ben’s had a harmony remote for a while, and eric got one with his huge 50″ plasma that he just picked up, and both of them have been raving about it. i was skeptical if it would work as well they claimed, but it turns out that it’s the perfect solution for my entertainment setup. for instance if i want to watch a dvd, i have to switch my tv to input 4, my tuner to the dvd input, and i have to turn on and control the dvd player. the harmony remote lets me press “watch dvd” and everything switches in harmony. it also seemlessly switches between my pvr, computer, vcr and video games.

the remote has a usb port and a huge online-database of devices, so setting up complex macros is simple, and as new devices come to market, the remote information is added to their database, so it’s a remote that won’t be outdated for a while.