Harmony One
After spending about four years with my Harmony Xbox Remote, I have upgraded to a brand new Harmony One. The first remote served me very well, even when I had the complicated TV/projector/receiver/ReplayTV/cable box/DVD setup in Jersey. However, it was starting to show it’s age. Some of the most used buttons were either really hard to press or didn’t work at all. With Tyla moving in after the wedding, I need a single remote that “just works” so that I don’t overwhelm her with my geeky setup.
Enter the Harmony One and it’s beautiful color touchscreen. Programming the new remote was incredibly simple. I connected it via USB to my computer, fired up the Logitech software, and clicked “Replace Remote.” It transferred all the settings from my old remote to the new remote. Done.
Here are the improvements in the new model versus the old model:
- There is now a charging dock. The remote never gets lost because it’s always in the dock and I won’t have to replace the batteries anymore.
- The color touch screen is put to good use. Whenever you want to program a button that doesn’t have a physical counterpart, you can create a virtual button on the touch screen. These buttons are specific to whatever activity you are performing (Tivo, BluRay, etc.)
- When watching Tivo, I have told it my favorite stations and downloaded the corresponding station icons. The remote presents me with a visual list of the channel logos for my favorite stations.
- I can now program in specific sequences. I haven’t used this feature yet but I can see it being useful for more complicated setups that I will hopefully have in the future.
- All of the buttons are the hard, clicker style buttons instead of the soft mushy buttons. The tactile feedback is much better to let you know that you’ve actually clicked the button.
- Despite the touch screen, I think the remote looks less intimidating. There are fewer buttons and every button is backlit so it’s easy to view in the dark.
The main reason these remotes are so handy is that you don’t have to explain to anyone that when you want to watch Tivo you have to set the TV to HDMI2 and turn the AV Receiver to HDMI input 1. It just works. The remote can control up to 15 different devices so even for a very complicated scenario, any activity comes down to a single button push.
So yes, it’s an expensive remote, but if you have anything more complicated than a TV + cable box, you’ll probably understand the value. At one point, I replaced 6 different remotes with one Harmony remote. Bravo, Logitech!