Logitech Harmony One Advanced

Pros: Great Design, Easy to Set Up, Works Everything!

Cons: No RF for a remote that's 250 bucks!

Summary: I jumped pretty high to get this remote last summer. I wasn't sold on its $250 dollar price tag considering that I was getting by on a $100 dollar Harmony remote. I said, it couldn't hurt to try it and, I am so glad that I scooped up this remote.

I would advise anyone getting this remote to collect all their Brands and model numbers of their gear prior to opening the box. If you have it all, it makes the setup go very fast.

This remote is almost fully customizable. All the activities are nicely done with the software and its somewhat easy to program. It asks you a series of questions to get you 75% there on controlling your devices and in some simple setups it will get you all the way there with the automated activity setups. It could be a lot better though and some of the options are not directly intuitive. Like adding a light controller function to all your activities to control your theater lighting. This should be a no brainier, and should be a global thing, but you have to go into each activity and add this function manually.

Also, if your trying to combine multiple items together into one setup you have to do that manually, which takes a lot of time. i.e. DVR, DVD Recorder, with Receiver and TV to backup recordings onto DVD.

Logitech really needs to adjust their software for this remote. I have a 1080P screen on my laptop and the software is coded for a 480 screen so its a tiny box that i have to navigate thru to make adjustments. Maximizing the software does nothing but add a huge back border around this tiny box with scroll bars in the corners. Also the software times out after 15 minutes, and you loose all your changes, so make sure you save often!!! Poorly done but not a deal breaker because once you get this set up the way you like it, you wont use the software again until you buy another piece of gear for your theater.

Other than my software gripes, and the alpha letters not being lighted, this bad boy is the best remote that I have ever had and I hope it stays working for years.