i do want a device where i didn’t really need my PC to set it up, some of the really old onkyo remotes included with their receivers just had the point at the remote with the original and it worked.

I agree the software is poor, but I found it relatively easy (though painfully slow) to set up. I know however this has something to do with the autistic effort I put into configuring my 880 and understanding the Harmony mindset some four odd years ago.

I love Harmony remotes, their ability to change context is wonderful and it took me thousands of dollars in testing variuos remotes to uncover it (before I got my 880 the best remote I’d found was a Sony with macros).

But you have to program them differently from Harmonies defaults to get the best out of them and carefully structure the states it assummes for appliances. It is worth the reward to persist.

I once tried to edit the XML downloaded from Harmony directly to overcome frustrations in the 880 before I concluded setting every activity up as a ‘custom’ activity in their old web interface was the way to go.

Yeah, my dad tried one of these URCs once. Once was all it took for him to chuck the notion out altogether. And, he came up with a cheaper solution: he got an empty plastic jar and dumped all our remote controls in it. So when you watch a VCD or DVD, all you need to do is pick up the jar and plunk it down beside you–simple, cheap, and effective.

Checkout the AVForums website and you’ll find loads of people praising the Harmony remotes and several other universal remotes too. I think this article is a little unfair because the Harmony approach to to “Activity” based operation rather than trying to copy every button of all of your remotes is a great idea and makes operation very simple. My parents can now just press “Watch TV” or “Watch a DVD” and hey presto everything comes on and away they go. Much easier than pressing the TV button, followed by ON then the Amp button followed by ON etc. etc.

They also have a very useful Help function on the remote that solves problems if something is turned off manually thus mucking up the macro. It will ask questions like “Is the TV on now?” while fixing the problem. It works extremely well and it’s very rare that you even need to use this anyway.

All in, the newer universal remotes, especially the Activity based Harmonys work extremely well, the later versions of the software are much simpler to use (although I personally didn’t find many problems with the earlier ones) and ultimately they can replace the numerous remotes for AV systems, TVs, Projectors, DVD players, PVRs etc. etc. with a single, easy to use remote, which is obviosuly a very good thing. I largely agree with Stephen’s opinions on many things but in this instance I think he’s got it wildly wrong.

Slink

Oh, you know what I mean.

You should see my modulator. Hee…

I don’t want to talk about it.