Most other universal remotes all work in similar fashion. They have the IR (InfraRed) codes stored for literally thousands of devices. Setting up such a remote usually involves entering a code from a list supplied with the remote, to tell it which brand your TV, DVD Player, VCR, etc. is. Once these codes have been entered, you can control most of the basic functions of the device. The drawback is that you can never control
all functions and sometimes you can't control a device
at all, either because the brand is not supported, or the device itself is not supported. So even though you have a remote that
should replace all others, you still need to have your original remotes nearby.
The Logitech uses a completely different approach for just about everything. First of all, the remote can't do
anything out of the box - it's as dumb as a brick and just about as useful. And there are no codes to enter. Instead, device profiles are uploaded to the remote through an internet connection. That's right, you will need an internet connection to be able to use this remote. But only during setup. Once the remote has been set up, you can use it just like any other remote. Well, almost. It's in fact much smarter than any remote I've seen. The idea is that the Harmony can do lots of things with a single key press. For instance, pressing the "Watch a DVD" button will cause the Harmony to switch on your TV, your DVD and your Receiver, switch the TV and Receiver to the appropriate inputs, and start your DVD. Heck, if it had arms, it would probably massage your feet too. But I'm getting ahead of myself. First things first.
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