Van G, after that thread, I did end up purchasing the Harmony SST-659. I bought it at
BlueDo. It actually ended up, with exchange/brokerage fees, about as expensive as it would have been had @ Future Shop or Best Buy in Canada - you win some, you lose some I guess.
Some of the best features of it are:
-the keypad lighting makes it a cinch to use in the dark
-many of the buttons are differently shaped/molded so it makes it reasonably easy to operate it by touch only
-it's extremely easy for other 'non-techies' to operate
-you can customize signal speed (sends button signals quicker to the components)
-once you get the hang of the website, it's actually kind of fun using it to program, and very easy!
Some drawbacks to the design of the Harmony are:
-you obviously need a computer/web access to program it
-it's inability to perform macros
-the lack of instructions, either on-line or included manual
-quickly switching between functions (checking the score in a game while watching a DVD) can be a bit tedious. It requires hitting 3-4 buttons on the remote to change both pic & sound inputs. That's where a macro function would really help.
With all that being said, I've been very pleased with it so far. It did take a bit of time to get it set up initially, with a bit of trial-and-error involved. I think that's where a better manual would help - cutting down on a bit of the guesswork. Knowing what I know now, I could probably program the Harmony the same way I have it in under 5 minutes! It has replaced all 4 of my other remotes - so it's done exactly what it was supposed to do. The significant-other-acceptance-factor is through the roof with this bad boy too. It would work very well for anyone's home theatre, but for people that HAVE to have macros, this might not be the ideal remote. Good luck!
