Help me quickly pick a remote control! (1 Viewer)

[plaus]

I need some quick advice about which remote control I should get. I intended to buy the Logitech Harmony One but a friend has some complaints about it not being customizable enough and about the necessity of being able to go online to change stuff.

So..I'm getting a HDTV later this week and I'll have this setup:
- a HDTV (Samsung LN46A950)
- my desktop with mediaportal on it in the same room (will buy a dedicated HTPC soon)
- Logitech Z-5500 attached to my PC

In the near future I will be getting:
- PS3
- Receiver
- a good 5.1 surround system
- maybe a blu-ray player (for NTSC stuff)

So I basically need a remote that can control all of the above. Most important thing is that it works with Mediaportal but I'd like to be able to easily control all of the other things too.If the harmony one will do the trick then feel free to tell me..but other (better) suggestions are welcome too.

 

[junkiepilot]

Trust me...go for the Harmony, you wont be dissapointed.

 

[joz]

Well junkiepilot, as a harmony one owner I must disagree.
I have heard many people complaining that it has slow "zapping" with certain USB IR devices, like MCE receiver. Keep that in mind and about the only real (and kinda big for some people) downside of the harmony's I can think of. And well yeah the config is not as easy as they want you to believe, it takes a while.

I think the harmony's are the best solution out there so far. If your friend didn't want the internet thing and such he couldn't have downloaded all the IR codes so he would have had to learn them manually which is no joy. I like the idea of the internet db. Logitech support is real helpful, I contacted them a couple of times and I even got them as far as entering about 48 hexcodes into my personal part of the db.

 

[JSorrentino]

I'm in the market for a new remote myself. All I can offer is my experience with what i currently have - The Logitech Harmony 890.

The Harmony 890 is a great remote, the only real issue I have with it is the charging base is terrible for keeping a connection and actually charging the remote. I have 2 friends who use the 880 or 890 with the same gripe about the charge station - it's just bad at holding a connection.

I'm in the market for a new remote now, but have not found something that's worth replacing the 890 with. I would like something that has a 360 degree movement for mouse movement when I need to do things like bring up taslk manager / etc. on my HTPC. Until then, I'm keeping the 890 but will keep searching.

 

[littlematt]

Ive got an MCE remote/keyboard. I dont think m/s make the remote anymore but hauppuage do a very similar one. Its a learning remote. This means you can teach it one or two new tricks. I have taught it to turn my telly on/off. Every single other function you will need is in mediaportal, which has built in support for this remote. You get the ir-reciever (with blasters if you need them) with the remote, and the keyboard with built in mouse is handy too, it usually lives under my couch. Keeps it simple! And much cheaper than the logitec. If you intall a blueray in your htpc, you wont need extra hardware like tuner/cd player/dvd/blueray etc. So only need one remote anyway!

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

Did not know that hauppauge sell the remote seperately as per here Hauppauge Computer Works Ltd : WinTV-MC Remote Control Kit

Good news as long as it continues

 

[JackTramiel]

I am using a Harmony 885 with a soundgraph imon solution. Works perfekt - with every device in the house, not only the pc. I would recommend harmony.

 

[Shadime]

Did not know that hauppauge sell the remote seperately as per here Hauppauge Computer Works Ltd : WinTV-MC Remote Control Kit

Good news as long as it continues

According to specifications you need an OS with MCE as it does not come with a driver. I bought a similar remote a while back and ended up taking it back due to the message "unable to intall hardware" as i had no driver for it. Is there anyway of getting around this. I have XP PE service pack 3

Cheers