[mythtv-users] Looking for a New remote

[Brian Wood]

On Friday, December 24, 2010 10:59:02 am Greg Woods wrote:
> On Thu, 2010-12-23 at 11:06 -0700, Brian Wood wrote:
> > I'm sure you will get glowing testimonials from Harmony users, but
> > I've always considered them too pricey.
> 
> It really does depend on what you are trying to accomplish. In my
> case, the programmability of the Harmony is absolutely necessary in
> order to get my wife to use Myth or watch DVD's on her own. The
> complexity of all the different inputs on the TV, different inputs
> on the amp, whether the TV needs HDMI enabled or not
> (disabled=component), two different DVD players, two DVR's, etc. is
> just too much of a pain for her to deal with. Since I got the
> Harmony, she now uses the TV other than SD-only through the
> analog-to-digital converter. It's been a huge win for us. She can
> just press "watch MythTV" and it sets up everything.
> 
> But yes, they are pricey. A Harmony will cost five times as much as a
> "traditional" universal remote.

Automating otherwise complex tasks is certainly going to improve the 
WAF, but that's not a factor in my case.

Home entertainment systems are getting too complex for a lot of people. 
I'm reminded of a recent "Zits" comic, where Mom says "do you want to 
watch TV tonight?" Dad says "OK, You press random buttons on all these 
remotes to see if anything happens, and I'll complain about how simple 
life used to be".

I meant the Harmonys are too expensive for me to fool with, for people 
with a need for such automation they probably seem cheap at the price.

I've heard nothing but good reports about the Harmonys from people who 
actually own them, all the negatives I've heard come from non-owners, 
and are all price-related, which says something.