Audio Video News

I hate it when members of my family blame me when anything goes wrong with our home theater system. As if I'm some sort of geeky gear guy, they heap abuse upon me if the DVD player hiccups because of the greasy, fingerprint-smeared disc they carelessly slid in it. No sound from the satellite receiver? No picture on the TV? The remote control isn't working? They call me. (And why does it always seem to inconveniently happen when I'm resting regally on my porcelain throne?)

It won't happen again - or at least not as often - if Logitech's newest, and least expensive, "activity-based" remote control does what they say it can do.

Logitech's Harmony remote controls are wildly popular but have always been too pricey for the poor, the tired, and the huddled masses (unless maybe you stumbled across a great closeout deal on some refurbished units that still had peanut butter stuck between the keys). The new Logitech Harmony 520, with its highly appealing under $100 price tag, is designed for "mainstream consumers".

As with Logitech's other Harmony remote controls, the Harmony 520 is configured by the purchaser via a Web-base setup process that Logitech says will take most consumers less than half an hour to complete. The PC software included with the remote uses an updated visual setup process with an intuitive setup wizard (no wizard hat required, thankfully) that walks users step by step through the setup process. Without using technical terms (quite an achievement in itself), the software asks simple questions about the entertainment system, the individual components, and how they are connected.

At the end of the question-and-answer period, all of the IR codes and pre-programmed macros are downloaded into the Harmony 520 via a USB connection.

"Once the setup is complete," notes a nicely written press release from the company, "any member of the family can watch television, play a DVD, or record a program, by pushing a single activity button." Pushing buttons - now there's something my family does well.

Four activity-based buttons are used to launch configured macros that crank up the home entertainment system for a particular activity, such as watching your favorite fishing show on the Outdoor Channel or viewing your Elmo's Magic Cookbook DVD.

For those in dire need of electronic assistance when their system isn't responding the way they think it should, the Harmony 520 has a "Help" button that initiates a series of "Yes" or "No' questions on the remote's display screen. Based on the responses, assuming it wasn't your three-year-old who was randomly pushing buttons, the remote sends out the appropriate IR commands to restore the system to a properly working state.

For an extra charge, the remote can be upgraded to include a special "Need More Help' button that emits a special forget-that-any-of-this-happened ray as seen in Men in Black. At least that's what I'd like to see on the new remote…