Best Universal Remote, Pound for Pound (Harmony 555)

So any boys with toys will probably have a TV, amplifier, 10 million speakers, CD player, DVD player, PVR, satellite or cable, maybe a freeview box, a games console/media centre etc.

Then you have the wife who wonders why she just can't turn on the TV without a major surgical procedure, and that's of course after she shouts at you about the fact she can't find that 1 remote she's looking for out of the 10 you have lying around.

OK, well that's my household anyway. Introducing the Logitech Harmony 555. Firstly, let me give you my credentials: I've used some cheap unbranded all-in-one remotes, the Sony RM-AV2000 and something that looks like the UCommand 515 to name but a few. What you will find is that I mainly went for touchscreens because they looked flash.

After having used touchscreen remotes, I missed good old solid buttons, that tactile feel you get wen you press a button, plus the remotes I had were huge - none felt right when you held them in your hand, in the Sony's case you needed to use both hands. In addition to this, programming them was a major disaster - it took me forever and things were never quite setup as I wanted them.

Then I made the dive into the Logitech Harmony market. I bypassed the top of the range models - the 885 and 895 - because at the time they were priced at about £200, plus the 555 had everything I needed, and the bonus was that I found it on offer at Pixmania for £40.

Programing any of the Harmony remotes is simple. Install the Harmony software from the CD provided or download the latest version from the Logitech website onto your computer. Fire up the software and create an account. Login and then fill in the blanks. So you say my TV make and model is XXXXX, my Amplifier make and model is XXX... you get the idea. I've entered some obscure brands and it always finds the remotes. The remote database is huge, it even located my infrared light switches, cool. I believe they boast of having hundreds of thousands remotes listed and I daren't question that. Oh if you can't find it, then you also have the option to teach the logitech via the original remote and then submit that to be added to their database, very sweet. Their support line I hear is very good, I know a few people that had issues where a single click was so fast that it done the same action twice, this setting can be adjusted too, by yourself or you can get their support to do it.

The next step is to setup activities, such as Watch Cable, Play CD, Watch DVD. A wizard walks you through this by asking you what you use for each activity. For Watch TV, it will ask you what's your TV source (cable, satellite, freeview), which AV channel is it plugged into, what device you use to change channels and control the volume (your amplifier, for example). You do this for each activity you'd like to setup.

Then we come to the best part - connect the USB to your PC and the other end to your Harmony remote, hit 'Update Remote' and watch it go!!! It uploads all your settings into the Harmony remote. Once this is complete, you are good to go.

So now you hit 'Activity' and select one from the onscreen display. Whatever unit needs to be turned on for that activity will be switched on and all the channels and settings will automatically be set. Now all the buttons will be for that activity: like channel changing, volume, numbers etc. It's like you've merged 2, 3, 4 remotes and transformed it to a single remote with all the features you want.

There's advanced setup in the logitech software, where you can customise the onscreen button to do different things if you're missing something, or you can even get the hard buttons to perform another function if you need it to. I find that it has all the hard buttons you need for most activities you use. Plus, best of all, when you change from Watch TV, to Watch DVD or Play CD, the buttons will do what you expect, Play is play, Record is Record - sounds obvious I know, but trust me, many folks have got it wrong, or miss some key buttons. From past experience, you end up setting say the Guide button to change the aspect ratio of the TV. Not having to do such silly things makes the remote very intuative so anyone visiting could even work the remote and they'll have it sussed in minutes. I've had four of my friends buying this Harmony remote after using it at my place for only 5-10mins! (never did receive my commision)

Another great feature of this remote is that if your batteries run out and you don't replace them for a long time, resulting in the remote losing all your settings. No problems, you just login to your account, plug in the remote and update. Capow!, all your settings are back.

So why the Harmony 555? Well this is a personal choice. All the Harmony remotes can do everything I've mentioned above, but the main difference is that the higher the model number the more remotes they can programme - the 555 can handle 15 remotes and I believe 8 activities, which was more then enough for me. Then the 885 and 895 have colour displays and a rechargeable base. The colour display does have a nice function whereby you can have icons on the buttons, but I was happy to forego the icon..the function alone was enough!. The rechargeable base would have been nice, but the batteries last about 6 months under much abuse at my home, so I am happy with that, plus I'd rather have one less plug to house. Then the 895 also has an RF feature. Then there's the fact that the back of the 555 remote is rubber and is contoured, so it feels comfortable to hold - the 885 and 895 models don't have this, although I see that this feature has been adopted in the new Harmony One. And, with the 555 costing less than £50 - the choice was pretty clear for me!

Logitech, I think you should pay me with a new Harmony One remote - only to test drive, of course :-)