Favorite gadget of '09 (so far)

Say hello to the Logitech Harmony One all-in-one remote.

I picked this guy up several weeks ago after experiencing one at a friends place.  If you have more than one input for your TV, this remote makes using them all together very, uh hm, harmonious!

It’s not cheap, but if you are like me and have several (MANY) devices that you use to play back digital content such as DVD player, Blu-Ray player, Apple TV, Playstation, xBox etc and the huge pile of remotes to go with them, you’re a perfect candidate to drop some coin on this amazing device and really appreciate it.

There are many great things about this remote, the most obvious is how simple it makes turning on the correct device, setting your TV’s input, home theaters input etc.  When you lift this baby out of it’s charging cradle, the screen pops to life thanks to a touch sensitive layer surrounding the remote.  The LCD screen shows a colorful list of activity options and you simply click “watch tivo” and watch the TV pop on and to the correct input, the tivo jumps to the TV guide (or whatever else you’ve asked it to do) and the home theater system selects the correct output.  And, in my case, my HDMI switcher jumps to the correct input allowing true HD picture and optical sound to flow from the appropriate device when needed.

The Harmony One knows how to do all this because most devices have unique IR commands for every command and Logitech’s mac and pc software that ship with the remote allow for intricate combinations of IR commands.  The software isn’t too tricky to use, but is powerful, which means it can take a few minutes to sort out how to best build your activities.

Most devices are found by using model numbers and the appropriate IR commands are automatically loaded for that device via an online connection to Logitech’s servers along with icons that usually match up pretty well. Additionally, custom buttons with images are loaded for devices like xBox and Playstation (PS requires a bluetooth to IR adapter).  The LCD screen is used to display the familiar gaming buttons and have full control of the console.

Once you program your devices and how they should behave in various “activities”, the remote connects to your computer via USB and all of the information and settings are loaded.

The software has a guidance mode that’s pretty good, but you’ll have to dig in a little deeper if you really want to customize things such as leaving a particular device on even when you press the power off button (Tivos aren’t really meant to be powered off, so I leave that device on even using the power off button), or which order the IR commands should be sent.

At the end of the day, the setup takes a few minutes to get through, test, and tweak, but it’s SOOO worth it.  It’s nice to be able to sit on the couch and only loose one remote.

Buy it at Amazon.

for me this device has worked perfectly with:

Apple TV
Panasonic Plasma
xBox 360
Playstation 3 (with additional IR to bluetooth adapter)
Psyclone HDMI switcher
Tivo
Sony surround sound home theater system