DVDTalk<\/a>)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nI owned and adored a Harmony universal remote for a short while, although it’s been long enough that I can’t remember the specific model. I loved the macros more than anything else about it: the idea that I could mash one button and trigger\/manipulate several different devices. Unfortunately, my Pioneer PRO-151FD television takes ages to become responsive after turning on, rendering the macros useless and stomping all over my interest. I wound up giving the remote to my grandfather.<\/p>\n
I rejiggered my home theater a few months back so that I don’t need to change inputs on my TV anymore. I also tend to turn on my receiver and television by hand before plopping down on the couch. Thanks to all that, I only use two remotes in my living room right now: one for my receiver and the other for my DVR. I alternate between the Xbox One and PS4 for Blu-ray viewing downstairs, and since those consoles are remote-less as I write this, I’m stuck using videogame controllers instead. I’m strange enough to love using lots of remotes, though. Arrays of buttons and stuff make me feel like an astronaut.<\/p>\n
Junie Ray<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nWe have a Logitech Harmony 880 universal remote and it’s pretty awesome. I did not program it so I can’t say if it was easy or not to get the devices set up, but they’re all in there, and it’s the only remote we use. It’s easy to use, the buttons are straightforward, and with the screen that shows your options, even guests can figure out how to get things going. I’m most impressed with the Help function. It has an onscreen troubleshooter that walks you through a series of yes\/no questions, and it actually works. It can resolves issues like when the cable box accidentally gets turned off and needs to be turned back on, or when the receiver is on the wrong input, without you having to drill down through sub-menus or odd button\/combos. Just answer yes\/no and it figures it out.<\/p>\n
The one crappy thing about the remote is the charging station. You’re supposed to place the remote flat on the dock to charge, but the contacts are very poor and it doesn’t actually charge half the time. We manage to work around this design flaw by placing a weight on top of the remote as it charges. Hopefully, this has been straightened out in newer models because everything else about it is great.<\/p>\n
Luke Hickman<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nI’ve never used a universal remote, but I ought to. I currently have four remotes: an LG for the TV, an Onkyo for the receiver, a Sony for the PlayStation, and Comcast’s generic silver DVR box remote. The Onkyo remote and the Comcast remote can control the TV, so it’s nice if I’m using one of those combinations. But I have to use two remotes if I’m doing anything else. I look forward to reading this Roundtable for suggestions!<\/p>\n
Josh Zyber<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nLike Junie, I use a Harmony 880. It’s a few years old by this point, but as far as I’m concerned, is the last Harmony model I care for. I really like the ergonomics of its physical button layout. Newer models have streamlined away most of the buttons in favor of a touch-screen display, and I don’t understand the appeal of that at all. If I’m in the middle of watching a movie and need to pause or chapter skip, I want to be able to do that by touch in the dark. I don’t want to look down at a brightly lit screen and navigate through several submenus to get to the command I need. (For this same reason, I’m mystified by people who insist on using their iPhones as remote controls.)<\/p>\n
The problem with the 880 (which also affects other Harmony models) is that the buttons themselves are kind of flimsy and prone to breaking. I’m currently on my second 880. I replaced the first one when the volume and channel buttons stopped working. After about a year, the volume buttons on the second one stopped working as well. Rather than replace it again, I just reprogrammed it to map those controls to the Up and Down arrow buttons (which I wasn’t using for anything important) instead. Problem solved.<\/p>\n
(Incidentally, I had the same problem Junie does with the charging dock on my first 880, but the second one works much better. Logitech must have made a running change to that at some point.)<\/p>\n
The Harmony database is very expansive. I’ve had no problems programming even some of my oldest equipment into the remote. And if something isn’t already in the database, the 880 can learn the signals from the old manufacturer remote.<\/p>\n
Even so, I haven’t programmed all of my home theater equipment into the Harmony. I still like to keep my projector remotes separate \u2013 mainly because I don’t want someone else in the house to accidentally sit on the Harmony and turn on one or both of my projectors when I’m not around. I also keep the remote for my Lumagen Radiance video processor handy, because that has a lot of esoteric functions that are easier for me to access on the original remote than to navigate through submenus on the 880’s small LCD screen to find them.<\/p>\n
Overall, though, I love the Harmony 880 and couldn’t live without it.<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
Tell us what you use for a universal remote in the Comments. I notice that none of our staff have used a URC remote. I once had a home theater installer try to sell me on that line. He insisted they were way better and more customizable than Harmony, but I just didn’t dig the ergonomics of the models I played around with.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of the drawbacks of owning a lot of varied home theater equipment (HDTVs, Blu-ray players, A\/V receivers, cable boxes and more) is that you wind up with a clutter of remote controls that manage separate functions on separate devices. In this week’s Roundtable, we’d like to know whether you’ve consolidated the control of your…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":61168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[143],"tags":[1346,8604,3097,551],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61120"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61120"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61258,"href":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61120\/revisions\/61258"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}