[darkpuppet]

I picked up the Harmony 880 last year, and let me tell ya... this thing rocks.

I bought it to replace my neo pronto, which, while extremely configurable, was a pain to program everything yourself... I'm fussy, so making my own graphics and everything for the touch screen became a chore... and a technical glitch with a firmware/software update lost EVERYTHING, so I said to hell with it (anyone wanna buy it?).

Anyways, the harmony 880.. you enter in all the components from the interweb, and if you're missing something, (my remote at least) has a learning capability that'll allow you to capture the buttons, configure it, and upload it to the web for everyone to use.

I found it necessary to add component specific functions to the activities, (ie. it would be nice to skip-to-next-disc when just listening to CD). but the web interface makes it relatively simple.

I did find that it's possible to accidentally disable the tilt sensor in mine so the backlight doesn't come on without hitting a button, it only happened once (I have no idea how as there's no menu option to set it without hitting the internet).. but just reloading the configuration from the computer worked just dandy.

Also, I've dropped this thing on the parquet flooring MANY times.. not a scratch, not a rattle.. even the color LCD screen, while not the highest quality, is quite robust.

I like the help menu function, but I found that some ludites still won't figure it out even with the help screen stepping them through everything, but it's a minor trade-off... Most people agree this remote is a lot more accessible than the neo pronto it replaced, even though it doesn't quite have the 'bling' factor of a totally programmable soft button interface.

p.s. the tiny print and somewhat dull blue backlight can be difficult to read at any distance, and the fact that the remote needs regular charging (convenient enough with it's cradle) may deter some people who are not good at putting the remote away.