Logitech Harmony 880
After reading a bunch about the Logitech Harmony 880 Universal Remote, I decided to pick one up yesterday. And boy, is it worth every penny.
The remote is a universal remote with a great feel. It's a peanut-style remote, similar in form to the TiVo remote, with a very vibrant color LCD screen. Setup is very easy - after changing you just plug it in to your computer via USB and then run the provided software which takes you off to the logitech website. Here you enter model numbers for all your components and setup "activites" - watching TV, playing a DVD, etc... The defaults all worked for me. Data then gets downloaded to the remote and off you go.
Setup went pretty smoothly for me, with the remote controlling every component almost flawlessly. The only problem I had was that it put my Yamaha reciever into "6CH Input" mode. So I clicked "help" on the remote and it said "Is the TV On (yes/no), Is the TivO on? (yes/no)". Eventually it got to asking about the receiver and finally said "Make sure 6CH in unlocked". I went over to the receiver, pressed the appropriate button, and everything is fine.
This kind of help system is incredible, especially for the times when you pointed the remote away while it was sending commands to multiple components and one is now out of sync. It'll go through a few questions and take the appropriate actions.
You can also upload bitmaps to it for favourite channels. Some good ones are over here.
For other reviews, there's another good one here on Home Theater Forum.
Overall, highly recommended - even with the hefty $250 price tag.
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Worked with the Harmony 880 tech staff for over two hours trying to set up to no avail. Their staff was trying to be helpful but even they admit that the 880 is overwelmingly difficult to set up for many users. The problem is due to firewalls & pop up blockers. Their staff messed up my computer so bad that it took another hour to get it back on line properly! The 880 went back in the box and returned. Sounded like a great idea!