Home > Consumer Reviews > Logitech Harmony 510 Advanced Universal Remote Control

A nice unit. Easy setup. Only down side to this remote is the size of the buttons, they could be a little larger. Everything else is great.

I was a little hesitant at the $80 price tag, but it's worth every penny especially considering all the money I've spent on cheaper universal remotes that just sit useless on my coffee table because they just don't have all the detail of function that this one does. The setup process seems intimidating, but it's actually quite easy once you get into it. It does take awhile, but you only have to do it once. After it's set up, ONE CLICK turns on your sound system, TV and DVD. It will also set the system and TV to their proper channels. Then one button will turn it all off again. You set the remote up to perform certain "activities" like watch a DVD, or watch TV and it will turn on all the appropriate devices and switch them to the proper settings for the specific activity. Yes, it's an expensive remote, but it's well worth the money, even for a cheapskate like me.

We have two Logitech remotes: an older 680 and the 510. The 510 is far superior regarding reliable performance over the older 680. A new replacement for the 680 would approach $150, while the 510 is under $100.

Beware: There *may be* an extensive amount of tweaking required. The email technical support eventually guided me to the correct settings. As with so many of today's contracted technical support businesses, one gets an initial script answer - leading the purchaser to believe the support personnel FAILED to read or IGNORED an excellent description of the problem. After much problem description redundancy, you get someone cleaver enough to accurately understand the problem and make plausible recommendation.

Tweaking is a downside of 'universal' - the Amazon shipping and service is excellent.

I bought this for my Mitsubishi big screen, PlayStation 3 (games, Blu-ray, DVD), DirecTV DVR, and Sony surround sound amplifier. A lot of reviews complain it only supports 5 devices. That is a bummer, but I only have 4 things to control so it works perfect for me. I got the optional PS3 adaptor and it works great.

Set-up:
Set-up was pretty simple, but it does take time (30-45 mins), and most of that is downloading software and device profiles. Make sure you have an internet connection. The downloads didn't bother me as it assures the remote supports a lot of devices. The actual set-up worked fine on my Mac and the set-up program was easy to use with more options than I needed. I saw some reviewers complain about the remote not supporting their devices. That's just lazy. If you want to know if your TV, cable box, amp, etc. is supported go to Logitech's website and look-up the Harmony remotes. They have a compatibility checker on the web. Enter your device's model number and it will tell you if it is supported.

Remote Control Use:
When switching activities, like from watching TV to watching DVD's you have to make sure it stays pointed at the devices for a few seconds to let it cycle through all the components. No big deal just a tip for using it. Minus the fancy color touch screen and support for more than more than 5 devices, it has all the features of the more expensive Harmony remotes. The Help feature can quickly correct any problems with your set-up (like the amp not getting turned on). It is easy to use and my wife, a total technophobe, has no problem with it. It also has all the buttons for the remotes programmed into the LCD screen, so many of the advanced audio buttons on my Amplifier that aren't on the Harmony I can get to by cycling through the LCD screens. So I don't ever have to use any remote other than this one.

Great product for the money, If you only have 5 or less devices this is a steal.

I went to the Logitech website to see what devices this remote can control and it said it supported my Acer Aspire R3600 computer. Well yes I can add the device to the remote but the remote can't do anything with it. I have a wireless keyboard but it couldn't connect. It also doesn't have any real advanced controls for the Activities. The software thinks it knows exactly what capabilities all the devices have and limits your selection of actions to what it thinks it knows, so for example since it couldn't do anything with my computer, it was never a candidate for any action such as watch a DVD, etc. Overall extremely weak configuration for Activities and whole remote is based upon this Activity concept. You have to dig around to get your AV equipment turned on/off manually because you can select a device context and only a few buttons are changed. Miserable.