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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Introduction Home theater systems are increasingly complex. In the old days of audiophilia, you likely had a tape deck, stereo preamp, power amplifier and two speakers. Maybe you even had a television in the same room. Well, those days are long gone and systems today likely include a digital cable box, digital video recorder (TiVo), audio/video preamp processor, DVD and/or CD player, VCR and television. Throw in a high-resolution disc player (SACD or DVD-Audio), music server (Apple iPod or ReQuest) or video processor (Faroudja), and if you can successfully make it all work seamlessly, you deserve an honorary engineering degree from Radio Shack. If you are anything like me, you yearn for a simple, one-stop solution to control it all and rid your living area of those unsightly remotes. There can be little debate that modern technology has spurred a revolution in quality and functionality of home theater gear. This revolution has been driven by consumer ...