Perhaps you want to watch TV.  This may require your TV and set-top box to be turned on and the TV tuned to Ch1. 

Maybe instead you wish to watch the DVD currently loaded in the DVD player.  This will require the TV and DVD player turned on, the set-top box turned off and the TV tuned to the AV setting. 

Each of these commands may be executed with a single press of the Harmony's colour touch-screen; the device having more than a passing resemblance to a GPS navigator.  And batteries are no problem – the device sits very comfortably in a recharging cradle – making it much harder to lose in the cushions of your sofa.

Once the activity is in action, a context-sensitive touch-screen display will bring the most appropriate commands to the fore, for instance if a DVD or VHS tape is being played, then Stop, Play, FF, RWD etc are available.

Claiming a database of 225,000 devices from over 5,000 manufacturers, the device will almost certainly already know about the entertainment devices you own without the need to teach it commands – one of the real bugbears of the earlier efforts from many manufacturers and one I have personally experienced with a particular ‘universal' I tossed away soon after purchase.

Fortunately, the 1100i doesn't have to store all those configurations – everything is driven from your personal computer and derived from a web-based database, meaning that updates for new devices are trivial.

So, enough of the theory, how well does it work?