Living Room Harmony: The Harmony Universal Remote

Harmony Universal Remote Control

by Alan Sheckter, SmartTV & Sound news editor

Eliminating the need for multiple remotes, the Harmony Universal Remote from Easy Zapper Inc. can control all of your home entertainment devices, including your TV, VCR and radio, as well as your DVD, CD and MP3 players.

The Harmony Remote offers quite a bit of brainpower. Smart State technology analyzes the state of your home entertainment system at any given time (which components are off and which are on), and then sends the appropriate operating commands to accommodate your wishes. For example, once you define a “watch a DVD” activity, the remote will set the following commands in motion: turn on the TV, turn on your receiver, set the input to DVD, turn on the DDV player and begin playing your disc.

Some of the Harmony Remote’s “knowledge” also comes from its connection to the Internet. The remote comes equipped with a USB port for downloading things such as TV program listings, CD song titles and cooking show recipes. TV and music information appears on the remote’s LCD.
The $199 remote comes with a USB interface cable, an instruction manual and three AAA batteries.