Bulky remote for serious users only

How much are you willing to pay for the convenience of having one remote control to operate all the gadgets in your lounge? Fifty, three hundred, a thousand dollars?

There are universal remotes available at all of those price points and they all do variations of the same thing - give users control of their electronic entertainment devices.

The benefits of a universal are obvious - no scrambling around looking for the five remotes that control various devices, which invariably clutter up the living room, and no replacing batteries in all of them.

But cost is an issue. A Philips Pronto universal remote, for example, goes for around $950 and it's by no means the most expensive such device on the market. At the other end of the scale, Dick Smith sells a $39 four-in-one remote that operates the TV, VCR, DVD player and pay TV set-top box.

My sweet spot is $200, and for that I want a universal remote with an LCD screen, glow-in-the-dark keys and a level of intelligence that allows me to program it to set many devices at once.

That puts the Logitech Harmony 880 out of my league, but not by a huge amount. The remote packs in a surprising amount of functionality, more than any other similarly priced one.

The remote is a little big - more than eight inches long. It has a lot of buttons, which makes feeling your way around it tricky, but the embedded colour LCD screen that displays a number of useful icons is a nice guide.

The icons are surrounded on either side by eight hard buttons that control all the basic functions. The "watch TV" icon, for example, adjusts the TV to its programmed settings, while the "listen to music" icon controls the stereo according to its settings.

The Harmony 880 is particularly smart when it comes programming these settings, but the method isn't for everyone. Other universal remotes can be programmed simply by pointing at appliances - it's a convenient method as long as the appliance is listed in the remote's memory.

But with the Harmony 880, the user must plug the remote into a computer via a USB cable, then connect to the internet to set up devices.

This will be a problem for those who don't have a computer and internet access, but the sort of people buying the Harmony 880 are likely to have an electronics bent, which makes it likely they'll be internet savvy too.

A series of online wizards then asks the user to select devices from a database, then set their preferences.

The user can for instance, set the Harmony 880 to turn on the TV and stereo to a pre-set volume level, all with the touch of a button. Once all the settings are fiddled with, they're loaded into the remote's memory.

The remote can control a variety of appliances, including air-conditioners, projectors and lighting systems.

The big remote sits on an even bigger recharging docking station. Unfortunately there's no paging function on the docking station to help you find the remote if it has disappeared down the back of the couch.

However, it has a motion sensor so that when the user picks it up the LCD screen comes to life, ready for use.

The Harmony 880 is the sort of gadget that won't provide much satisfaction straight out of the box. You have to customize it to take advantage of its intelligence, which will stretch the patience of those who just want basic functions. But for the more sophisticated user it does what it promises - it puts them in control.

Logitech Harmony 880

Pros: Rechargable battery; colour screen; programmable.

Cons: Bulky; requires computer and web access.

Price: $331

Herald Rating:7/10