DarqByte

Alright, so this last November I finally got an HDTV. The only thing that was in high definition on it was the XBox 360 because all I had to do was switch the output on the console. Everything else wasn’t in HD.

Until today.

After a week of gathering the requesite pieces together, we’re now running HD satellite via DirecTV. We’re not all the way there as we’ve got some issues with some of the local channels (and we’re not sure why), but other than that, we’re all golden on HD satellite. And it’s awesome. A really good indicator of how HD satellite looks is a basketball game… The reflections on the floor, the crowd, the players… All good stuff.

Not only are we running HD satellite now, we’re also now using a Logitech Harmony remote control for the entertainment center. Why, you ask? Because 6 remotes sucks. We didn’t have anything resembling a universal remote in the bunch, it sucked.

I got the remote with the money I made by spending awhile fixing a friend’s laptop and removing all of the malware that was on it: viruses, adware, spyware, etc. With that money I got a Harmony remote while I was off getting the HD satellite receiver from Best Buy. The verdict?

Just absolutely awesome. It controls everything we have, and I mean everything. Well, not the Nintendo Wii, but that’s expected:

1. Samsung HDTV — I thought it may not work on this because the TV model is relatively new, but nope, it’s good.
2. HD satellite receiver — I figured this would work, but thought maybe some of the functionality of the original remote would be lost; nope, it’s good.
3. Sony A/V receiver — I didn’t know what to expect here, but it is solid.
4. Toshiba DVD/VCR — DVD/VCR combo players often have very specialized remotes because they are multifunction devices, but lo-and-behold, it controls it 100%!
5. Microsoft XBox 360 — I figured this would work without fail since custom remotes came out for it when the console released, and I was proven correct.
6. Nintendo Wii — Nope! But that doesn’t matter anyway.
7. DLO HomeDock — This is the A/V dock for our iPods and I could have sworn the remote would not control it… Holy shit. It does.

We’ve got the remote setup for particular activities, like swapping to watching TV, movie on the XBox, music on the HomeDock… It’s great.

One issue I ran into was that it was having trouble controlling the input to the TV for the activities. While on TV, switching to the XBox 360 wouldn’t go correctly on the TV. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to get it working, but my God, was the software great. It stepped me through questions that enabled it to know the exact sequence of signals to send to the TV to select the proper input for the 360. Just awesome.

I got temporarily more excited about the remote than I did the HD satellite! But man, loving life. Now the only 2 things I have left to upgrade in the entertainment center are the DVD/VCR combo (with a Blu-Ray player) and to get an HD A/V receiver with multiple digital audio ports. Joy! But those two upgrades are a ways out.