Where are you on the remote control totem pole?
Quick. Close your eyes and count the number of remote controls you use to turn on all of the necessary components to watch television in your house. Is it one? Two? Three or more? Or maybe you have one of those all-in-one remote controls that can handle several different components.
Now think again. Who in your house knows how to use this remote control (or these remote controls) better than anyone else in the house? Those with kids may have to think hard about this one.
Shockingly, the answer in my house is still me. But barely. Twice since purchasing my Harmony One remote control my oldest son has taught me how to do something with the remote that I didn't previously know how to do. That might be enough to say he knows more than me but I still hold the crown when it comes to the original programming of the remote control. And I don't plan on letting that reign go anytime soon.
Some still prefer the old fashioned way
Now, my wife on the other hand, has fallen to the bottom of the remote control totem pole in our house. Now this isn't to say she doesn't know how to turn on the television. She just prefers to do it "the old way" as she says.
That "old way" is to physically walk up to each component and press the power button. It baffles me every time I see her do it.
And I must admit, I have to work hard to conceal my grin when my wife asks me why she can't see the television picture and my son intervenes by grabbing the remote control and saying something smart like, "You just need to press this button, then this button, then turn on the receiver and press this button to go to Video 6."
If you can relate all to well to the story above, welcome to the Noobie web site. You're in the right palce.
4 comments for this blog post so far...
July 19, 2009 at 7:57 pm
asudduth
In our family room we have a Logitech Harmony 670… it works great with the surround sound receiver, and with the TV, but its not good with the U-Verse receiver… and actually the buttons are a little weird/cheap feeling.
So even though this thing was the easiest remote I’ve ever programmed it has mixed reviews by me and my wife… Haven’t actually tried to tweak it… but anyways, we only have one remote but sometimes its a pain to use… So not sure where that puts us on the totem pole…
Maybe a more expensive Harmony… or another brand would have been better… oh well…
July 19, 2009 at 8:18 pm
Patric Welch
@asudduth: Did you program your remote through USB and your computer? I’ve had pretty good success with every device I own with my Harmony One. The only issue I have is that it uses an LCD touch screen for the custom buttons and every once in a while I touch the wrong button by mistake.
July 19, 2009 at 8:24 pm
asudduth
@patric - yes used the USB through the PC… was great experience. The problem is the buttons seem unresponsive and typing a channel is a painful experience. Also when it goes to turn off/turn on the device frequently it seems like it “double-clicks” and the device pops back on or off (whatever the previous state was) after taking its action.
Again, I haven’t tweaked it any… we’ve just been living with it… someday I’ll see if I can make it better
July 19, 2009 at 8:32 pm
Patric Welch
@asudduth: Yikes, that does sound bad. Haven’t experienced that yet. Usually my biggest obstacles are not getting buttons on my Harmony that are available on the original remote and then having to manually program them through the Harmony software.
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