Remote sets up fast, works well as billed

In January, at the Consumer Electronics Show, Logitech announced new products for 2008, one of which was the Harmony One universal remote for home-entertainment systems.

As with many of these types of remotes, the Harmony One caught my attention, but I thought to myself, "Here's another one of those remotes that they say will do everything, but won't work in the long run."

Company executives bragged about the features: 2.2-inch color touch-screen, onetouch buttons to your favorite channels and custom themes.

In my mind, the best thing they said was it will take just 34 minutes to set up with TV, CD/DVD players, surround-sound and TIVO units, using a guided online setup.

Bottom line: Logitech was true to its word. This remote works great and is easy to set up.

Like many others, I have five remotes in my house to control a home theater surround-sound system that includes all the basics.

For some reason, my DirecTV HD remote control would never control the volume on my Harman Kardon receiver. The only solution was to keep the remote from my old satellite box just to control the volume and then use the new one for channel surfing. Separate remotes controlled the DVD player, CD player and the receiver. Then I unwrapped the Harmony One. I installed the software on my Mac laptop (it comes with both Mac and Windows software) and began the setup process. Except for a mistake that I made while installing the software (I chose the wrong model), the remote was working in less than 30 minutes.

Now with the touch of one button, I can go from watching satellite TV in surround-sound to having the satellite turned off and the DVD player on.

Customized single buttons also allow me to go from NBC to ABC to ESPN.

Only the 40 most-essential buttons appear on the Harmony One remote, and I put them to the test by changing devices, recording shows, watching previously recorded shows, changing TV and FM pre-set stations and adjusting the volume on both radio and TV stations.

It did it all.

Information: www.logitech.com, suggested retail price of $249.99.