I posted this earlier today in an open thread in the Outlaw to Outlaw section, but perhaps it should have been here instead. I apologize for repeating myself in multiple forums, but here it is again:

If you're interested, Dell has the Harmony 880 (the fancy new color model) for about $176 shipped, with no rebates to mail. Go to http://www.hot-deals.org and scroll down to the info for the Harmony 880 from Dell.com. In the description there is coupon code to get the price down. Just paste this into the box in the shopping cart, and it is automatically applied and the total price will change to reflect this. I ordered mine last Friday and it arrived on Tuesday. I haven't set it up yet, but look forward to playing with it this weekend. Enjoy.

Jeff

Perhaps I should have given a little more background, I don't work for Dell or Logitech. I presently use an MX-500 (and have for couple of years) with my 990 (for a couple of months) and am very happy with it. I really like the MX-500 and don't NEED to try another remote. I just WANTED to play with something different. The Harmony remotes have interested me for a while, but the MX-500 just works so well. My only complaint with the MX-500 is that the "5" key should feel a little different from the rest of the keys to make it easier to find your position on the number pad.

Lonny, I'm glad to hear that yours works well and you really like it. Hopefully it'll work out the same for me.

Jeff

I recieved the 880, and don't like it. Sure, it was easy to set up (ALL components were found, even the Gefen DVI swich and Marantz DV8400), but it takes too many screen changes to get to "dolby modes" and "DTS" and "Stereo" modes. Also, these are not on the same page, maybe the page can be edited, but I don't see how.
A big concern, was with my DVR (dish 921), I used to have a dedicated button to access the recordings (DVR), and this we use all the time, to switch between live HD and recorded HD. Again, numerous pages back.
Finally, it was stated that this would simplify 16/9 4/3. Not for me. I have a 4/3 HD
CRT,1080i; and a 16/9 progector, 720p. I had hoped there would be a way to tell the Source to output properly automatically depending on the activity. Not a choice.
I don't know if I pursue this with logitec or just send it back.
How about the MX series remotes, any hope there?

The MX remotes are going to be a more manual setu process. With the MX-500, I recommend simply learning your commands straight in from the original remotes when you can, so that the button layout is what works for you. THe MX-700 allows you to download config files that others have created or modified and then tweak them to your tastes, but I still ended up doing some of my setup from scratch. The 700 allows an endless assortment of macros (which may be a good match for your needs - you could potentially have two macro buttons on the first screen of each source device that would be "CRT" and "PROJ" to send commands needed to get aspect ratio and such correct).

I haven't looked closely at the 880 to know what it allows - I'd hope to be able to move commands around on screens (I keep Dolby, DTS, and stereo together and include them somewhere on each device's setup in my MX's, for example).

It's my understanding that, on the 880, you can move commands around to be more convenient for you.
Call up their customer service. They are very helpful and actually listen to your needs.
I have a few items that I want to move to a 'first screen' too (Dolby modes, etc). I will look into this next week and see how simple it may be.
Lonny

Thanks to Jeff for the link. I ordered my 880 from Dell just now and expect to report next week on how the set-up goes.

I got my Harmony 880 setup today and so far I'm pretty happy with it. I definitely like that it keeps track of which devices are on and which are off. It took me a couple of attempts to get it setup correctly (all my fault). I had setup a "Test Drive" profile on the Harmony site previously for my Outlaw 950 and some equipment I have and a few devices that I was thinking about getting. I tried treaking this setup and I think that is where my problems came from with the 990. I eventually deleted everything and put it in again and almost everything seems to work as I expect it to do. The only problem that I'm still having is that I have my Sony DirecTV TiVO patched into Video2 on the 990 and have setup the remote to reflect this. However, whenever I turn on the system to watch TV, the 990 always starts up with Video1 as the TV input, but that is where the VCR sits. I can then use the remote to choose Video2 and from there it always returns to Video2 for TV viewing, until I turn off the system and then it defaults back to Video1 for TV when turned back on. My profile looks good, I just can't get it to work. Other than that I think that I may really like this remote. If anybody knows a fix for the wrong video input issue (not "just move the Sony to Video1") I'd appreciate hearing about it.

One thing that I did do was to customize my "Watch TiVO" activity to have the "stereo", "Dolby" and "DTS" modes on the front page. It was pretty easy to do.

-- after logging in on the website, go to "Buttons and Menus" and choose the activity for which you want to add/change what shows on the display

-- scoll down to the "Custom, Button Label" section and make you changes there.

I got rid of the the ThumbsUp and ThumbsDn buttons, which I hardly ever use, and replaced them with Stereo and Dolby buttons, and then added a DTS button. So far that's all I've done, but it worked great and was easy to do. I'll probably eventually customize things quite a bit more, but these are the basic steps to do that. I just stumbled around until I found this screen.

AudioBear, I'm glad that the link helped. The www.hot-deals.org site is someplace that I check frequently, as they sometimes have some great deals. That's where I got the coupons to get my 20" Dell flat panels from Dell for a couple hundred (each) less than what Dell had them priced on their website.

Jeff

How about soundfields? Does the 880 allow for selection of soundfield with the 990? (like dd+PL2 movie for sat, and Upsample stereo for listen to music)
How have you guys been dealing w/ that?

blaineh,

I think that what you are asking is what I was trying to say in my posting just above this. The one customization that I've done so far is to make it so that I can toggle through the various sound modes. I changed two buttons and added a third to let me do this in my "Watch TiVO" activity. The different stereo and dolby modes were already there for some of the other activities. An "activity" is basically a macro used to setup a particular function, such as watch cable, watch DVD, Listen to CD, etc. Sorry if this isn't very clear.

Jeff

Jeff
That was pretty clear, and I appriciate the info. Knowing that I can reassign buttons is great. But, the buttons (as they are on the original)are toggles, and I was hoping the macro might allow for direct control of soundfields. Meaning, select "listen to music"; now, the remote turns on the Dish reciever, tunes to a digital music station, turns on the 990, and selects stereo upsample mode. I simply listen...