CrunchGear

Thus, if you click on “Watch TV”, it automagically turns on the TV if it’s off, turns your surround receiver to the correct input, and turns on your cable or satellite box. “Watch DVD” changes your TVs input to the appropriate one, turns on the DVD player, and switches the surround sound system, and so on. It even has control for obscure devices, like the XtremeMac 4 port HDMI switcher I use to keep everything in the right order. It’s awesome, more on that device later.

The controls on the remote are set up for the various units you’re using. The volume keys are smart enough to know you’re turning up the surround sound system, the menu button in “Watch TV” mode brings up the cable box’s menu, in “Watch DVD” mode, the DVD player’s.

You can realistically have as many modes as you want, I have “Watch TV”, “Watch DVD”, and “Watch Apple TV” on mine, which switch all the components around as needed.

It’s all navigated with a clever, smart, and organized LCD screen, and the batteries last forever. One cool trick is a motion/proximity sensor, so when you reach for it, the backlight comes on, which is great if your TV room is dark, as mine is.

In a nutshell, anyone who’s serious about their setup deserves a Harmony remote for Xmas, and the 520 has about the best cost to performance ration of anything out there. You should be able to find them for about $60 online, or about $80 retail, which may sound like a lot, but once you’ve got yours, you’ll wonder how you watched TV without it.