Logitech Harmony One Advanced Universal Remote Control

I used to be one of those people who walked into an electrical shop and walked past remotes costing £100 and used to think to myself "who's got a screw loose to buy these? when a standard remote will do the job." Well now I am one of those guys(!)

This remote is marketed for those of us with our proud home cinemas. With all our expensive AV amps, Blu Ray Players, Sky HD, Projection TV's, Game consoles, Media Streamers etc all the remotes soon add up (believe me)

What this remote does is take away the un-practical way to operate all these devices, especially when we have wives, parents and children who have to call us at work just to watch Sky or watch a movie.

As people have already pointed out, this remote uses a one touch Activity based operation to turn on and off each device we want to watch. Amazing(!) It automatically selects to the correct Video input on the TV and switches on the right Sound input on the AV amp and turns on the device you want to watch/play all by the press of one button. Cannot be Simpler.

Things that I must point out for people who are not technically minded is that this is a Infa-Red remote therefore it will not work with PlayStation 3's which are bluetooth or Nintendo Wii's which operate using Radio Frequency. So bear this in mind.

Many reveiws say that this is lacking Red, Green, Blue and Yellow buttons which is needed for Sky. However these buttons are assigned on the beautiful touch screen which other prople find inconvenient. If you don't like it on the touch screen you can also assign it to other hard buttons.

Setup is straight forward and is done on-line where you select all your devices takes about 20 mins depending on what devices you have.

This is not a cheap remote and is well built and Logitech offer a free phone advice service for help. So if you have loads of equipment and lots of remotes and want to put a stop to your spouses nagging that they can't watch Sky or a movie then get this.

Before I forget go to icon harmony, a website (Play don't allow for URL's to be enetered) You can download icons for harmony users. You can use the touch screen to access your favourite channels instead of using the numeric pads.

Buy it!

This is a great piece of kit which allows me to control all of the usual stuff, like TV, DVD, video (yes, I still use one) PVR, SKY, IPOD dock and even the computer I have with media on.
It took a little while to set up, but works a treat. The Help function is, well, helpful when something doesn't go strictly to plan. My only complaint is that it is too easy to hit the wrong button on the screen , and accidentally delete something you want to keep. Otherwise perfect!

Didnt really know how well this would work and now do, it is perfect and will control any ir device you wish. The setup for me is enjoyable, and can power on/off as many devices in my home cinema room with a press of 1 button. The perfect One you will evr need, very clever.

This is brilliant.
Having recently upgrade my AV system I was always switching between controls to get it 'just so'. We had 4 normal controls, TV, Sky, PS3 remote and AV amp. We now have just one.

Activities work well, watch TV = 1 press and the Harmony turns on the TV, Sky box and Amp and switches everything to the correct channel. Press play game and it changes everything to the correct channels again.

Easy to set up and easier to use than the 4 controllers we had before.

Just one final note, if you use the ps3 for DVD then you will need the PS adaptor as this is IR only not bluetooth. That's not a critisism of the Harmony but of the PS3.

Does everything it says on the tin (well, it did for me). I programmed it for my Sony TV, Sky-HD box, Onkyo AV Receiver and Panasonic Blu-Ray player, the initial "activities" set-up took no more than 30 mins to set up after the software was downloaded to my laptop. Setting up the other touchscreen buttons took quite a bit longer but this was due to me being a bit fussy about where I wanted to have them appear on the remote's screen for each device. Overall I think this is a great remote, easy to use and with superb build quality and design. If you've got lots of remotes and love gadgets, get one. I've just got to show my girlfriend how to use it now!