Logitech Harmony 890

Introduction

For the home theatre enthusiasts in the crowd, I wanted to share some experiences with the Logitech Harmony 890 universal remote. I have been using it for over six months now and absolutely love it! The following is an equipment review that focuses mostly on the software as that is where the real value of this remote shines.

Features

You can read more on Logitech web site but here are the features that stand out for me:

• Excellent Signal Range - In my setup, I have devices on the side walls and back of the room. It reaches them all.
• One Click Operation - With a single click of the button I can be in the following modes: movie, music, game, etc.
• Motion Detection - Detects when it is being picked up, reactivates, and illuminates. While this is handy, I have to admit that sometimes you need to shake the device or hit the “Glow” button to wake it up.
• Customizable - Once the device is connected to your computer, you can set up all kinds of activities, devices, instruction sequences, etc.

Setup

After you have unpacked the device, you need to plug in the cradle, and allow the remote to charge in the cradle to power the rechargeable battery. While that is happening you can install the Logitech Harmony software on your computer, set up a user profile, register your devices, and configure them. For example, here is the login screen which connects to the Logitech network via your internet connection:

Once logged in, you will spend most of your time setting up activities and devices. Activities are like macros that allow you to perform several operations at once. For example, if I want to watch a movie, I would call it “Play Movie”. This then would be available on the main menu of the remote as a clickable button which could perform a sequence of operations:

1. Turn on the display.
2. Turn on the receiver.
3. Turn on the DVD/Blu-Ray player.
4. Set receiver sound to Dolby Digital 5.1 audio.
5. Set video to HDMI.
6. Open DVD/Blu-Ray player disk drive for disk insertion.

Main Menus

The following walks through the main menus of the Logitech Harmony software:

Activities Menu:

Devices Menu:

Z-Wave Devices Menu:

Scenes Menu:

Settings Menu:

The background settings, while configurable, are rather limiting in what you can do. The slideshow settings, however, are nice. I ended up putting trip photos on it. The slideshow can be configured to cycle automatically or you can manually force it via the remote.

Adding Activities/Devices

While I am not going to walk through the full activity and device setup, here is a taste:

Adding activities:

Adding devices:

Hardware

The remote comes with a cradle, power cable, IR extenders for setups that require the remote signal to be relayed to a hidden device, Logitech Harmony software, a USB cable for connectivity to your computer, and a few other items.

I find the main buttons such as stop, play, fast forward, volume, channel, number keys, etc. to be big and easy to use. The programmable menu buttons, however, are not as easy to find. They could be a bit larger but that is small nit and not really a big concern.

Issues

The only issue I have had is a couple rare occassions where the main menu locked up on the device. Not sure what the cause was as I was not able to recreate the issue. The workaround was to simply pop out the battery and put it back in again.

Parting Thoughts

This universal remote makes the whole multimedia experience much sweeter. My only regret is that I did not buy it sooner.

HMDI

For those trying to make sense out of the current high definition video and audio wars, DenGuru has an excellent article on the High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) interface worth checking out. Being a home theatre enthusiast myself, all I can say is that you need to hold out for the new hardware components being released this year. The reason is that the HDMI 1.3 specification not only supports video beyond the 1080p high definition resolution but the best part is that it also supports the high definition Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD audio formats (both support lossless audio formats)! This is important because we finally get a superior upgrade in audio quality which hasn’t happened for some time (that includes the DVD format as it only offered us more channels but audio that was severely crippled by being compressed).

Apple iPhone

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is in full swing again this year with Apple’s new iPhone generating a lot of buzz. This is a device that not only is a phone, but an iPod, web browser, e-mail client, camera, etc. I recommend following the iPhone link provided above as Apple has done an excellent job of putting together product propaganda that will give you much more of an idea of how the device looks, acts, and performs. Do not get too excited though, you won’t be able to get your hands on this device until June of this year. For more info, go here:

• TechCrunch
• ArsTechnica

Tags: iPhone

Skype Wi-Fi Phones

I am currently in the market to buy a new phone and being fan of Skype software I have been seriously contemplating buying a Skype Wi-Fi phone instead of a standard cell phone. The following is a few pros and cons as well as a list of Skype-enabled Wi-Fi phones:

Pros

1. You can make phone calls anywhere there is Wi-Fi access (secure or non-secure). For example, it would be easy to use the phone at home, the office, a friend’s house, etc.
2. You can easily manage the same contact list at home, work, or anywhere you are connected because your contact list is stored online with your Skype account.
3. A SkypeIn phone number, which is a phone number anyone can call you with using any type of connection (i.e. LAN line, cell, VIOP, etc), is roughly $40 a year for a subscription. Oh, and voice-mail is included for free with this subscription.
4. SkypeOut calling, which is a call placed from your computer to a LAN or cell phone, used to be free in the United States and Canada but is now moving to a subscription based service where it costs $30 a year to use (although if you sign up before the end of the month you can get a year’s subscription for $15).
5. The cost of a standard cell phone subscription is $40/month (approximately). That means that a single person spends a total of $480 a year in subscription fees. However, with Skype (using both SkypeIn and SkypeOut) services you only end up spending $70 a year (or $55 is you act before the end of the month). That’s a savings of $410 (or $425 before end of month)!

Cons

1. You can send or receive phone calls only in areas where you have Wi-Fi access.
2. Connectivity might be problematic or intermittent due to network traffic.
3. Sometimes you can experience delay in conversation due to hickups in the network or connection issues. This is a bit more noticable than cell phone.
4. Sometimes you can’t have a conversation with the other person at all due to network traffic and connectivity.
5. You can not use Skype in case of an emergency due to the nature of the internet. There are more issues with connections, software, etc. when using telelphony over the internet versus a dedicated LAN or cell line.

Phones

Most manufacturers started developing phones for Skype last year and so this technology is relatively new. Here are a few of the major players:

• Sony Mylo - Not only does this support Skype but it supports e-mail, web browsing, pictures, movies, and music. I have to admit that it has my interest and will be keeping tabs on this product. The only thing holding me back is that I wish it had personal information management capabilities like managing lists, calendars, contacts, etc. It does support note taking in the form of text files but that only goes so far.
• SMC WSKP100 - A very basic phone with basic capabilities. Nothing to get excited about but is one of the cheaper phones. Supports both 802.11b and 802.11g networks.
• NETGEAR SPH101 - A slight improvement over the SMC phone but not by much. Supports both 802.11b and 802.11g networks.
• Belkin F1PP000GN-SK - Much like the the SMC and NETGEAR phones but with a better finish and design to the phone. To me this phone does everything correctly. Has all the features needed for using a phone along with the necessary buttons for using Skype, polished and stylized finish, and supports both 802.11b and 802.11g networks. I would buy this phone.
• Linksys WIP320 - Similar to the SMC, NETGEAR, and Belkin phones. Supports 802.11b and 802.11g networks.

Conclusion

I have been using Skype for quite a while now and really like it. The ability to chat, call, send files, even share screen sessions with others for tutorial purposes (via a plugin), and host chat/call confererences is really nice. The fact that you can take Skype mobile is even more attractive now that more and more manufacturers are starting to develop new and interesting devices. Obviously, replacing your LAN and/or cell phone with Skype could be a dangerous solution but possibly getting rid of the cell phone and using using both Skype and a LAN phone might work. In my case, maybe I’ll use Skype and the girlfriend can keep the cell phone. Although, I doubt she will find that very amusing…

Neosonik

An American startup called, Neosonik, has developed a way in which to broadcast video and sound wirelessly. You can read more about Neosonik by visiting their web site and reading their documentation and diagrams but here are a few key notes:

• Supports up to 60MB/second throughput of uncompressed video and audio.
• All transmission is digital which helps to preserve original source content (if digital to begin with).
• They claim there is no interference from other wireless sources and the signal can be transmitted through walls up to 200 feet.
• Complete synchronization of all output. In the case of and audio signal where you might have a 5.1 layout (i.e. left and right loudspeaker, center speaker, left and right surround sound speaker, and subwoofer) this means that the signal transmitted is received by all speakers at the same time.
• Since each component in your setup is wireless the need for a centralized power amplifier goes away and is, instead, put in each component. This potentially means that you will need an electrical socket for each component or a lot of extension cords. This displacement of power could be good or bad depending on your environment.
• The initial cost of the entire system is between $6,000 and $15,000 as they expect you to buy their controller, speakers, etc. all from them. On the other hand, a specification is being developed by many key players (like Sony and Toshiba) called WirelessHD which would allow other manufactures to be compatible with this technology.
Tuesday, December 26th, 2006 Electronics No Comments

Thumb Drive Software

I recently bought a SanDisk Cruzer Titanium 2GB Thumb Drive which was reviewed by Gizmodo. It includes U3 compatible software such as Skype, Firefox, RoboForm, and Thunderbird to name a few. I bought this drive as a solution for accessing data in a secure fashion between my home and work computers. However, after playing with the U3 software, I found that I really liked the added capability of running applications off my thumb drive on any computer without ever having to install software on the computers I attached my thumb drive to.

Since the time I originally purchased my thumb drive I have been investigating various solutions for running software off a thumb drive and found the following:

• U3 - For those interesting in porting applications to a thumb drive using the U3 system, take a look at their developer’s kit.
• MojoPack - Check out LifeHacker’s article, Build your “PC on a stick” with MojoPac, for more information.
• PortableApps

This is definitely something worth considering for those who need to access multiple computers but do not want the hassle of maintaining software on each.

IBM ThinkPad T40p

I recently upgraded the networking software on my IBM ThinkPad T40p laptop to fix an issue where Windows XP would crash when switching from wired to wireless connections. Plus, I wanted to take advantage of the new Access Connection software that manages my wired and wireless network connections.

To start, I visited the software support pages for IBM ThinkPads and then selected my model. From there I grabbed the following downloads and installed them in the order listed here:

1. Intel PRO 10/100/1000 LAN Adapter (2005-04-22, Build 94590)
2. IBM dual band WiFi wireless mini PCI adapter (4.1.102.133)
3. ThinkVantage Access Connections

After rebooting the machine each time I installed a new piece of software, I finally had an upgraded machine with no glitches:

Rechargeable Batteries

Here are a few useful articles on what is good and bad in the world of rechargeable batteries:

• Steve’s Digicams
• Imaging Resource - The Great Battery Shootout!
• Digital Photography Review

…and a good source for buying supplies:

• Thomas Distributing

Sony VPL-VW100 Projector

Back in 2000 the Sony VPL-VW10HT projector was herald as the best of its class at the time and reviewed by The Perfect Vision, Issue 30, with great enthusiasm.

Fast forward to the present. The video landscape has changed to support HDMI and DVI (all digital formats). Gone are the days of analog video. TVs and projectors have made huge advancements in technology and now, finally, after years of hype, displays are arriving that can finally show true 1080p HD resolution (1920×1080 progressive pixel resolution). Here is where Sony outdoes itself again by creating the VPL-VW100 projector. Again, The Perfect Vision reviews this project in Issue 66 and receives the venerable Product of the Year award to boot!

This is great news for home theater enthusiasts, like me, who are searching for the answer in improving the home theater experience and stepping into the new age of high definition video.

Additional Reviews

• Ultimate AV
• CNET Equipment Review
• CNET Editor’s Review
• HD Blog

Suggestions

• One might think about paring this projector with the Stewart Greyhawk 16:9 screen.

Linksys ProConnect KVM

Went searching for a Keyboard Video Mouse (KVM) switch so that I can switch between my Windows desktop, laptop, and Linux server machines.  Found the following possible potential candidates (narrowed down):

• IOGEAR MiniView™ SE GCS84B KVM Switch Kit
• Linksys ProConnect SVIEW04 4-Port CPU Switch
• Belkin F1DJ104P-B  4-Port KVM Switch with cables

Ended up with the Linksys ProConnect.  Mainly because it supports manual push buttons for switching between computers in addition to the hotkey commands.  It’s unfortunate that you can’t turn off the hotkey commands but I wasn’t able to find many (if not any) that would support that capability.