I'm a bit of a remote control nut.  About this time every year, I get fed up with the remote I have and move to a new one - Madrigal/Microsoft remote, RCA Universal, Philips Pronto, Home Theater Master MX-500... my wife is about to pull her hair out.

So, putting household harmony at risk again, I sheepishly arrived at home a few weeks back with a new remote - the Logitech Harmony 688 - the big brother of the 680 remote recently announced for MCE05.

Setup was a breeze - all I had to do was use the Web service to identify my devices and blammo, download the config into my remote.  After setup, the first thing it does is ask about the power state of your devices- smart state technology means the remote keeps track of the power “state“ (on or off) for each device.  And it's completely customizable- I use two set-top boxes to do dual-tuner recording in MCE - naturally I want these left on all the time and the Harmony remote delivers.

One feature that is lacking is a “Green Button”  - a signature button consistent on all Media Center remotes that ship with Media Center PCs. However, a “Media” button does the trick by providing this feature.

It's not perfect and the controls do take some learning but I'm closer to home theater nirvana.  If you have a Media Center PC, check out the Harmony 680

[Ed. Note: Updated link to website]