Remote Controller Freak

I cannot deny that I am a freak of all sorts of remote controllers. First of all, I have many devices at home and therefore there are many many remote controllers. And then I bought many many “remote control learners” to try to take over the many namless controllers. After so many expensive experiments with Sony, Philips, Marantz; there is only one winner – Harmony …

The idea of Harmony remote controllers are simply brilliant … set up the device on the web. In other words, just tell the web what devices you’re owning, and also what features you need to turn on / off when you’re watching TV, or DVD, or playing CD etc. etc. Then the web will compose a XML, and download to your Harmony remote controller.

Then that is the magical bit, you press “Watch DVD” command and it will turn on all related devices – e.g. DVD player, TV, amplifier etc. and select the proper device input and output as well. Next you press “Watch Cable TV”, and it will smart enough to turn off your DVD player, but turn on the cable TV set-top box, and select the proper device input / output again. How brilliant !! Thanks to that “Smart State Technology”.

Lesson Learnt: You can do a lot with the web and it can integrate nicely with the physical world as well.Go get a Harmony Remote.

Author: Michael Yung

Michael possessed over 30 years of experience in Information Technology with focuses on complex application development, database technologies and IT strategy. He also spent the last 20 years in Internet technology, eCommerce development / operations, web usability, computer security and Public Key Infrastructure technologies. View all posts by Michael Yung