Logitech's Universal Remote

My last post was about DVR and how DVR changed the way we watch TV. Today I am going to write my experience with the Harmony One universal remote. Every house today has a TV and some has a DVD player and a cable or a satellite box. Having so many devices in the house brings as many remotes on your table as well. It gets annoying when you have to switch between remotes when you have to watch a movie on your DVD player. You have to use two remotes, one for your TV and the other for your DVD player. Well it is easy for me to figure out which remote to use with which device but still sometimes it was annoying me also so I got a universal remote from Logitech called Harmony One.

This device is little expensive for a remote but it is amazing. You will have to spend some time programming this device when you buy it. The software that comes with the device is straightforward and will guide you step by step on how to program your remote. The remote connects to your computer through a USB interface. One you program your remote with the devices you are going to use, it remembers your settings. You can re-program the remote if you buy a new device or when you sell an old one. The software has almost every manufacturer and device you can imagine and Logitech keeps updating the list with new devices.

Now when you have to use the remote, all you need to do on its small touch screen is what you want to do, Watch TV? Watch Movie? Etc. and the remote will turn on the devices that need to be turned on for the task you specified. When you turn the volume up, the TV volume goes up and when you want to pause the movie and click pause on the remote, your DVD player responds with the command. Another good thing about the remote is that is has an inclinometer. When the remote is sitting on the table, its lights turn off and as soon as you hold the remote, its inclinometer senses motion and turns the light on so you can see the keys on the remote in dark.

Now you can put all your remotes on the side and just have one remote to control all our devices and keep your table clear of clutter and you don't have to explain your wife which remote to use every time she wants to watch a movie on the DVD player.

My First Post - DVR (Digital Video Recorder)

This is my first blog and I am writing this while watching TV with my wife. Watching TV has changed so much in the past years especially with the invention of DVR (Digital Video Recorder). I have TV service from Dish Network and we recently upgraded to a receiver with DVR capability. It took some time for me and my wife to understand it capabilities. Now that we understand what this thing can do, we can’t even think about going back to watching TV as we used to do. I will tell you why we love it so much but let me explain what is a DVR first. A digital video recorder (DVR) or personal video recorder (PVR) is a device that records video in a digital format to a disk drive or other memory medium within a device. You can make your computer a PVR. I have done that and I will tell you how to do it in my other posts.

You must have heard of TiVO which I think is a market leader in providing DVR services. TiVO provides you with a DVR that you can hook with most of the cable and satellite TV networks. I have a DVR from my satellite provider. A DVR functions a lot like a VCR, except it uses a hard drive to record, as opposed to videotapes. This means that there aren't any tapes to cue, and there is more recording time available. Like modern VCRs, users of digital video recorders can record television shows. One of the most popular DVR features is its ability to fast forward or skip commercials. It also allows users to pause, fast forward, rewind, or replay live television.

Now if you can skip commercials then who would want to sit through them? This is what we love about it. My wife is so used to recording all the shows and then watching them later by skipping commercials and scenes that she don’t like. We have a DVR that has three tuners. What this means is that we can record two shows and watch a third show at the same time or we can watch a DVR recording and record three shows at the same time. Usually I watch all the games live. I never record games. So what I would do is record my wife's shows if they clash with my games and watch my game live. We just cannot see ourselves watching TV without a DVR and I can't even think about taking this away from my wife.