having had the misfortune to order something from them before xmas I can say that their customer service is abysmal, their attitude is poor, their delivery is laughable and as for trying a return when THEY send the wrong thing......

I will never use them again and would advise everyone to do the same.

Rgds,

R.


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## iankb (Oct 9, 2000)

I believe that Pixmania sometimes deliver directly from France, which probably explains a lot.


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## Pugwash (May 23, 2003)

I bought my Harmony 885 from them at a nice price. They delivered one with a non-UK plug, and an adapter that doesn't fit! When I told them, they replied to my second email with a promise to send a replacement power lead, but it never arrived.

Lucky for me I had a suitable travel adapter spare!


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## grum (May 9, 2002)

I have one of those. The photos look great but the build quality is terrible, the buttons are difficult to press and the display is quite difficult to read. I do however love my other Harmony remote, the 655, and they really are very easy to programme.

Grum


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## Pugwash (May 23, 2003)

Best device I've ever bought (except maybe an MP4 watch) and I've finally put about 6 or 7 device remotes in a box in the back room. The only problem maybe is it's loose position in the charge-cradle, but otherwise it's perfect.
Even my girlfriend likes it!


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## BaggieBoy (Dec 4, 2000)

Pugwash said:


> I bought my Harmony 885 from them at a nice price. They delivered one with a non-UK plug, and an adapter that doesn't fit! When I told them, they replied to my second email with a promise to send a replacement power lead, but it never arrived.
> 
> Lucky for me I had a suitable travel adapter spare!


Strange I bought an 885 from them too, but the adapter was correct. I'd bought it via Amazon maketplace and gave them an average rating because delivery was very slow. To their credit they then refunded me the postage.


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

I bought a 1Gb Olympus XD card from them that was delivered in one day but all the pictures on the card apart from the first two have now become corrupt.

I have never had problems with data corruption on any other SD or XD cards I own. Bearing in mind the low price and their Jersey location I wonder if these cards aren't in fact cheap and badly made counterfeits as the branding on the card does say Olympus.


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## Major dude (Oct 28, 2002)

Do either the 555 or 885 control two TiVos on different codes in the same room?

Is the 885 really worth over £50 more than the 555?


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## ndunlavey (Jun 4, 2002)

Rob Nespor Bellis said:


> I would be very wary about buying anything from pixmania. [...]
> I will never use them again and would advise everyone to do the same.


I agree. I bought a Pentax camera from them last year, and even though I bought it from their .co.uk site, priced in pounds, what arrived was a French market model, with a French (only) manual. They eventually sent me a plug adaptor, but their only response on the manual was to point me to Pentax' website where I could download several-hundred-page PDF of the English manual.
I think they are dishonest vermin, and I will never user them again.


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## algordon (Apr 1, 2004)

I couldn't recommend Harmony's remotes. I've had three, I think, and gave up on all of them. Having said that, I have to accept, I may well be in the minority. One or two of them started out well and then lost functionality - and no, Pete77 I did check the batteries .

I suspect that most of you'd be far more happy DIYing than me but isn't is possible for some company to offer a tailored service - maybe even for a premium - that'd accomodate folks like me who just want to be able to use the finished product and not have to do it themselves? In other words, I'd like someone else to be able to pre-format my selected remote based on info supplied from me e.g. I have a Tivo, Pioneer blah, blah TV, Arcam etc DVD player, yada yada yada - please format my chosen remote so I can use it for all those devices. 

Does Philips offer anything like this for their Pronto, for example?


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## ruperte (Jan 4, 2002)

Major dude said:


> Do either the 555 or 885 control two TiVos on different codes in the same room?


Can't comment on the 555 or 885, but I did get a Logitech Harmony 655 for christmas  - cost about £50 + delivery.

I did eventually get it working with my 2 UK Tivos but it took some puzzling. The trick is to add them as Manufacturer "Tivo" and just put in "PVR" as the model number - not the UK Thomson model number. This causes the software to add them as American Series 2 tivos, for which they *do* have code for all the remote control channels. Luckily American Tivo's use the same commands as over here.

Just look in Settings --> Confirm infrared commands --> I have a remote, but would like to select from a list of command sets my device supports ....

Command Set2451 is in fact Tivo Remote Channel 0 (aka all tivo's)
Command Set2452 is in fact Tivo Remote Channel 1 (My Top Tivo)
Command Set2453 is in fact Tivo Remote Channel 2 (My Bottom Tivo)
etc ...

So far all the buttons seem to work just fine. Annoyingly I spent over 2 hours trying to get their "Helpdesk" to guide me though this, to no avail  But at least I worked it out (myself!) in the end.

Hope this helps someone.

Rupert


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## Major dude (Oct 28, 2002)

ruperte said:


> but I did get a Logitech Harmony 655 for christmas  - cost about £50 + delivery.
> 
> Rupert


Where from?


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## Pugwash (May 23, 2003)

I'm several months into 885 ownership now and now realise how fantastic this is. I've even set up separate "activities" for SACD, DVD-A, XBMC and such and it's handling the mish-mash of hardware fine. The online interface at Logitech is clunky so I suggest you download the Windows or OSX version. I've used both and they're identical. I changed the button repeat delay on my amp down from a default 600 to 100ms though because the volume was changing very slowly.


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## ruperte (Jan 4, 2002)

Major dude said:


> Where from?


Amazon.co.uk I think their out of them now - this was a second hand one, but it was in its original packaging etc.


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## davisa (Feb 19, 2002)

As I know quite a few of you own Toshiba WL(T)66 TV's on here, anyone had any luck with these Harmony controllers and that TV?

I've got an (ageing) Philips Pronto, but it isn't any good with the Tosh TV as there are no discrete codes for power on/off or input select. The usual tricks don't work either 

I'd want to specify 'tasks' like I do with the Pronto - ie: 'Watch DVD'. Then select 'on TV' or 'on Projector'. It should then switch on the appropriate device, display, amp, select correct input, etc.


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## Pugwash (May 23, 2003)

The Harmony's remember the state of equipment, so if you switch between two activities that use the TV, it'll leave it on. I have a DVD player with a single on/off code, and it's worked fine. My TV has no discreet source codes, only a nextInput one, but it usually gets it right. The software usually knows the name and sequence of your inputs and how many times to send a single code.
Your best bet is to download the demo software from the Logitech site and see if it knows about all of your hardware.
I had a Pronto before, which sat on a shelf for 4 years doing nothing. The harmony is a dream by comparison to configure.


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## davisa (Feb 19, 2002)

I finally succumbed and bought a 525 from Amazon, which arrived yesterday. Decided on this model over the 550 as its almost identical and trust Amazon more than some of the on-line sites mentioned here.

Its strange to replace my Pronto (original) after so many years of sterling service - and they'll be things I miss that the pronto does - particularly the excellent software (Tonto for OSX) and build quality - both of which is far worse for the Harmony.

However, the benefit of being able to control those devices without proper discrete codes should off-set all the negatives. Lets just hope Logitech can sort out some of the current major bugs* - which seem amazing considering this should now be a mature product. 

* Bugs:
1. Software on OSX has issue with entering text into fields. Have to use web interface instead.
2. Backlight doesn't go off after specified time. Have to manually switch off. Bug introduced in latest firmware.
3. Cannot assign multiple actions on same device on single button. Bug introduced in latest software version.
4. LCD shortcut actions inherit from other action screens. Bug introduced in latest software version.


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## Pugwash (May 23, 2003)

I used the OSX version ok. I use Firefox 2 on an iBook sometimes so maybe it was the nasty OSX default browser?


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## CarlWalters (Oct 17, 2001)

just purchased a Harmony-555 remote from Pixmania (via Amazon). I have to say that there were no problems receiving it although I think other people have had problems with Pixmania.

I had a quick go with it last night and I have to say I'm not convinced as yet. It feels quite nice in the hand but the buttons are quite small (compared with my big old clunky One4All-6). 

I set it up just for TiVo plus my old Sony KV-28DV30U TV. I found and downloaded the two codes OK - although there were two options for TiVo so I may not have picked the correct one (I entered the Thomson TIVO PVR-10UK)

I then downloaded the setup and it seemed to do most things OK except for a few niggly little things like 

TiVo - thumbs up/down
TiVo - clear (delete) button

TV - enter a two digit channel number e.g 91 (analogue BBC1)
TV - select teletext 

I'm sure the key presses are buried in there somewhere but they may take some findng.


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## Maclynn (Oct 6, 2000)

Major dude said:


> Do either the 555 or 885 control two TiVos on different codes in the same room?
> 
> Is the 885 really worth over £50 more than the 555?


I use a Harmony on two TiVos in the same room.
I just set them both up on different codes then set up two TiVos on the Harmony website and then used the learning function in the device section to teach each TiVo new codes from the two original TiVo remotes.
It sounds more complicated than it is.
As for value, I use a One which I think is the best of the bunch.
All the other Harmonys are pretty much the same with some good and some not so good features.
I would recommend an MX500.


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