Monster Cable Home Theater and Lighting Controller 300

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CNET editors' rating: 4.0 stars Excellent
Detailed editors' rating

Average user rating: 2.5 stars out of 5 reviews
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Product summary

The good: Powered by a modified version of Logitech's highly regarded Harmony software; incorporates both IR (infrared) and RF (radio frequency); has a well-designed button layout, plus backlit keys; does well integrating lighting control into the setup procedure and the remote; remote features a dedicated hard button at the top for lighting control; fairly easy to control A/V systems in multiple rooms.

The bad The bad: Overpriced; even though the remote is user-friendly, if you have a multiroom system with several lighting controls, setup can be a challenge and frustrating at times as you continually have to test and refine your settings.

The bottom line: While the RF-capable Logitech Harmony 890 does much of what the Monster Home Theater and Lighting Controller 300 does for significantly less money, the Monster is the superior remote.

Specifications: Remote control technology: Infrared/radio; Max operating distance: 130 ft; Remote control features: Back-lit buttons, Programmable See full specs

Price range: $254.49 - $599.95

CNET editors' review

Reviewed by: David Carnoy
Edited by: John P. Falcone
Reviewed on: 09/29/2006
Released on: 07/15/2006

Ever since Logitech started licensing out its highly regarded PC-based Harmony universal remote software, a handful of Harmony clones have gradually trickled onto the market. Some, such as the Harman Kardon TC-30, look similar to their Logitech counterparts and are essentially rebranded products. But Monster's Harmony-powered remotes offer completely new designs that keep them from being true clones.

Both of Monster's 2006 universal remotes feature color screens, but the Monster Home Theater Controller 100 ($350) is IR only, while the step-up Monster Home Theater and Lighting Controller 300 ($600) comes with both IR (infrared) and RF (radio frequency) capabilities, the latter being useful for components hidden behind cabinets or even in other rooms. The Monster 300 is also able to control lights in your home using the optional IlluminEssence lighting modules, which work on the Z-Wave wireless technology standard. Because of its RF and multiroom capabilities, the Home Theater and Lighting Controller 300 most closely resembles--in terms of features, anyway--the much less expensive Logitech Harmony 890.

Like the Harmony 890, the Monster 300 (sometimes referred to as the AVL300) comes with a docking station for recharging and one RF-to-IR receiver, or what Monster dubs Central OmniLink. The OmniLink is a little box that you can mount underneath a cabinet and plug in to up to four dual-headed IR blasters; this allows you to control up to eight components that sit behind a closed door or cabinet. If you have more components in other rooms, you can purchase additional OmniLink units and add them to your system.

While we don't think the design of the Monster remote is particularly slick, we do like it better than that of the Harmony 890. The remote feels pretty comfortable in hand, and the buttons are more thoughtfully laid out and more tactile. We particularly like the raised Select button in the center of the remote and the raised/angled transport buttons (play, pause, skip forward/back) buttons that surround it. The rockerlike buttons for volume control and channel up/down are also well placed and easy to get to by feel alone, using your thumb. The remote offers a good amount of blue backlighting that makes the keys fairly easy to distinguish in the dark.

Measuring 8.1 inches long by 2.4 inches wide by 0.75 inch deep and weighing 6 ounces (with battery installed), the Monster 300 isn't exactly svelte, but it's not--excuse the lame pun--a monster. In addition to the screen's color capabilities, the LCD is larger than those of Logitech's monochrome Harmony models. The increased screen real estate offers room for a total of eight activity-based icons that correspond to adjacent hard buttons.

We were a little disappointed by the low-resolution (read: early Palm color screen) 128x160 color display. It's on a par with the Harmony 890's screen, but with the Monster's high price tag, we were hoping it'd be a little sharper. Monster uses its own text-based, activity-based icons, and while they're not superclean looking, they're at least easier to read than those on the Harmony. One item for the wish list: it'd be nice if you could create custom-labeled icons simply by typing in the text to describe the activity you wanted to assign the button to.

As noted, the Monster 300 comes with a docking station for juicing up the included rechargeable lithium-ion battery; you simply lay the remote down in its cradle. Not only is it nice to have a recharging option to save dough on batteries, but if you're good about leaving the remote in its cradle, you'll always know where it is when you need it.

The Monster 300 has a built-in motion sensor so that when you pick up the remote, it automatically turns on (this feature is now available in other, less-expensive Harmony remotes). You can add your own digital images as backgrounds and screensavers--there's a slide-show feature--though we found that we had to crop our images into vertical shots or they'd appear hideously stretched on the screen. And it really wasn't a good idea to have a picture as a background because it made the icons difficult to read; stick with the default blue background.

In terms of programming the remote, the Monster 300 works the same way that other Harmony remotes do, but it comes with its own special flavor of Harmony desktop software, as well as a Monster-modified interface on the remote itself. As we noted in our earlier reviews, programming a universal remote can be a frustrating and time-consuming process, involving punching a series of multidigit codes for each component in your A/V system. By contrast, Harmony remotes are programmed by connecting them to your Internet-connected Windows PC or Mac with the supplied USB cable, installing the model-specific version of Harmony software (in this case, Monster software), and following a fairly straightforward wizard.

See more CNET content tagged:: Logitech,; color screen,; cabinet,; remote,; universal remote

User reviews

Average user rating: 2.5 stars out of 5 reviews
My rating: 0 stars Write review

Showing 3 of 5 user reviewsSee all 5 user reviews
4.5 stars

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful

"A good universal remote for the money"

by jrprip on January 1, 2008

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5.0 stars

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful

"Easy to use; slighty letter than Harmony"

by erock1974 on March 15, 2007

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0.5 stars

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful

"Cheap feel, poor programming, expensive"

by vitoa on November 15, 2007

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Monster Cable Home Theater and Lighting Controller 300

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