The Universe of Remote Controls

In my daily search for ways to be even lazier than I am currently, I've looked far and wide for the universal remote control. I've experienced, among others, the Philips Pronto, the Universal Remote Control's, and Logitech's Harmony. There are two important questions I ask when looking at universal remote controls.

Would my mom be able to figure this out?
Would my mom be able to afford it?

Having been in the industry now for quite a few years, I've developed the practice of finding products that I not only trust to work the way they advertize, but also have great manufacturer support.

For the past 3 years, I've been recommending the Harmony universal remote control line from Logitech. They have something for virtually every budget and application. Technically, they can't compete in the Home Automation market, with companies like Crestron and AMX, but they come very close with a much smaller price tag. Aside from controlling home electronics components, but they're capable of controlling lighting using an RF technology called Z-wave.

The greatest feature of the Harmony remote is most easily explained by recreating the scenario. If you press the "Watch TV" button, the remote would automatically send out a series of commands to turn on all necessary equipment and set each component to its appropriate input. Upon pressing the "Watch DVD" button, the remote control would remember which devices were already on, as well as which input, and only send the necessary commands to effect the change to DVD. All at the press of one button. These remotes also have a dedicated "Off" button which turns off all equipment at once, rather than having to turn off each individually.

This is referred to as being "Activity-based," as opposed to "Macro-based" which would send out the exact same series of commands every time the button is pressed without checking the current state of each component, occasionally causing undesirable results.

Another great feature of these remotes is the "Help" button. It is, in essence, a virtual service call. If one or more components fail to work properly upon selecting an activity, you can press the "Help" button with will then ask you a series of Yes or No questions to try to diagnose the problem. While it's doing this, it is actually sending out commands that it thinks may resolve the issue. In my experience, approximately 70% of cases are resolved without your assistance.

These remotes are fantastic. I recommend them to all my clients and would be more than happy to entertain any questions you may have.