Embrace Harmony - the best remote control for your home entertainment

I've resisted harmony for a while. I was determined to make one of my multi-function universal remotes work with all devices, but everyone of them could not duplicate functions of at least one of my devices. So I caved in to the other side and spent the $98 at Costco for a Harmony 880 advanced universal remote control. Let me tell you - I have achieved harmony and home entertainment system control nirvana!

To all of those still on the fence, let me explain why all the rage about Harmony remote controls:

Universal - they work with almost any and every device you can think of. If it is IR (infra-red) it will work with it out of the box. If you need RF a specific model of Harmony may be required, but don't worry - they do exist. The marvel begins with the fact that Logitech contains a gigantic database of devices and remote control codes for them. There are more devices in that database, than you thought existed.

Programmable - yes - you can change what those buttons do and to what they are assigned. Even though most of the important functions of the original remote are automatically assigned to their logical counterparts on the Harmony, you can do much more than that. You can change those assignments, you can add them, remove or mix and match the sequences of button presses and menu selections!

Activities - The paradigm in which Harmony operates is quite different than the other remotes. It is all about activities - you set up your components that should be turned on, set to specific inputs, adjusted and assign all of that to just one activity such as Watch TV or Play DVD. What this does is free you from having to do all of this yourself. You just press one button and all of the required devices and settings are invoked. All that is left for you to do is to just sit down and relax.

Logical - it works just like you would expect it to work with buttons doing what you think they should do. And in rare cases when they behave in a way that is not logical to you - you can re-assign them to behave just the way you want them to.

Spouse friendly - YES! This is perhaps the only point you need to bring up when justifying the purchase of such expensive remote (some of the Harmony remotes go well into hundreds of dollars). If your spouse, kids, parents, grandparents or anyone else complained about complicated setup and navigation of your home entertainment system - Harmony is the solution. It will turn those complainers into believers of your skills and appreciate how smart  you are  - after all - you did make this super complicated system behave in such an easy and intuitive way. In fact - some of these remotes have profiles for different family members. So it can be setup differently for you and your wife, with different favorite and quick access TV channels, etc.

Computer based setup - instead of fiddling with two remotes trying one to learn codes from the other - you plug in remote to a computer and it downloads all of the settings, including your custom background, channel logo's, etc

Never lose your settings again - all of your settings and preferences are saved to a Logitech's website. So if your kid puts the remote into an aquarium - no worries. Just get a new remote and re-download all the settings right back.

As noted already - Harmony 880 is an excellent choice for a reasonable price of $98 is avaliable at Costco.
If you are not a Costco member - you can always get  Harmony 880 at Amazon.com