Hi. I think I have simple needs. I've googled for hours and there's just too much. So please, tell me what remote to buy :)

I've had a Harmony 659 for years. I believe I got it in 2004 but I'm not certain. I'm shocked to see it still available on Amazon and for WAY more than I paid for it... it was $199 at the time and I got it on a half-off sale. I've said more times than I can remember, "best $100 I've ever spent on entertainment". They must have been cheaper before Logitech bought them, because they seem to have insane prices now.

And that's my issue... while it was the best $100 I ever spent on entertainment... had I spent $200 I wouldn't have been all that impressed. So I'm not looking to spend more than $100 this time either (or close to it).

I can get a (list) $250 Acoustic Research ARRX18G XSight for $80... sounds like a deal to me, but is it any good? Logitech 700 for $83? A [not sure who makes it] URC-R50 for $85?

As you can see by my device list, I'm not the kind of guy that needs the latest and greatest:

I have a 2003 Toshiba DLP projection TV (and I like the picture better than any LCD/Plasma I've seen on the market since... I don't understand how people can stand all that jittering!)

I have a Yamaha 2-speaker stereo from the 90's

I have a DVD player

I have a HD PVR from the cable company.

That's it.


With that said, I *really* appreciate and enjoy the ability to use "activity" based "macros" (for lack of a better word) so I can, for example, press "watch TV" to turn the TV, cable box, and stereo on and switch the stereo to Aux 2. I enjoy it so much, that my most used buttons are pretty well all dead on my 659 so its time to retire it.

Things I didn't like about my 659 that I would like improved:

1) the buttons not lasting. That sucked. Early on one went... the rest lasted until this year and now I have 6 dead ones.
2) the batteries get sucked. I've never been impressed with having to pop in 4 AA Alkalines every couple months. So rechargable would be nice.
3) "Help" kind sucks. Its handy, but I have to hold my thumb over the IR and click "no" to "did that help?" because it automatically changes the TV input whenever I click "help" regardless of what the problem is. If input wasn't the problem, then I have to click help again after I fix the problem, because now I'm on the wrong input.

Other than that, I'm not too picky.

So in your expertise... what suits me the best do you think?

- Steven