Must have for your home theater

A couple weeks ago I lost the remote for my receiver. Usually when something like htis happens if I stop looking it will show up in a couple days. Well, it hasn't. I looked online for an OEM replacement, the only one I could find was at remotes.com and they want $97. Sorry, way too much for a remote for an eight year old receiver.

Last weekend I visited my parents because they wanted help buying a TV. While at Best Buy I picked up a Harmony 550 remote that was an open box item. This remote rocks! When I lost my receiver remote I eyed the Harmony One, but that was too expensive. Looking up on Logitech's site I knew they supported my receiver so I wouldn't need my remote to program it. This remote does everything!

The only thing I wish it had was bluetooth so I could control the PS3. I don't expect to see anything like that for a while. Dumb move on Sony's part to not have IR for universal remotes.

The software to program this can be easy to use but some stuff is difficult. The initial wizard will setup most everything and start you off with basic activities (like watch tv or watch dvd).

You see on the screen it shows 4 items with a button next to each item and buttons below the screen to page through screens. I have my first screen setup to Watch TV, Play 360, Play PS3, and Turn On All. I have more activities but I don't do those that often.

The first three the wizard setup and it works great. I press Play 360 and it turns the TV on switching it to the proper input, turns the receiver on switching it to the proper input, turns the 360 on, and volume is set to adjust the receiver. If I press Watch TV it will turn off devices it doesn't need. So it would turn off the 360 and receiver and the volume buttons will then control my TV volume.

The Turn On All activiy I setup from scratch. It will turn the TV, PS3, 360, and receiver on. Then when I am in the activity my 4 buttons on the screen are setup as 360, PS3, TV, Fav. the 360, PS3, and TV options will switch the receiver and TV to the proper input. Fav will let me go through my TV's favorites. It took a while to set this up. When I select 360 I setup the button on the remote to control the 360, same with the other ones. I do have all of the systems on at the same time sometimes. Like when I am downloading a demo on one I will switch to the other.

One cool feature of the remote is if it didn't do something correctly you can press the help button. It will then step through the process and ask you what's turned on and stuff. Every once and a while it won't turn my 360 on so I have to use that.

I think the remote detectes motion because this morning I put when I picked up my cell phone which was next to the remote the remote lit up.

You can control individual devices also. It's a pain. For example my receiver remote had a lot of buttons. Butons to set input, buttons to setup the speakers, buttons to setup the surround mode, etc... What the remote does is list all action in the screen. So you see 4 actions at a time, alphabetized. When I select my receiver it has 27 pages of actions.

The remote has a sound and picture button at the bottom. Those set the mode of the remote. For example, let's say I set it up so my TV's sound goes through my receiver. I don't do this now because I only have a couple of HD channels that are 5.1. My TV speakers are really good with voices. Anyway, if I wanted to change the input on the receiver or the TV I could press Picture and then the input button would control the TV, or press Sound and it will control the receiver.

If you want a remote like this watch ebay for the Harmony Advance.  It's just like the 550 but has the 360 buttons on the remote.  It tends to be cheaper then the 550.