How many remote controls do you have?
Most people have at least a TV, cable box and VCR or DVD player. That makes three. If you're like me, however, you have a TV, cable box, DVD player, VCR, a CD player and probably a receiver so you can have stereo sound. That makes six remote controls.
It's so complicated that when we want to watch a DVD or video, we have to do so many maneuvers that some might consider it performance art. And forget about having visitors to your home figure it out. The poor babysitter ends up watching Sponge Bob Squarepants through snow and almost no sound for the whole night because one wrong button was pressed.
When we had an opportunity to try the Harmony Remote Control, we were thrilled. Finally, one remote control to do everything. With this universal remote control, watching a DVD is a one-click process rather than my five-click process. How easy is that?
Want to watch a video? Play video games? Listen to a CD? Listen to an old album or cassette? You can do it all with just one click.
The only thing that takes some time is the setup process. Using the software provided, the company's Internet-based database and hot-sync equipment, you enter all the information about your theater and stereo components (manufacturer and model) and then transfer all that information to the Harmony. If the Harmony database doesn't have a certain make or model, it will try to match up the component through the remote control you have for it. It's like "beaming" the information to the Harmony. If you still can't find information on your component, it will allow you to select a similar one.
During setup you also select the cable channels for your area's cable plan and you can make a list of your favorites. One of the good things about this is you can select the channels individually, so if you aren't a sports fan, you can skip over those channels.
After that, you're ready to go.
Though we liked the Harmony, there were a few things that kept if from getting a full thumbs-up from us. One thing is that if you have an older component, there's a chance Harmony won't have it in its database and it won't be able to control it. For example, our older stereo receiver was never able to work with the Harmony.
Second, it's still a little difficult switching over to watch a DVD or video when you're already watching TV or you stop watching a DVD and want to go back to TV. We found you had to turn everything off, select what you want to do, then turn everything on again.
Finally, though this may not affect some of you, the software is for Windows-based computers only. So, if you're a family of Macintosh users, you're out of luck.
