Friday, December 09, 2005

Does your AV system need some harmony?

After watching my dad struggle with his AV system one too many times I convinced him that he needed to get a Harmony remote. By 'convinced' I mean I went out and bought it for him. My dad has a pretty nice home AV setup, this comes about through all the hand me downs and casts off from my old equipment. As a result he has about 6 different components and the same number of remotes. His amp has a universal remote built in but it's just too confusing for him to use, I'm hoping the Harmony will change all that.
I setup the system this morning in about 10 mins. It was simply a matter of putting in the CD, selecting the makes of the equipment he has and typing in the model numbers (It even suggests model numbers for things like his Foxtel box which I didn't know and it was spot on). Once you've added all your devices it asks what activities you want to have (things like Watch a DVD, Watch TV etc.) From there you just select what devices you want on etc and it downloads the file to your remote and your done. They even publish a test drive so you can check out the setup process before you have one!

From the front screen now Dad can click a button for "Watch a DVD" and the remote will switch on the Amp, Tv and DVD player, Switch off everything else change all the things to the right inputs and play the DVD that's in the player... pretty cool. (I just wish I had one) Hopefully it will even get my mum in a position where she can turn the TV on :)

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