Not long ago I bought a Logitech Harmony univeral remote control to replace the slowly dying remote for my DVD surround sound system. Much better and cheaper than a new proper remote for the system (I got the harmony second hand off eBay for £25) and it can do so much more. Supplied with software and a USB cable, the remote can be easily programmed through a wizard to operate multiple devices simultaneously.
The harmony also supports macros (or as logitech call them 'activities') so that with 1 button press you can turn on several devices and set the appropriate video and audio channels for say watching a DVD.
One thing bugged me though. Recently I have been playing with the excellent XBMC (X-Box Media Centre) which is probably the best free, open source, cross platform media centre application available. I've loaded it onto my PC, but I had to control it via the mouse and keyboard, until now!
Today I recieved an Antec Veris Basic IR reciever (bought for a bargain £15) for my PC. It fits neatly in a spare 3.5" bay and comes with a remote and software for IR remote setup and a proprietory media centre application. Well I set the device to recieve signals from an MCE remote (the standard windows media centre remote which is how I have set up one of the functions of the Harmony), set the default application to be XBMC and hey presto, smiles all round. :-)
The only function I wasn't able to utilise is the fact that the Antec Veris is able to power on/off the PC via the remote. The unit comes with a passthrough for the PC case switch, but as my PC is a Dell, this would involve some surgery on connectors (which would invalidate the warranty). If my PC had been a self build, it would not be an issue.
At some point in the future, I will build a dedicated media PC, but until then I am a happy geek (with a bad back...).
http://xbmc.org/
http://www.antec.com/Detail.bok?no=627
http://www.logitech.com/harmony
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