Harmony XBOX 360 colour buttons

[yant]

Hi,

Sorry if the question has already been covered here. I am looking to buy a harmony and I am considering the Harmony XBOX 360 (from Expansys) because it has a few more buttons than the 525 that might come useful. I don't have a Xbos360 but I have a HTPC.

However, could someone confirm that the colour buttons on the Xbox360 remote can be used as standard European remote colour buttons (even if they are in different orders than standards YBGR instead of RGYB).

Does anyone around own one? Does it become a pain because of the misordering of the buttons and I'd be better sticking with a 525? Is it too targetted at the xbox360 and because of that worse for normal TV and home cinema use or does it work as well?

Any other comment welcome.

Thanks

Yan

 

[abraxus]

Hi Yan

I have a 360 remote and yes the colour buttons are laid out for the Xbox.

However you can still use them as the standard TV colour buttons, albeit in the wrong order. I know because I do so with my Virgin cable box.

It's been a while since I set mine up so can't remember if the buttons automatically map to the UK colours (I think they do) but if not it's easy to set them up via the online set up.

As to whether it's a pain or not I guess it depends on how used to the standard order of buttons you are. For me I don't really notice it.

Naturally the remote is targetted to the Xbox 360 but I use mine to control my TV, Virgin cable, VCR, Xbox 360, Projector, AirCon, HiFi and HTPC, and don't find it a pain at all. In fact I don't even notice that it's primarily for the 360.

 

[yant]

Thanks for the info.

Have you noticed any difference in the build quality of the xbox vs the 525 or 555?

Does it make sense to go for the harmony xbox rather than the 525 even if I don't have a xbox. I am thinking that the extra button can be of use and it might work well with a HTPC.

Yan

 

[abraxus]

I think the build quality is more or less identical.

As for whether it makes sense or not I guess it's up to you. I use mine to control my HTPC and don't use the Xbox much at all but still prefer the 360 remote.

I can confirm that it works very well with Media Centre.

 

[saintalan]

Hi, just picked up on this. Am thinking of a 555 but thought this might be a better option. I don't have an XBOX but am about to get some MCEs.

It's hard to see from the pics what the bottom 4 buttons are, if somebody could help? Also the 4 under the colours are they Guide/Info/Exit/Menu?

Although the colours are in a different order they seem better placed a la SKY+ than the 555 at the bottom.

It seems you lose the PICTURE & SOUND buttons but gain the 4 at the bottom, other than that I can see no difference other than it can control 12 devices rather than 15.

Also a reveiw said its 8" x 1" is that correct?

It's well priced at Expansys @ £51

Cheers

Alan

 

[yant]

I've ordered one of these xbox360 from Expansys. They were out of stock and had to get thm from their suppliers. It should arrive next week. Looking forward to it but I suspect my wife will love it even more than me

I was thinking of buying a 555 from Pixmania but a combination of their reputation, them wanting to charge me huge delivery fee via UPS because I am in Northern Ireland when they use Royal Mail /Parcel Force for England or Scotland and the very poor phone conversation I had with one of their sale staff when I phoned to try to ask them if it would be possible to just send it via Royal Mail since they already use them rather than overcharge me for delivery, made me feel that I didn't want to use that company. If that's the way they deal with a potential sale, I suspect some of the comments about issues with post-sale customer service might not be exagerated.

So that was 525 (directly from Amazon, not via a crap marketplace seller for £43) or xbox360 (from Expansys for £46.64 delivered using a £10 off £20 voucher). I decided that the additional buttons might be worth the small price difference.

The differences between 525, 555 are small and the xbox360 is also fairly close. Total number of buttons:
525 - 50 buttons,
555 - 52 buttons (+ Picture, Sound vs 525)
xbox360- 54 buttons (no Guide, + Back, Clear, Display, Title, Enter vs 525)
(I read that the colours can be use as Up/Down when needed)

for details, have a look at:
http://www.remotecentral.com/cgi-bin/mboard/rc-harmony/thread.cgi?4251

Note that while the US 550 has 6 more buttons than the US 520, the EU 555 only has 2 more buttons. So comparatively the 525 vs 555 is much closer than the 520 vs 550. US reviewers comments about the 550 vs 520 should be read carefully, over here both remote use the bottom row for red/green/yellow/blue buttons while on the 520 this row is totally absent. The four buttons below the colours on the xbox360 are Back/Info/Exit/Menu. I can't see anything labelled "Guide" but I am working from pictures since my remote hasn't arrived yet.

If you are thinking of ordering from Expansys, it seems that every so often they send vouchers to peoples with terms like £10 of £20, valid until 30/1/08, OK to give it to a friend. So I found one from a "friend" that was not going to use it before its expiry. That made the xbox360 quite good value. If you look around the net, there might be some more vouchers floating about.

 

[gcogger]

Note that while the US 550 has 6 more buttons than the US 520, the EU 555 only has 2 more buttons. So comparatively the 525 vs 555 is much closer than the 520 vs 550. US reviewers comments regarding usefulness of picture/sound/A/B buttons from the 550 vs 520 should be ignored because over here, both remote use the bottom row for red/green/yellow/blue buttons while on the 520 this row is totally absent. No EU models have the PICTURE & SOUND buttons as they are taken over by the colours on the 525/555. The four buttons below the colours on the xbox360 are Back/Info/Exit/Menu. I can't see anything labelled "Guide" but I am working from pictures since my remote hasn't arrived yet.

The 555 does have picture and sound buttons, but it doesn't have page up/down.

 

[yant]

The 555 does have picture and sound buttons, but it doesn't have page up/down.

Oops, that's correct. I made the mistake of looking at the 550 picture. I'll fix my post then

 

[saintalan]

...I can't see anything labelled "Guide" but I am working from pictures since my remote hasn't arrived yet....QUOTE]

Thanks for the info, I downloaded the manual though from what I have seen the manual is the same for all of them ;-))

GUIDE is written under the YELLOW and LIVETV is under the RED. (dual use)

The bottom 4 are CLEAR/DISPLAY/TITLE/ENTER and the # button is also labelled INPUT

Cheers, let us know how it goes.

Alan