Do you have a pile of remote controls sitting on your coffee table? When you have guests over, do they struggle to figure out how to do a simple task like turn on the TV? Then boy, do I have a solution for you.

In my current setup I have a TV, and A/V Receiver, a DirecTV set-top box, an Xbox 360, a PlayStation 3, a blu-ray player, and an HDMI switcher. Would you believe that I control them all with one remote, at the touch of a single button? You see, the Harmony line of remotes from Logitech are not just universal remotes, they’re consumer level programmable remotes, designed to do things that home theater professionals would charge thousands for, but at a level that any consumer can set up in a flash.

Let’s say that you are watching TV. Normally, in order to play your Xbox 360, you may have to change the input of the TV, change the input of the HDMI switch, change the input of your A/V receiver, etc. Even if you have a universal remote, we’re still talking about having to press almost ten buttons just to do a simple task. But with a Harmony remote, you press just one button, and the Harmony takes care of the rest for you. It changes your TV input, your receiver input, etc. It will even turn on the Xbox for you!

But it goes even further than that. The Harmony remote can change the function of its buttons depending on the activity you are doing. If you control the volume when watching movies on your blu-ray player by changing the volume of your A/V receiver, but control the volume when playing your Xbox by changing the volume on your TV, the Harmony knows this, and the volume button on the remote will adjust the proper device.

In the past, a remote like this cost thousands of dollars, and then on top of the required a home theater professional to fiddle around with confusing product codes for hours in order to set things up for you. Now, Harmony remotes are available as low as $150 and are setup through an easy to use web GUI that anyone can use.

I don’t know how I managed all my equipment before I had my Harmony, and my wife thanks me for it every time she has to turn the TV on or off, which was no small task before.

If Harmony remotes aren’t your thing, I also run a site dedicated to Miami Dolphins Posters over at http://www.miamidolphinsposters.com/