I’ve been a huge fan of the Logitech Harmony line of programmable universal remote controls for quite some time. And my new Harmony 880 just reinforces my opinion that these are truly fantastic devices.

I was humming along just fine with my Harmony 659, the most basic Harmony model. It was setup to run my main entertainment system, which is comprised of a Sony 5-disc DVD receiver, ReplayTV DVR, Go Video DVD-Recorder/VHS Dual Deck, and Panasonic Plasma TV. My only complaint about the 659 was that you had to keep on top of the AAA batteries, otherwise it would act funny.

One day, I was reading one of my favorite blogs, consumerist.com, and it had a link to a special on Amazon for the Harmony 880. The 880 is a major step up, with a color LCD, more dedicated function buttons, and it recharges itself in a special cradle. Like the 659, it featured a comfortable hourglass shape that was easy to hold in your hand. So I splurged and got it.

As soon as I got it, I made sure my laptop had the latest Harmony Remote software loaded up. One of the features that drew me to the Harmony family of remotes was the ease of which you programmed them. It was all Web based. You plug in the make and models of all your A/V components, and then you set up activities and functions in the system, then it pushes the configuration to the remote via a USB cable. In my case, since I was replacing an existing remote, it was extremely simple. I just updated my profile with the new Harmony Remote model, and then it downloaded my existing setup to the new remote.

I did some tweaking of button functions and added some additional activities and components, such as my iPod and XM Satellite Radio. Although the iPod does not itself have IR capabilities, I had a Belkin TuneDock cradle that had an IR receiver on it, so after some playing around, I got the Harmony setup to control my iPod. Cool! Pretty soon, I’ll set it up to control my Creative Zen Vision 30gb Portable Media Player.

I love personalizing devices, and the Harmony lets you download background JPEGs to the remote’s color LCD (lower resolution, grant you, but it’s still pretty cool). So one of the last things I did was download a JPEG of a beach in Maui.My original Harmony 659 is still being used. I just re-tasked it to manage the ReplayTV and TV in the master bedroom.

So hats off to Logitech for making such a useful and easy-to-use product.