New to PC remotes...need one to control Vista Media Center, PC's TV-out, Dish, and TV

Any Harmony remote should work. If you have the budget then there are plenty of other remotes that would work.


Using the Harmony you would create a Use Media Center and Watch TV activity. Hitting either of those activity buttons would do all your input switching.

Just to clarify, I need the remote to control my PC/HTPC by telling my video card(that's connected to my TV via HDMI) to switch displays from my PC monitor to my TV. Also, I would like to be able to navigate around in Vista Media Center to select the videos I want to watch while it's being displayed on my TV.


How would a Logitech remote do this? Does it come with an IR receiver that's plugged into my PC?

I use THIS and taught my harmony all the commands from the included remote. The A/B/C/D buttons are configurable to send different hot keys, so you could use those for switching outputs, though I've not tried that myself. There are other solutions (like Ehome I think), but this one is fairly cheap and works pretty well. I also do exactly the same thing with my $10 JP1 remote, or any remote with learning and macros for that matter, (controlling my HTPC, TV, D*, Amp, Bluray, DVD Recorder, X10 lights and Camcorder). So just decide how much you want to spend and how much programming you're willing to do.


One other note is the power button only turns off the PC. So I usually leave mine on or turn it on manually.

I assumed you already had some sort of IR receiver for your PC. So yes, you will need to use an IR receiver for your PC. Check out the HTPC forum here for all the options.

I searched a little on Amazon and found some "Media Center" IR receivers. Does that mean that ONLY control Vista Media Center and they're not able to send the PC some hotkey to switch outputs?


Here is what I looked at: http://www.amazon.com/Premium-Ultima...8208778&sr=8-2