I've got the Harmony One and can use it to control all aspects of my Astro Max, no problems. The only downside i can see is that the Harmony doesnt hv the dedicated set of extra GREY directional (up, down, left, right) buttons, which can be found on the original Astro Max remote in addition to the standard set of WHITE directional buttons (as you know, the original Astro Max remote uses the different coloured buttons to control different aspects of the onscreen navigation). What i do is use the hardware directional buttons on the Harmony One as the WHITE directional buttons (which is the default) and configure four additional buttons on the touch screen (labeled as 'Grey Up', 'Grey Down', 'Grey Left' and 'Grey Right') for the GREY directional buttons. A little clunkier but it works.

Bought the Harmony 885 today. Thanks for the heads up Enriquelee. I've been waiting for the RF version of Harmony One since early this year, but when I this baby for RM399, I just couldn't resist anymore. Works well with all my equipment including my new BD35 (Astro need to tweak a little bit).

This iss really cool, especially with the "Activity" macro command, with one touch I'm all set to watch a blu-ray movie, everything's on with proper input settings on the TV and AV receiver.

RM399?? Care to share where u got it from??

I think you can still do so with the earlier Harmony remotes (non-touch screen models) - the earlier models have buttons by the sides of the screen (next to each icon) that allows you to activate/select the corresponding onscreen icon, you just can't select by touching the actual icon onscreen, that's all. Aiman may be able to shed some light on this with his new 'toy'...

Terranova (the OP of this thread) has already done a great review of the Harmony One. Only comment i would like to add after a few weeks' use is that sometimes the Logitech Harmony Remote software (which goes online to retrieve and save your settings) can become unbearably slow/sluggish and sometimes loses its login/connection. I read somewhere that this can happen when there's very heavy traffic to the Logitech server (e.g., during peak holiday season in the US). Overall, I'm extremely pleased with the One. It seems that it's even got some kind of smart sensor technology that can tell if a device is already on when you start an activity so it won't accidentally turn it off. Highly recommended. Now i just need to wean my family members from the old jumble of remotes and start using only the One!

You can configure/customise the 880/885's screen buttons to behave any way you like, including as grey arrow keys of your Astro Max.

The only difference is that the One's screen is a touchscreen, which means you press the screen to activate the button (ala iPhone) whereas the 880/885 has a tiny (very tiny for ppl with fat fingers like me) hard button beside each quadrant of the screen to activate the respective function key that appears on the screen. Look at the photos on the first page to see the tiny buttons I'm talking about.
Yes, almost all (if not all) universal remotes in the market today have this "learning" ability, not just Harmony. So long as you have the original remote, you can make the universal remote learn the functions. What's good about the Harmony is that these codes are stored online on the logitech server, so no worries even if you lose the original remote.

Morning guys.

Enriquelee, yes you can have the remote to learn any remote, but the setup software is web-based. You need to have connection to the internet every time you want to change something, you have to login with your username.

Overall, I'm really satisfied with the 885. Works very well with all my equipment, including the Astro (need some tweaking though), but sorry, I don't use Astro Max. The buttons should be better on the One, but for the 885's price at RM399, nothing to complain. The One costs over 60% more, at a whopping RM1099. The buttons on the 885 are big enough for me, even the ones on the screen sides.

Even my 4-year-old kid likes the remote, because I put his little brother's pic as the wallpaper.

You'd probably not use the remote management software that often after you've set it up, unless u add new devices or activities. However, in the initial stages, you'd be using the software very often (and spend hours) to set it up properly and make everything work the way u want it to, set up your favourite channels, customise the soft keys, etc. etc.

Also, sometimes you'd access the software to update the remote's firmware. These are updated periodically, mostly for bug fixes etc.
Yes, that is what i meant in my reply above. you can make your Harmony learn the old remote via pairing. however, like aiman pointed out, you'd still need to log in and start up the management software on your pc/notebook to do this.
you log in first, then pair. whatever u want to do to the remote, the only way to access it is via the software and hooking up the remote to the notebook/pc via usb cable (supplied).

And after you get your Harmony One, go to http://www.iconharmony.com/ to get the brilliant icons of your favourite tv stations, created specifically for the One. I donated to Randy's efforts and he in turn did some customised icons for me.   

Gocitygo, got it from All IT at lowyat for RM399.  Gotta be a member though.

Terra LOL!  It's working fine now. I just tried fiddling with some random troubleshooting options and it magically decided to work!

I like how you can have icons logos for your favourite Astro channels.  Shame you can't have them for other activities.
 
It's a bit annoying how the Harmony can't turn on the Wii or PS3.  Stupid bluetooth.  Thinking about getting a cheapo IR PS3 remote so I have an IR dongle to use with the harmony.  Something like this: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.10879 At least then I can control Blu rays (and I think streamed media as well?)

The same website terranova posted: http://www.iconharmony.com/

Although I made a few myself.

When I was setting up my 880/885 some years back, I used the icons from the following sites:

http://squareworld.com/harmony/
(this was actually Randy's old site before he created http://www.iconharmony.com/ which now offers icons for the 880/885 as well since the new year)

http://www.lyngsat-logo.com/tvcountry/my.html
(these are specific to those in Malaysia e.g. Astro, TV3, NTV7, etc.; for those not listed here, you can also check out the icons available in other countries that are sharing similar channels e.g. Singapore, Hong Kong, etc. by clicking on the country link or alphabetical link)

http://www.satlogo.com/hi-res/a_1.html

http://www.remotecentral.com/cgi-bin/files...logitechharmony

Hope the newcomers to the Harmony world will find it useful and relevant. If you want to create your own for the 880/885, the fav channel icons are 64x32 pixels.

On another note, have you guys seen the new 1100 remote introduced at the ongoing CES?

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http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/remotes/...s/4708&cl=us,en

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Added on January 12, 2009, 11:12 pm

Yes u can. There are various workarounds to do this. What do u have in mind, Cory? Radio stations?

Create a custom activity or choose an activity that has a tv-like device type (e.g. watch tv activity), set up a non-existent tv and power on your fictitious tv, then specify the radio receiver or tuner to change channels, and set up fav channels according to your radio station.

Note that only devices such as tv, cable/satellite stb, vcr, dvd recorder, etc. offers the Favorite Channel feature.