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This Month's Featured Equipment Reviews |
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Remotes & System Control Forum Topics: |
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Classic Remotes & System Control Reviews |
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Past Remotes & System Control News |
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Remotes & System Control
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Tuesday, 26 May 2009
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Written by
Todd Daugherty
Harmony is a great name for this Universal Remote Control. Its main objective is to allow the user to eliminate all other remotes and solely use the 1100 as the single entity to direct multiple home theater devices needing orders at the same time. Logitech spares no modesty in its confidence to do just that, as the startup screen on the 1100 welcomes you with its boastful claim, “Finally, One Remote To Control Them All.” And that it does. How well it does that is up to you.The Harmony 1100 has a few tweaks that its predecessor, the 1000 model, arguably needed from the start. The overall consensus is that it is significantly faster, not only in touchscreen response time but also the IR transmission. It is also black instead of silver, a concept I think many purists still are ...
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Wednesday, 01 August 2007
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Written by
Ken Taraszka, MD
Introduction
The
first TV remote was made by Zenith in 1950. Called “Lazy Bones,” it
allowed you to change the channels and to turn the TV on and off. It
came with a 20-foot wire connecting it to the set. The first wireless
remote also came from Zenith in 1955, using a directional flashlight to
activate its then-incredible four control functions; the “flashlight”
system meant stray sunlight activated functions at any given time.
Within a year, Zenith switched to an ultrasonic remote that added
almost 30 percent to the cost of the set. This became the first
practical remote control. It wasn’t until the early ‘80s that IR
(infrared) technology replaced the ultrasonic remotes and, thankfully
for us, now we have IR, RF (Radio Frequency), Bluetooth, WiFi and
surely more technologies to come. When the first remotes came out, a
single remote for your TV was fine. Fast forward 50 years and we now
have ...
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Wednesday, 01 March 2006
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Written by
Andrew Robinson
Introduction
Ah,
remotes. Can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without. Well, let me just get
this out of the way - I generally hate remotes. Some remotes are good;
most of them suck. What good is piece of equipment costing hundreds, if
not thousands, of dollars that can be rendered inept by a terrible
remote control? Sure, we’d all like to have a home automation system
from the likes of Crestron, AMX or Control 4 that will do everything
shy of rubbing our feet and walking the dog, but not many of us have
the moolah to plunk down on such a system. Well, the people over at
Logitech have answered the call with their new Harmony 880 Universal
remote control.
Logitech is one of the leading manufacturers of
third-party peripherals for today’s computer market. Chances are, if
you’ve sat in front of a PC or Mac for a good portion of your life ...
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Tuesday, 01 March 2005
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Written by
Matthew Evert
Introduction
Like
many Audio Video Revolution readers, I have a table adjacent to the
main seat in my theater room completely covered with various remotes to
run my AV system. For years, this situation has been acceptable
because, barring the morning after a big night out on the town, I can
manipulate my system by grabbing one remote after another to fire up my
gear. This has long been a safety mechanism that prevents my roommates
from using (or abusing) my gear, as they can’t figure out how to start
it up even if I left them alone for a week with a stack of NetFlix
movies six inches high.
The problem is that I personally have the whole remote
routine down, but I am getting to the point where I want to let others
use my system from time to time. However, none of them can figure out
the system and often ...
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Wednesday, 01 December 2004
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Written by
Jerry Del Colliano
Introduction
There
comes a time in every man’s life when he completely loses control. It
happened to me at the early age of 30 and it was nothing short of
embarrassing. Despite being fortunate enough to have a rack full of the
coolest audio/video gear in the world, I could no longer effectively
manage the operation of my system. I had 11 – count ‘em – 11 remote
controls for everything from my projector to my SACD player to my VCR
to my HDTV tuner to my TiVo and so on. The process of watching a movie
or even listening to music had become a pathetic display of flailing
remotes, missed commands and overall system failure. Something had to
be done.
The solution was to invest in a big-time remote control
system. The two most prominent players in the market are AMX and
Crestron. I chose AMX for a number of reasons, including the ...
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