[mythtv-users] Looking for a New remote

[Greg Oliver]

On Fri, Dec 24, 2010 at 12:09 PM, Brian Wood <beww at beww.org> wrote:
> 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.

This thread got me looking for a new remote for a x-mas present, and I
went with another "activity based" device from Acoustics Research.  I
pre-programmed it and boxed it back up, but the only feature (or in my
case non-feature, since I *hate* it) missing is that is does not keep
track of power state like the harmony(s).  I give that  a plus though.

Anyhow, I got it new with the RF extender for half of the price of the
comparable Harmony.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002N1J7DU/ref=oss_product

It is well constructed, and I will post back later after it gets used
for a few days to see what the overall impression is.