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It was easy to install and the customer support was very helpful in placing the wires on the different components. Having an armoire that has doors on the front, this has made our entertainment center a pleasure to enjoy. Would highly recommend it to anyone.
Previously I found myself using more frequently the Harmony "Help" button to re-send signals that were not picked by the devices. This is my third Harmony remote (model 890), and previously I wasn't using the RF Extender.When you buy the Harmony 890, one RF Extender like this one is already included in the box.I felt that the RF Extender increases the reliability of the Harmony remote. With the RF Extender, the infrared emitter is glued right into each device signal receptor, so there's no way it doesn't detect the signal.I highly recommend using the RF Extender if you found yourself using too frequently the Help button to resend signals to your devices.
We bought a simple system from the shack and it worked flawlessly. The tech suggested we disconnect the phones and the router. The extender would not work in my home. The tech support rep suggested it was because we have wireless phones or because we have wireless internet router. That was not a viable option.
Afer reading several reviews on Amazon, I realized it was exactly what I wanted, and I purchased it.The main problem I had getting it to work was finding out where the IR sensor were located on each device. :) I had heard that wireless was available, so I looked up this product. My wife can now listen to classical music from the sat receiver whenever she wants, or watch a favorite channel without looking it up, play a DVD movie or select one from the DVR, play a streaming movie from Netflix, listen to a CD, and play with the Wii - without me having to show her which button to press.
Some of them were not at all obvious. Even have the proper tray (CD or DVD) pop out to be loaded so she will not get confused which unit to load. As the flexibility of the unit gradually became apparent, allowing me to "fix" problems easily that the automatic setup left (such as the exact DSP setting I wanted on my AV receiver), I got more interested. AMAZING.If you have a remote control mess like I did, with multiple remote controls, so it is too confusing for the non-techies in your family to use, this product, combined with a Harmony remote, is a fantastic solution. having to aim the unit carefully so everything got the IR messages. As a techie, I was expecting the unit to be programmed in a more general (and probably more complex) way, and at first was not sure I wanted to keep it.
Over a few days, as I got familiar with how to program the unit, I got more and more adventurous. This is a problem because of the cabinet can easily get in the way between where I happen to be and where the IR sensor is located on the 6 devices to be controlled. I finally figured it out by using a cardbard card between the unit and the remote to get the location behind the plastic panel. Beats the heck out of so-called universal remotes I have attempted to use in the past (which require "switching" from one unit to the other before pressing buttons).And, of course, you can impress your friends. I asked for (and got) a Harmony 1100 remote for my birthday. The result was quite amazing - now at my fingertips were simple controls to do things that were way too complex for taking the time with 4 remote controls to do manually - especially for my wifh, who really had difficulty getting through the maze of hundreds of buttons to accomplish a simple task such as listening to satellite radio without turning on the TV, etc.Now that I had convinced myself that this really did solve the mess of controlling my AV system easily, including dedicated buttons with icons for my favorite TV channels and sat radio channels (downloaded from the web and imported), I had one minor problem left.
Once I did that, it worked like a charm (at first, I had the wrong location for the sensor based on the incorrect diagram in the manual, and it was unreliable - once I figured out why it was working fine when I was right in front of the unit - IR was bouncing off me into the sensor at the other end of the device - I was able to correct the problem).It works like a charm.
This was user error because I'm not a big reader of manuals. The first time I set it up I did not specify and it did not work. For anyone who is looking to hide their equipment and also not have to deal with pointing the remote at the devices this works great with the compatible harmony remotes. I set the extender up with my harmony remote and it worked as advertised. The only hint I didn't catch on the first setup is that you can specify with the remote which of the 4 ports shoot the IR signal out (or set to shoot on all). A quick peek in to the instructions and I caught this and it worked perfect.
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