v-hold.net

papa needs a new toy

Posted on 30. Aug, 2007 by Victor in day to day crap

anyone who keeps on this blog knows that I am a tech head. anyone who’s been to my house knows that i have everything wired and talking to each other throughout the house. well, i had an all-in-one remote that controlled the major electronics in the living room, but over the years we’ve gotten new stuff and i never got around to setting up the remote again. so now we, like most people have about 5 different remotes.

i know how to use them. tony knows how to use the ones he needs, but we found when we have babysitters over they are usually left with a black screen with country music playing in the background. it’s just too confusing to know which inputs and video channels need to be in sync and whatnot.

not any more. i finally took the second plunge into the high-end remote pool. if you recall i did buy one of those touch screen Pronto remotes but it turned out to be more hassle than it was worth, so i sold it on ebay. this time around i waited and got the Harmony 880 and I got it for a great price through, of all places, Dell.

The 880 is so awesome, but it does take a little futzing with at first. The remote connects to your computer and then has access to the internet database of remote codes. while on the computer you set up your electronics by telling the makes and models. then it all gets loaded onto the remote. pretty simple.

but the kicker is that it has this thing called “activities”. it’s a new way of thinking of how a remote should work. for example, you want to watch your TiVo. You press the button that says “watch TiVo” and the remote turns on the tv and sets it to the proper input then turns on the amp for the speakers and sets that to the proper input and then turns on the TiVo.  Then the remote goes into the mode of being a TiVo remote, with all the bells and whistles. now let’s say you want to watch a DVD. press “watch DVD” and the the remote turns off the TiVo, sets the tv to the proper input and switches the amp to the proper input. then it turns on the dvd player and ejects the drawer so you can pop in the dvd. then the remote becomes the DVD remote. then when you are done, hit the off button and all the components that are on turn off.

so, after bruno went to bed, i spent a few hours tweaking the macros and adding icons to our favorite channels and now the remote is set perfectly. but another added feature: if you screw up and something doesn’t turn on or something gets turned off manually, there is a help button on the remote that will help you resync the components all through asking you yes and no questions on the remote’s full color screen. and the thing is re-chargeable on its own included base.

well now this is sounding like an advertisement for the remote, but honestly, i reallly like it so far. so, if you are in the search for a new remote, this may be the one for you. also, if you read reviews on it i guess there were some problems with the earlier models, like not siting on the base correctly and stuff. i can tell you that they fixed it along with other tweaks. and you can get it for as low as $140 online.

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