I recently purchased an Harrmony 880 remote, man what an excellent purchase. Two pictures are worth a thousand words:
Before
After
The Harmony 880 Advanced Universal Remote makes my home theater much easier to use as it combines the remotes for my XBox, Media Center PC, Plasma, Comcast HD DVR, Component Video Switchbox and Bose Lifestyle system into one remote. I've seen lots of universal remotes in the past but there are few things that make this one a buy in my house.
1. Price
2. Scenario based
3. Broad Range Device Support
4. WAF
Price
I didn't want to spend a $1000.00 for a remote control, it just seems absurd to spend that one. This remote can be purchased for $250.00 at Best Buy or for $175.00 if you shop around the web. Great deal.
Scenario Based
This was the clincher for me. The LCD display selects user defined scenarios like Play a game, Watch a DVD, or Watch TV and executes on the results.
For example selecting watch TV on my system does the following: It turns on my plasma setting the input to number 4, changes my component video switcher to input 2, sets my BOSE Lifestyle unit to TV and turns on my Comcast PVR. Very cool!
Another example is I have the Harmony programmed so that when I select Listen to music it turns my Bose Lifestyle to Auxilary, my plasma to input 3 and navigates on the media center to my music.
I have similar functions defines for Play a game (XBox) and also for watching movies on DVD.
This works great.
Broad Range Device Support
The unit supports every device I own, even the Calrad IR controlled component video switchbox. It appears from the only forums that Logitech regularly updates their device library with new devices. I recommend that you write down the model numbers of your devices prior to getting started with the remote setup. Makes it a lot easier.
WAF
The Wife Acceptance Factor is high. One button how shuts our entire system down, she can turn on games for my daughter or even listen to music on the media center. Previous to this I had diagram and instructions inside our entertainment cabinet that rivaled a power plant.
Nits? Yes I have one. The remote uses a hybrid web / client application to program the application. You go through a series of ASP pages to select options, specify devices, etc when you're ready to update the remote, you plug it into your USB port on your machine and you download a data file to your local machine. It works pretty well but I'd prefer a full Windows client to program the device. Here's a perfect example of where a smart client that communicates via Web Services would be ideal. If by chance your work for Logitech on the Harmony project and want to chat further, send me an email to jeffsand at microsoft dot com. :-)
Anyhow, if you're looking for a remote this one is a winner..
Postscript: Many moons later, I've now purchased an 890 remote from Harmony.
Enjoy!