Harman Kardon TC 1000 Take Control Universal Remote Control

Pros: A simple alternative to many different remote controls.
Cons: It comes at a price, a steep one.

If you are a big entertainment nut like myself, you probably have you're VCR, DVD player, CD player, and Television all set up into a home speaker system for some great surround sound. Now when you want to watch a DVD, you have to first turn on the DVD...

Pros: Infinitely Programmable, Easy to Use, Powerful, Learns (huge memory), Configuration saved on PC.
Cons: Somewhat awkward to hold, hard to read without using backlight, LCD screen calibration is sensitive.

This is one of those very rare products that does everything you could ever want, the way you want to do it. Every aspect of this unit is programmable/customizable. The unit has a LCD screen which can hold up to 20 virtual buttons (icons). It also has...

Pros: Will do anything you need, set up by task, not device
Cons: Bulky, occasionally inefficient, perhaps a little buggy

The price on these has dropped to $250, and at that price, its worth consideration.
In my opinion, this remote will always have a bipolar following. You will likely either totally love it, or you'll totally hate it. I'm guessing there's no middle...

Pros: It actually lets you easily control your equipment the way you use it! Worth every expensive dollar!
Cons: Channel wheel drags too slowly, can't feel the LCD buttons. EXPENSIVE (but worth it).

If you're like me your home theatre system has three main problems, and they're all remote control oriented. First, your friends make fun of the remote control soup that clutters your coffee table. Second, you have to play the never-ending switching...

Pros: Don't need any other remotes, wheel is useful
Cons: A little buggy, heavier and slower than it should be, expensive

My husband and I bought our first house last year, and with the house came, finally, the purchase of a "real" home entertainment system. Amp, DVD player, 5 speakers, DSS, the works. I, of course, am fresh out of college where I had a TV, a TV...

Pros: Controls all of your electronics. Now, reasonably priced for its functionality.
Cons: Bulky, display too dim, touchscreen should be more sensitive.

It was a great idea to integrate w/ Microsoft. The macros are useful and easy to set up. Scrolling through the device 'pages' could be easier. Also, the response time to your actions is a little slow, but one can easily get past that as soon as you're...

Pros: Better than having 8 remotes!!
Cons: Large, not very powerful

I had one of these and found it very hard to handle. It is not as configurable as I had hoped, and it is large. I sold it online and bought a Philips Pronto. MUCH BETTER!!! The Pronto can do a lot more than the Take Control, even though it is a...

Pros: controls many things that aren't standard in other universal remotes
Cons: needs reprogramming if the batteries die, bulky to hold.

In my house, we call this the $400 piece of **you know what**. Fortunately, we didn't pay for it, it was a perk from an employer. If we had, I would have taken it back immediately.

Despite the fact that the unit is bulky and doesn't fit in...

Pros: Nice wheel to control
Cons: Big, technically flawed, insufficient customer service

I purchased the Take Control over three months ago from retail. The software necessary to program my components including my Replay needed to be downloaded from the harmankardon.com website.

The unit's screen cracked when it accidently fell...