Accessories – Page 4 – Devices View

Logitech Buying Ultimate Ears

August 14, 2008 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

Logitech announced today that it is buying high end earbud vendor Ultimate Ears. UE is best known for $1000+ custom headphones for professional musicians, but it also has a line of consumer headphones in the $40 – $400 range. Its business model is incredibly similar to Shure – both come from professional audio (initially microphones in Shure’s case) and branched out into the consumer space. In contrast, etymotic’s background was in hearing aids, and V-MODA seems to have come from the fashion world.

Without the custom business, Ultimate Ears is just another headset vendor, and its brand differentiation will be difficult for Logitech to maintain. But if Logitech leaves the core custom business alone, it can definitely build up the consumer side – Ultimate Ears could definitely use better distribution and broader consumer awareness; Logitech excels in these areas – just look at what they did with Harmony (speaking of which, I just got in a Harmony One remote control; a review will follow shortly).

In terms of how Ultimate Ears actually sound, I have no idea. I have tested most of the competition – Shure, etymotic, Sennheiser, Sony, v-moda, and Bose, to name a few. I should be getting in some Ultimate Ears product soon for comparison.

Accessories

Monoprice’s HDMI Switcher – and its Customer Service – Work

July 8, 2008 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

A while back I tested ACCELL’s 4×2 HDMI switcher. In closing, I noted that budget cable site monoprice sells a similar unit for just $89, and "For $89, if it just turns on I’ll be impressed."

Well, the first unit turned on, but didn’t do much more than that. The box was attractive and well packed – from a packaging perspective it inspired confidence. But it didn’t work. I could force it to manually switch between displays by turning one display off, the other on, and then unplugging/replugging the switch – not exactly what it is supposed to do.

I called monoprice’s customer service line and got a live human being within three rings who apologized and sent out a new unit right away. At no point did I reveal any industry/blogging credentials, and this is a company that is selling a product roughly 1/4 the price of the competition, so top notch service is really extraordinary.

The replacement unit worked the first time out of the box. The remote control is ugly and does not have a powerful IR emitter, but it has eight discrete buttons for every switching contingency (Input 1 to Output A, Input 2 to Output A, Input 3 to Output A, Input 4 to Output A, Input 1 to Output B, Input 2 to Output B, Input 3 to Output B, Input 4 to Output B). This makes programming a universal remote child’s play, or at least it would have if the Logitech Harmony 880 worked properly with the monoprice codes. After downloading and redownloading and creating my own codes from scratch, I still couldn’t get the Harmony to finish the update/synchronization process. Eventually, I gave up and emailed Logitech. Here, too, customer service saved the day: within two days of my email to Logitech’s Harmony folks, they figured out and resolved whatever was the problem was and sent me a note to "try it again now." Problem solved.

In three months of use, I have had no significant issues with the second monoprice unit. I have noticed, however, that on its own site, monoprice does seem to have generated a lot of complaints about dead or incompatible HDMI switching units, and this particular swtich has been refreshed several times; it is now up to version "2.5." Some of this is undoubtedly due to the inherent iffyness (a technical term) of HDMI implementations across a wide range of products. Still, custom installers can be forgiven if they choose to steer clear of the monoprice unit and stick with a proven brand like Gefen as their default. For DIY’ers, though, the monoprice unit is an easy recommendation: its price is insanely low, and monoprice is providing quick service should you have any problems. Even if there is an unusually high failure rate for these units out of the box, it is a gamble worth taking.

Accessories / Audio / Displays / HDTV

Product Review: Accell 4×2 HDMI Switcher

March 11, 2008 - by Avi Greengart - 3 Comments.

HDMI was supposed to bring the home theater world from the confusing age of multiple cables for audio and video (and sometimes multiple audio cables and multiple video cables) down to just a single cable from each component to your display. If your display doesn’t have enough HDMI inputs for all your sources, you need an HDMI switcher or a receiver which has an HDMI switcher built in. Then you need an HDMI cable from the each source to the switcher or receiver, but just one from there to the display. Fortunately, even some budget receivers now have HDMI switching built in (starting around $400), and there are good inexpensive HDMI switchers on the market like the XTremeMac HD Switcher I reviewed last year.

But what if you have two displays?

At least in terms of receivers, you’re in a completely different price category – no $400 receivers for you. The least expensive receivers I could find with dual HDMI outputs are from Onkyo and Denon. Onkyo’s TX-NR905 has extremely high end video processing, advanced room correction that smooths the sound at multiple seats, a ridiculous amount of amplifier power with THX Ultra2 certification, the dual HDMI outputs we’re looking for, and a price tag that ranges from $1500 – $2000 (assuming that you can find one in stock. It seems that they’ve been selling quite well). Unfortunately, only one HDMI output works at a time, and to change between the two HDMI outputs, you either must physically press a button on the front panel to cycle through the settings, or adjust a setting in the menu. Neither option is conducive to automation by a universal remote control which is a fairly common way to use a product in this price category. Denon sells the AVR-4308CI, which is also chock full of features, as you might expect for a product that sells in the $1800 – $2400 range. On the Denon, the dual HDMI outputs are driven in parallel; there is no way to select them individually. This is fine for some situations, but it means that whatever the source device is outputting had better be perfect for both displays if they’re both turned on at the same time (only one display gets to handshake with the source device through the receiver and tell the device what display resolution, frame rate, etc. it wants).

There are several HDMI switchers on the market with dual HDMI outputs, and they’re a lot less expensive than buying a new $2000 receiver. Accell has sent cables here in the past, and when I saw them at CES this year they were showing off an entire line of reasonably priced HDMI switchers, topping out at a 4×8 switcher – four sources hooked up to eight displays for those times when you want your rec room to look like a NASA shuttle launch. The Accell UltraAV HDMI 4-2 Audio/Video Switch is far more reasonable (4 sources to 2 displays), and lists for a very reasonable $299 when most similar switches start at $500; I asked them to send one over for review.

It wasn’t perfect, but overall I liked it: it does one thing (switches HDMI signals) for a reasonable cost, and it does it pretty well, though with some caveats. It’s quite small and I had no trouble installing it. I didn’t have a high definition test pattern disc to use, but video quality on real-world material appeared unchanged by the switcher – Ratatouille on Blu-ray from a PS3 looked just as ridiculously good direct from the PS3 or routed through the Accell. The PS3 and my Panasonic projector often have minor handshaking dropouts when loading a disc and making its way to the menus; the instance of dropouts did seem to increase after adding the switch in the chain, but if so, the difference was minor and – honest – I may have imagined the increase. The switch automatically changes the input to whichever source device is on. Since my TiVo HD is always on, I couldn’t test that fully, but it did default to that input. Accell claims that the switch mirrors the source on both outputs (like Denon’s scheme above), but I didn’t find that always worked in the real world – I could usually only lock onto the source on one display at a time. It’s possible that there was a problem in the switch, but I’m willing to bet that it’s a glitch in the way my TV and projector handle HDMI signals or the difference in resolution between the displays (a Panasonic 720p plasma and a Panasonic 1080p LCD projector). For my intended purpose – watching either the TV or the projector, but not both at the same time – the Accell switch worked perfectly.

A small infrared remote control is included that has discrete buttons – and discrete IR codes for those who want to copy them into a universal remote control – for each individual input, power on, power off, and a toggle switch for selecting between outputs A and B. In a really nice touch, an infrared receiver cable is also included so that the switcher can be secluded behind a cabinet. The switch contains a signal booster for longer HDMI cable runs up to 82ft; I was not able to test this, as my longest run is 25ft. The switch is designed for HDMI version 1.2. HDMI version 1.3 is the latest and greatest iteration of the standard, and adds things like Deep Color which have not been implemented yet in any source material. For most people, there is little practical difference between HDMI 1.3 and 1.2, but if complete futureproofing is an absolute requirement, this iteration of the 4×2 Switch isn’t for you.

Accell isn’t the only 4×2 HDMI switcher on the market; Gefen makes one for $549 that has some additional functionality, such as splitting out the audio signal to a coax output, that could be extremely useful in certain setups. And budget cable outfit monoprice.com has a budget model with HDMI 1.3a compatibility for just $89 – I’ll be testing that one next. For $89, if it just turns on I’ll be impressed.

-avi

Accessories / Audio / Displays / HDTV

Product Review: XTremeMac HD Switcher

November 15, 2007 - by Avi Greengart - 3 Comments.

Home_switcher Sometimes all you need is a simple product that does one thing, and does it well – at an affordable price. If you have an HDTV with only a single HDMI input and multiple HDMI sources, you need an HDMI switcher. New displays may have multiple inputs, and A/V receivers are beginning to provide HDMI switching as a matter of course, so if you’re building a system from scratch, you may be able to consolidate your video switching in your reciever or display rather than buy a separate component. Finally, if you have just a single HDMI component, you won’t need this either.

However, if you bought an HDTV in the past few years (or are buying a budget model today) and you don’t have enough HDMI inputs, you need one of these. I pointed out Gefen’s entry in this space last year; that was an HDMI-to-DVI model that retailed for $300. More recently, XTremeMac sent over their XTremeHD 4 Port HDMI Switcher and it does exactly what it’s supposed to do all in HDMI with minimal hassle and at much lower cost ($99). With similar styling to Apple’s Mac mini, the Switcher is small and looks nice on the equipment rack. Sources can be switched manually or using the included remote control. You’ll want to add its codes to a macro on your universal remote control (Logitech’s Harmony system makes this very, very easy) or you’ll quickly tire of remembering which input covers what. But this is no fault of the product, which worked without a hitch switching between a TiVo HD and an LG HDTV tuner/DVD player outputting to a JVC LCoS rear projection HDTV.

I could not do a double blind test with/without the Switcher in the signal chain, but I have noticed no degredation of the signal from either source. I do seem to be getting more instances of HDMI handshake failure when I switch back and forth than when I would connect just a single source and leave it connected. (The TV’s copy protection circuit gets temporarily confused and puts up a notice saying that the source is not supported; this usually goes away with the next command to the source, but sometimes requires switching the source back and forth again). It seems to be an issue with the TV, not the switch itself. I had a nice chat with an HDMI spokesperson at the CES Preview event in New York last night, and while he admitted it was a common issue, he assures me that newer gear has worked out all the compatibility issues. Of course, newer gear tends to have more HDMI inputs and outputs as well, so anyone who needs a switcher should be aware that their source and display may not like each other as much as they ought to.

The XTremeHD 4 Port Switcher is simply named, performs a complicated task simply, and doesn’t cost too much. If you need a basic HDMI switcher, I can easily recommend this one.

Accessories / PC Convergence

Logitech MX Air Blends HT and PC

July 13, 2007 - by Avi Greengart - 1 Comment

Logitech introduced a new "mouse" yesterday, and I put "mouse" in quotation marks because it’s an interesting product that blends a PC mouse with a gyroscopic sensor (think Nintendo Wii’s controller and you have the right idea) and software that can be used as a remote control for watching media content on a computer.

There have been products like this in the past, notably from Gyration (a company that got bought by Thomson in 2004). A bunch of years back when I was heading home theater research at JupiterResearch I wrote a report where I recommended their Media Center accessory line for inclusion with HTPC’s which were just starting to ship. I’m still a big fan of Gyration’s Gyrotransport, an ingenious product for the presentation market which combines a gyroscopic mouse, USB transmitter, and Flash storage (for your PPT deck) all in one compact package. However, the market for dedicated HTPCs has proven to be relatively small even as an overwhelming majority of consumers use their PCs for all sorts of media consumption. Logitech addresses the reality that computers are rarely used from 10 feet away on a couch, but that users do often switch between direct manipulation (the 2′ experience) and a "lean-back" experience where they may not be right at the PC. Maybe they are on a couch, or just pushed back their chair a bit. The MX Air functions as a normal laser mouse when placed on a flat surface, and switches to air mouse mode when you pick it up.

Like Gyration’s Media Center remote, Logitech’s MX Air has all sorts of neat air gestures you can make to control volume, skip music tracks or jump to the next movie scene. This is cool and demos well, though hard buttons are at least as efficient. I got a chance to use the MX Air last month, and what I found most impressive is how easy and smooth in-air control is; Gyration uses a different technology, and Logitech’s cursor control is easier to use. It also feels nice in the hand and is easy to control as a regular mouse on a desk; lefties may actually prefer it to most ergonomic mice which are clearly designed for right handed users.

What’s not so impressive is the price: $149 for what is unquestionably a cool gadget, but one that is not exactly necessary. (Personally, if I was shopping for a premium mouse, I’d spend the money on Logitech’s amazing $99 MX Revolution. That has no real added attraction for media viewing, but the scroll wheel shifts from free spin to ratched spin depending on which application you have open, which greatly improves productivity.)

-avi

Accessories / Audio / PC Convergence

LIVEDigitally Posts Avi’s Holiday Gift Guide

December 22, 2006 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

Yes, it’s been a long time since the last post here at Home Theater View, but that’s not because I haven’t been writing. My Last Minute Non-Obvious Holiday Gift Guide has just been posted over at LIVEDigitally.

As I write this, there is only one day left to Chanukah and a couple of shopping days before Christmas. I figure there’s no need for a last minute gift list with obvious entries. Let’s face it, if you didn’t already get an HDTV or MP3 player for your home theater and gadget-loving giftees, you don’t need me to tell you that you could get them a plasma or an iPod. So here is the:

Non-Obvious Last Minute 2006 Holiday Gadget Gift Guide

Happy Holidays,

-avi

Accessories

Flexity PowerSquid Swims Its Way Into Apple Stores

August 29, 2006 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

OK, the press release [warning: PDF] is somewhat gratuitous, as the product itself was announced what seems like ages ago. But Flexity’s PowerSquid line is such an elegant solution to such an annoying problem that it’s worth plugging them again (sorry about the pun). Sure, some home theater components include standard narrow plugs, which fit nicely onto a surge protector, but as the digital/gadget quotient rises in home entertainment, so do the wall warts (those big brick things that you can’t fit onto a standard surge protector).

To be completely truthful, I haven’t even used the PowerSquid sample Flexity sent over in my home theater at all. At first it was upstairs in my home office, and then migrated from the floor to the desk itself, where it serves as a gadget recharging station. As I write this, its tentacles are connected to a set of Bluetooth headphones, a digital picture frame, an Internet tablet, a WiFi MP3 player, a musicphone, and a subnotebook. The subnotebook is literally the only one of the six devices with a "normal" plug; the MP3 player’s brick is a monsterously large rectangle, the digital picture frame’s plug looks like an oversized peanut, and the smartphone’s cord originates in a giant oval thing. Standard surge protectors – even the ones with extra spacing – can’t connect half of those things.

If Flexity is serious about the home theater market, they’ll move upscale with versions branded for "home theater," perhaps with power line conditioning. But, as it is, these are product samples the vendor is not getting back.

-avi

Update: Flexity responds:

Our product is actually conditioned for high end Home Theater systems, with the Calamari running our PureStream EMI/RFI filters that protect up to 58dB. While we certainly are not the fanciest home theater option, the PowerSquid is a solid choice that will cost a great deal less than many models from the competition.

That’s not quite the same thing as what Richard Gray’s Power Company, Monster, or even Belkin is promising, but I’ll grant Flexity that the Calamari should be sufficient in many home theaters assuming line conditioning is even needed in the first place. More importantly, a picture of the Calamari [just added, see above right] demonstrates why it should sell well in the Apple stores – it’s white!

Accessories

Product Review: Football Universal Remote Control

February 3, 2006 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

With the Super Bowl just a couple days away, sales of big screen TVs are probably up a bit – after all, in consumer electronics as well as computing, software (must-see content) drives sales of hardware (televisions, in this case). That’s never more true than with sports content, whether football, the Olympics, or the big one, the World Cup (for my U.S. readers, that last one is a big soccer game. Billions watch it. Manufacturers alter their return policies on projectors and TVs so that "football" fans don’t buy just to watch and then immediately return the sets).

Other content drives large audiences, but not necessarily pull-through on hardware. Advertisers call the Oscars the "Super Bowl for Women," you don’t find Best Buy running specials on plasma TVs ahead of the big awards night. Perhaps they should – women are buying a much higher percentage of consumer electronics gear than in the past.

In the spirit of the big game, Excaliber Electronics sent over the Monday Night Football talking remote control (click on the image to enlarge). This is a remote control embedded in a padded football about the size of a Nerf, not a Wilson. ABC lost Monday Night Football to ESPN, so there may be a new version of this out next season. Still, this would be the perfect gift for the football obsessed couch potato if it wasn’t for several flaws.

The padding makes the MNF Remote appear to be tossable: throw it to your friends or slam it on the floor in disgust after a bad call or a missed field goal. But a prominent warning in the user manual strongly discourages this, though probably just for liability reasons – in my testing the remote continued to function after a few rough tosses across the room.
Despite its name, the remote is hardly a universal model. It supports three devices: a TV (though it lacks aspect ratio controls found on all of today’s 16×9 sets), cable box (though it lacks any kind of TiVo/PVR control buttons for today’s modern set top boxes), and a VCR. Yes, a VCR, not a DVD player.
This is a bit nitpicky, but the membrane-type buttons are flush with the remote’s surface, which means they can’t be selected by touch without looking.
Finally, and this may sound nitpicky, but it’s actually critical to the appeal of the product: it’s not much of a talking remote control. It says exactly one phrase, "are you ready for some football?" Now, the problem isn’t what it says, but how it says it. Despite this being branded with ABC’s Monday Night Football logo, when you press the button, Hank Williams Jr. does not growl out, "Areyoureadyforsome FOOTBAAAAAALL?!!!" as heard at the beginning of every Monday Night Football game. The Monday Night Football theme does not play, either. Rather, a rather wimpy, almost nerdishly earnest voice voice asks, "are you ready for some football?" Any serious football fan will be severely disappointed; it would have been better to leave out the voice capability entirely.

The Monday Night Football Talking Remote Control should still make a good gag gift (it’s available online for just $17.99 at Smarthome), and it’s certainly harder to lose among the couch cushions than most universal remote controls. But don’t expect it to actually be used much.

Enjoy the game.

-avi

Accessories / HDTV

Product Review: Newpoint argo XL lifestyle antenna

December 21, 2005 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

The word "lifestyle" in this industry usually refers to speaker systems, designed to be as small and unobtrusive as possible. This often leads to poor sound quality – after all, physics are involved when pushing air, and its harder to do with less volume for the pushing. You can beat physics with unique designs like the tiny subs with huge excursion (from Definitive Technology and Sunfire, among others), or simply tune products to what consumers are looking for (bright and punchy) and forget absolute musical accuracy. Bose saw tremendous success getting way ahead of the lifestyle trend, but with general audio sales down and the flat panel TV market booming, it seems that every manufacturer now has at least one "thin and flat" speaker system.

Proving you can’t stop a good trend, Newpoint, a maker of surge protectors, cables, and other A/V accessories, has introduced the argo XP lifestyle antenna. Yes, an OTA HD antenna, with a flat panel main antenna, all in plasma-approved silver. Newpoint makes a big deal out of its HDTV-readiness on the box, and literally calls it the "lifestyle antenna." You can’t get more decorator friendly than that. Newpoint was kind enough to send over a review sample.

In my last go around of (completely unscientific) testing, I found that Zenith’s futuristic looking thing beat a standard loop antenna for pulling in HDTV for three reasons: the signal stregnth meter generally reads higher on the Zenith than the Jensen, it’s easier to adjust the Zenith because it basically can’t be adjusted, and the Zenith looks cool (I’ve included a picture). I have two of the Zeniths – one came with the HDTV tuner card I use in my Media Center XP box upstairs. Since I wrote that review, I’ve become somewhat disenchanted with the product, because its odd design makes it easy to adjust but difficult to stay put in exactly that spot. It also has a habit of breaking loose from its base and stabbing me in the foot. I hate it when that happens.

Surprisingly, for a "lifestyle" product, the Newpoint got just as good reception as the Zenith. It isn’t better than the Zenith. For example, it still won’t pull in certain stations like PBS – I suspect I’ll need a roof antenna for that. However, ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, and the WB all come in fine, weather permitting. The key difference is that there are a limited number of adjustments you can make to the argo XL, but the hinge mechanism is fairly tight – once you get it right, it stays put. The base is reasonably well weighted, so a jolt from the subwoofer won’t change its position, and it doesn’t stick out into the room and launch itself at your feet when you walk by. Finally, it too, looks like it belongs in a modern home theater, despite the rabbit ears on each side of the panel.

I admit to being biased against lifestyle products, but Newpoint’s argo XL lifestyle antenna is inexpensive (under $30), looks good, and performs as well as its peers. I can easily recommend it as a first step before spending more on an amplified antenna or something for your roof.

-avi

Accessories / PC Convergence

Media Center PC, Part 2: Logitech Harmony 680

August 16, 2005 - by Avi Greengart - 2 Comments.

This is the second in a series on experiences using and enhancing Windows XP Media Center for home theater.

To control my Media Center, I have two remote controls: one for the audio system, and one for the Media Center itself. (As mentioned last time, I also use the media control buttons from the Logitech DiNovo media pad as a remote of sorts). While this is an extremely basic setup – no plasma TV, no audio receiver, no light control – it still seemed like two remote controls for one desk was overkill, and I had a Logitech Harmony 680 on hand to consolidate things. The 680 is billed as a Media Center PC remote control, and it has a few buttons dedicated to peculiarly Media Center tasks – a big green button to launch the interface, and an "info" button, for example. Like all Harmony remote controls, the idea is that the remote programs itself based on an online questionnaire you fill out. This limits the market for their remotes somewhat to people who have Internet connections, but that’s certainly not an issue for an XP Media Center remote!

In a brilliant move, the Harmony 680 works as a stock XP Media Center remote control straight out of the box – no connection to a PC required, no configuration. You do need to put in the batteries, but, in another nice touch, those are also included in the box.

Connecting to the Internet and programming the remote did not go quite as well. After installing the PC software, and registering and creating an account online, I had trouble getting the site to work properly at all until I noticed that my pop-up blocker seemed to be interfering with key messages the site was sending. Pop-ups enabled, the software tried to upgrade the firmware on the remote, but ran into problems. After bouncing around through the "troubleshooting" option, the culprit was discovered: the version of the PC-based software (which connects the remote to the web site) needed to be upgraded, too. None of this is all that unusual when setting up PC products or interacting with rich web sites, but it is a hazard of combining the two.

That accomplished, the next step was testing the setup. There were two main problems. First, the remote simply didn’t work for listening to the radio using the Media Center. It seems that the "Listen To Radio" activity defaults to only three or four buttons programmed, which makes changing stations impossible. This was easy to fix once I found the right menu option in the web setup; all the commands are pre-programmed, they just aren’t assigned to the buttons for this particular activity. Odd.

The other problem is the way Harmony tracks the "state" (on, off) of your components. With traditional macros (a memorized string of commands), the whole sequence gets thrown out of whack if your DVD player happened to be on when you initiate the "watch a DVD" macro. The Harmony tries to manage the state of things so that it knows what to turn on, and what not to. If there’s something out of whack, Harmony’s narrated help button ("Is your DVD player on?") puts things back in order. This is one of Harmony’s best qualities for controlling a big, dedicated home theater setup, but on a Media Center PC, it was infuriating. With a Media Center PC, you tend to bounce around a lot between activities, jumping from music listening to recorded TV watching and back. There’s really never any need to turn off the "amplifier" (powered speakers, in this case). In fact, for a PC-based system that’s also used as a regular PC, shutting things down is counterproductive – when you’re finished with a music or movie session, you still want the speakers on for email alerts and other Windows sounds.

Shutting down the 680’s urge to shut down was similarly easy to do online, once I figured out where in the menu setup this particular option lay. In fact, that’s my primary problem with the Harmony system: initial setup is easy. Tweaking is actually easy, too. It’s just hard to navigate – the whole system is like a classic PC branching text adventure game from the early 1980s (yes, I know, I’m dating myself). If you follow the path, you might get where you want. Or not. There’s no way to see the list of choices and what options reside in which paths. Logitech needs to spend a little more time working out the user interface kinks of the online site.

With the remote finally set up just the way I wanted, it did indeed replace two separate remote controls, and, thus far, I’m finding it about as easy to use as HP’s Media Center remote for basic control. Some of the HP’s remote’s buttons are easier to find by feel – the Harmony’s buttons are arranged nicely, but all have the same glossy pearl feel to them, so until your fingers learn which button is where, you need to look down at the remote before pressing things.

Conclusion

The 680 is clearly overkill for my system. But for a larger system where the Media Center PC is the central hub,or just a small part of the home theater, it may be mandatory. There are few real competitors: most universal remotes don’t have the right button and command structure to control a Media Center PC, and touch screen remotes are both more expensive and far more difficult to program. Logitech’s online setup system does need a little work to make tweaking systems a bit easier, but the basic approach is sound.

In fact, the Harmony approach allows users to control an XP Media Center without explicit programming – just select the Media Center as a device in the questionnairre, and it will work with the 680, or the 688 (which also has dedicated skip forward buttons for use with a TiVo or ReplayTV) or even the new 880 (with a larger and more flexible programmable color screen). The 880 may be preferred when using a large, widescreen monitor with a Media Center PC, as the soft buttons and screen are used to provide aspect ratio control – another button most universal remote controls lack. (We have a Harmony 880 in from Logitech; a full review is planned.)

-avi