Family bliss

"If you want your entire family to be able to use the entertainment system to its fullest, the simple layout and one-touch activity buttons make this remote the ideal choice."

The quoted text above is taken from the Logitech Harmony Remote website and it speaks the truth. Back when I was slightly more foolish than I am today, I set up my parents with a nice entertainment system in their bedroom. I thought they would enjoy watching movies with surround sound and all the rest of it. What I did not take into account was the fact that they have difficulty with electronics. What is so intuitive to me, can be totally alien and difficult to them.

As a consequence I would get phone calls from my parents everytime they wanted to watch a DVD in their fancy new set up. This lasted a couple of months before I dropped $100 on the solution. I bought them a Harmony 659 remote control. Although this particular remote is now outdated, it still performs. The brilliance of the Harmony remotes is that they are all programmed through a webpage which makes it really simple. You don't have to enter number codes to get it to control different devices, you just plug the remote into a mini-usb jack and tell it what equipment you have. Then you tell it how you want the equipment to run.

For example, for my parents, I asked the remote to turn on their receiver, set it to CD/DVD input, turn on the DVD, eject the DVD disk drawer, turn on the TV, set the TV to Video 1 and mute the TV speakers. So now, my parents press "Watch a Movie" and all of the above happens. They put the DVD in, close the tray and they're in business. It has made my life a lot easier.

These are expensive remote controls, so don't expect to pay $20 like you did for that RCA universal remote. But I bet you only ever got that RCA to control your TV anyway. These remotes will control anything that has an IR receiver even your fan or your light dimmer. The Harmony 520 is the least expensive at $79 then there is the 550 at $99 but the difference between the two is minor. The next step up would be the 880 at $169. The 880, pictured above, has a different design, colour screen and docking station for battery recharge.

If you want to see the difference between the remotes, I recommend this thread.

This is the second time that I've posted about a Logitech product, but I bought both products before Logitech owned the original manufacturer (Harmony and Slim Devices). Interesting. I don't own any shares of Logitech in case you're wondering. But I'm thinking I like their acquisition strategy.