We Are 1

You must get this exact version of Harmony’s fantastic universal remote control, not the fancier ones, and not the cheaper ones although you’ll be tempted.  This ain’t cheap, but it has a feature called the RF extender, and what this little black box does receive the command from your remote via radio frequencies instead of infra-red (light) and then send that command to your components via infra-red which is what most components use.  RF is way better then infra-red because it has longer range and does not require a line of sight, so you don’t have to “aim” your remote.  Also, because the RF extender comes with IR emitters, you can put all of your components in a cabinet out of sight yet still have full remote control.  Fantastic.  Better still is the easy to use software (mac and PC) to set up the remote with all of your devices and even fine-tune it.  The remote itself has a rechargeable battery, so there’s no concerns about running out of juice.  The remote even plays a cute little slide show on its little LCD when it goes back in it’s cradle.  The remote itself has an small screen on it, is fully customizable and works by activities rather then devices, what this means is that it offers things like “watch TV” or “listen to CDs”, not “CD->play”, it’s a subtle but significant difference.  When in an activity the screen offers relevant choices.  It took a few tries to get everything working perfectly, but each tweek made it a little bit better.  I’m overjoyed with this device, it’s made my life better.

Logitech Harmony 890 Advanced Universal Remote Control