remotes

[Spekkio]

i'm getting rather irked at being buried under half a dozen remotes and was already considering getting an xbox remote so i don't have to keep firing up my 360 controller every time i want to pause my DVD. this got me thinking about programmable remotes, but if i bought one, i wouldn't have the 360 remote to program it from so i'd need a remote i could download control sets from the internet or otherwise input them from a non-remote source. are there any affordable remotes that have this capacity that people suggest? shiny LCD screens and such on it is a plus, but reducing cost would be a high priority.

[Reality]

check out the many different models of the logitech harmony

[Cephius]

I have the Harmony 880, and I love it. It's pretty fancy, and will run you upwards of 100 bucks, but it's well worth it if you have a ton of components like I do. One button and it turns on everything and sets everything to the right channel, just how you like it. It's fully customizable.

[Spekkio]

i can program it for things like the 360 or to skip forward 30s on my dvr, things i don't have buttons for to program it with already?

[Cephius]

Ok, there are limitations. Basically anything the native remote can do, this remote can do. Logitech has a huge database on electronic components, you pick out whatever you have from a list and it will add it and that comes with buttons pre-programmed into it. Then you set up Activities - so when you hit say, "Play Xbox 360" on your remote, it turns on your TV, your audio reciever, your switch and the Xbox, and sets everything to the right channel. If you're playing a game and realize that you're missing Monday Night Football, you hit "Watch TV" and it'll shut off your Xbox for you, change the TV input and up comes your TV. That's what it does well.

As far as setting custom buttons, like... a button that jumps 45:20 into a DVD.. I don't think you can do that with this. But basically, any button on the remote that came with your component (even the X/Y/B/A buttons on the Xbox controller) are mapped to the Harmony by default.

The 880 and I think the newer ones all come with charging bays, so you don't need to waste money on batteries.

As for the negatives, the application that you use to configure the remote is kind of clunky, and it requires you to register with Logitech and log in each time when you feel like changing something. It's pretty annoying, but that's really the only con I can think of.

[Spekkio]

looking at the 880, the price on it is about 200-250 bucks, so it's well out of my price range. do you have any input on their 100 dollar xbox 360 model? my guess is it's got a couple of color coded buttons for the 360 layout and the same guts as most of the others but it's the cheapest of their remote series clocking in at only 100 dollars. also, skimming sam's club's website (i figure if i buy from there, i can screw with it for a few days and take it back if it sucks w/o a nightmarish hassle or 25% restocking fee.) i found a model not listed on their website, the 659 model. how does that differ from the other models on their website, if you know?

as for the custom buttons question, i'm not trying to do anything insane like jump to a particular point in a dvd. these are all things that my DVR will do with proper remote codes, but the remote my cable company handed me (Bright House) is locked down and i can't add those codes to the remote. the goal would be to enable me to have a button like on a tivo that would let me skip forward 30s thru commercials rather than burst fast forwarding to skip ahead. obviously my cable company doesn't want that so i need to find other means and i figured i could get a shiny new remote to consolidate all my systems, get a remote for my 360, and get a remote not crippled by my cable company.