Any one of the Harmony range will control your set-up. Remember, these don't work like, for example, a One-for-All remote, rather they work with activities whereby you may set up an activity for say "Watch TV" which, with one button press, will switch on the TV, the Sky box and the amp, and set up the correct inputs, etc. Plus, the Channel Change button will change channels on the Sky box, whilst the Volume control will control the amp.
Once you have one, you'll never want not to have it.
The Harmony will control anything that works by IR (Infrared), and that means just about every item you can think of in Home Entertainment. It won't work a PS3 without an adapter, as the PS3 works with Bluetooth. As I mentioned in my first post, yes, it will control your Sky Box.
Programming is done on the Harmony Website and then downloaded via USB cable to the remote. It can sound a little daunting to someone new to it but, in fact, it's not that difficult and certainly, in my books anyway, well worth the effort.
That's just what universal remotes do. Ordinary ones do it by making themselves equivalent to the original remotes, one at a time when you want that particular one. Advanced ones like Harmonys are like all the original ones, but all at the same time. You can set them up in all kinds of ways but one way would have the channel up/down, number, and other buttons controlling your satellite receiver, the volume and mute buttons controlling your amplifier, and maybe a few others controlling the TV.
The full current range of UK Harmonys is listed here - though you can get them at much better prices from the stores and online - and as you have only three devices to control you could start with the 600, though I would not recommend the simpler 300.
I don't know the 600 or 650 models but do know that I really like my One. If you're planning on extending your system over time, then I would probably advise you to go for the One, otherwise just stick to one of the cheaper models.
I must say I'd be interested to hear logiciel's thoughts on this one.
Just out of interest, why wouldn't you advise those with simple requirements to go for the 300?
I've just purchased one today from Play for a very reasonable £12.99, & provided that it will control my TV, Sky+ HD box & my Onkyo amp I'll be a happy chappy. I didn't want to go for anything too fancy as the missus wouldn't appreciate it. Plus Logitech have a 30 day money back guarantee on offer at the moment, so at at £12.99 it's surely got to be worth a punt?!?
It certainly has, and considering the current recommended price of £30, that IS a very reasonable price.
My reason against it is that it's the one Harmony that doesn't use all of the Smart State Activities technology.
It certainly has, and considering the current recommended price of £30, that IS a very reasonable price.
My reason against it is that it's the one Harmony that doesn't use all of the Smart State Activities technology.
That's fair enough bud - I was just a little concerned that maybe there were more faults with this model than I had read about. I know there's a little glitch when using it with certain Sky+ HD boxes, but hopefully this can be rectified by selecting an alternative model of box when setting up the remote.
If all goes well, then this may be my first genuine step towards the Harmony One that I've been considering for a while now - Convincing myself is the easy part, but convincing the missus that spending £100 on a remote is a 'necessity' could prove a little tricky
That's OK, and it's not at all about faults, it's about limitations. The 300 is more like the ordinary one-device-at-a-time remotes than like the rest of the Harmony range which combine the devices into several activities.
All Sky receivers use the same set of commands, and that's in the Harmony database, so there isn't any problem with them and with any Harmony. Some users find that they prefer a different "repeats" setting from the default but that's easy to adjust.
I'd like the remote to be able to turn all 3 pieces of my kit on & off (together) with the press of a single button - Not sure whether the 300 supports this though? From what I've read it will turn on/off two pieces of equipment simultaneously, but I'm unsure about 3.
It is two, as their description says, about the "Watch TV button" - it turns on "TV and cable/satellite box".
That's different from the Harmony Activities which turn on and do much more to as many devices as you want.