I’ve had a Sony System Commander (AV-2000 – an older model) for years, but I hardly ever use it. I got it to be a replacement for all of my other remotes, and while it was quite versatile, I never felt that good about using it all the time. What I found was that I used my TiVo remote for TV and TiVo/Cable, and if I used another module, I would grab the Sony. All of that changed when I got the Harmony H688 universal remote: I have just one remote now.

First the equipment that I’m controlling. I’ve got a pretty new TV in the form of a Sony LCD rear projection. DVD player, VHS recorder, and TiVo (Series 1): all Sony. Cable box is from Motorola. Stereo receiver, CD carousel, and cassette player are also Sony. Lastly, a PlayStation2 and an XBox, but neither have the remote control plug-ins. Pretty wide variety of components, but nothing too crazy, even if all of my TV inputs are filled already.

The Sony Commander was neat b/c of it’s button-less touch screen and it’s three macro keys. It supported all of these devices, but some of the button mappings had to be creative. Like for TiVo, there was no key label that could easily represent Thumb Up/Down. I also had to program a lot of custom buttons on it… that means when the all of the batteries die on it, I would need to re-do it all again. Lastly, the AV-2000 is more of a knick-knack than a remote. It’s big and it’s heavy – not something you have single handedly use for channel surfing. Usually I would leave it on the coffee table or an armrest… chicks were afraid of it, so I never had to fight for that remote, but I still didn’t use it much. Also, the button-less screen seemed to confuse anyone that came to my house, except me. So I used the TiVo remote for everyday TV watching (I almost never use the stereo for regular TV) and would bring out the Sony when I had to control something else.

Harmony’s H688 is a kick ass remote, from top to bottom. First off, I didn’t have to sit with the remote and keep pressing “Code Code 0 0 0 1 Enter” to try and set up each device. The H688 uses a website and a server side database to track available device codes. When you find a device you want online, you plug in the remote with a USB cable, and the new code is downloaded to the remote. That means they’re always updating it at the source and you don’t have to buy a new remote to get the updates – the Chameleon remote from Radio Shack was able to add new codes over the phone, but this is even cleaner. It also means that I get to use a web-based interface to set up my remote. How important is that? Think about how hard it is to send an email with a PC keyboard – not hard right? Now try to send one with a wireless phone’s number pad. Enough said.

Not only is the set up easier this way, but it’s stored on the server. Of course, if the site is getting slammed with customers, you might have to wait a little longer (oh, and you’ll need a PC with an Internet connection, but this remote is for the DigitalMammal) but it is stored for you. I thought that this was a great thing, too.

Then there’s the functionality. The H688 has almost all “hard” buttons. That means it works like a remote should: you get used to where buttons are, you can feel them in the dark (yes, it does have back lighting, but that’s not the point) and without having to think about what each button is. There’s also six soft buttons that you get to set on a device-by-device basis to be anything. Need more buttons? You got’em – you can page through the buttons you set up. But that shouldn’t be the way to go about setting up the remote anyway.

See, Harmony expects you to make a leap of faith in how you’ll use this remote. Most universal remotes expect you to select device and then press a button for the device that you selected. Harmony sets up tasks. “Watch TV” turns on my TiVo and my TV. It knows that I want the volume +/- to control the TV volume but and that channel +/- should go to the TiVo. Guide goes to the TiVo, not the cable box. If I press “Watch DVD” it turns on the TV, DVD player and Stereo. The TV will then jump to Input 6 and the Stereo jumps to DVD Input. It’s not a macro – it’s what it does. No shit – honest!

And then there’s the soft buttons. For “Watch TV” I have one for TwinScreen, a SVideo button that goes right to Input1 and an HDTV button that goes right to Input7. I no longer have to scroll thru TV inputs. Out of everything, I only had to teach it about the Wide Toggle button (it only had Full/Zoom by default) and Info for the TiVo box. Oh, did I mention that? The H688 can learn from other remotes, just like the Sony, except this time I don’t have to think about what the buttons – I got to label them myself! And I only had to program a couple of buttons rather than a large number of them.

Consequently, I’ve put away all of my other remotes for a trial run. I’m very, very confident that I won’t have to get them out again, ever.

I’m just completely in awe of it, is all – it’s not often that something works beyond what was advertised!