For many years I've been using the excellent Philips SBC RU880 8-in-1 remote controller … although only for three devices at a time, but the learn ability meant that it was always easy to program in a new device.
However, I finally wore out it's abilities with a Panasonic home theatre (SC-PT450 … not multiregion hackable AFAICT, unfortunately); it wasn't able to reproduce the IR signalling. So time for a new remote …
Welcome to the Logitech Harmony 525 (from Dick Smith Electronics, NZ$99). It will run up to 15 devices (now I have 5; TV, Freeview, theatre, multi-region DVD, video), but more usefully it thinks in terms of “activities” rather in devices. This means that I can “watch TV” or “listen to radio”, and the remote will change the state of all the devices to match the goal.
As an example, when I want to watch a non-NZ DVD I need to use my old DVD player; so the remote needs to have three systems switched on, and to set the correct inputs on them all … This takes a long time and uses three separate remotes, but with the Harmony it is one button press …
“When you start this Activity, the remote will ensure your system is set up as follows:”
| Device | Status / Actions |
| Mustek DVD | Mustek DVD is on |
| Philips TV | Philips TV is on |
| Panasonic Mini System (DVD, CD, Radio) | Panasonic Mini System (DVD, CD, Radio) is on |
| Other | All other devices are off |
| Philips TV | Philips TV is set to “SVHS” |
| Panasonic Mini System (DVD, CD, Radio) | Panasonic Mini System (DVD, CD, Radio) is set to “AUX” |
This isn't “Macro” programming, this is the way the whole device likes to think and operate. It keeps track of the state of all the devices over time, so it knows what operations to use to get things into the requested state. If you do change things with your old remotes (or even manually!) then things will go wrong … at which point you press the ‘Help’ button and it steps through a whole bunch of corrective actions (“Is the TV on? (yes/no); Did that fix it?” etc.)
The biggest downside to the remote is the programming method; a Windows or OSX bit of code that mediates between the USB-connected remote and the Logitech website, where they hold not only a full database of current AV equipment remote control codes, but they also seem to hold your remote control's profile. If I were dedicated I'd sniff the traffic to be sure that's what is happening, but it feels like the case.
Overall, it's a great remote, not just to replace the set of originals, but also to control complex interactions between systems.