OTHER TECH

Harmonic Convergence So you and the kids spend the usual pre-DVD warmup hunting and gathering remotes, and after carrying your bundle of kindling back to the electronic hearth, you find that you're still missing the stick that turns on the TV. Your brood is a great candidate for the Harmony SST-659 remote control ($199), which combines logical ease with enough power to do the term "universal control" proud. You begin setup by connecting the remote to a computer via the supplied USB cable and then going to the company's Web site. Since Harmony "ensures support of all infrared-control devices made by any manufacturer" (and it did indeed peg my 11-year-old, second-system Pioneer receiver), just enter the name and model number of your component, and the site does the rest. No more embarrassing remote-control "mating" rituals, and no more macros, thanks to the smart Activity buttons. Punch "Watch a Movie," and the Harmony fires up your whole system. The buttons glow a cool blue - essential for darkened rooms - and the LCD screen lights up, too, which is especially helpful since it can show TV listings downloaded from the Web site or MP3 titles. Hit the Help button, and the answers you need show on the display. The Harmony lets you control your gear as a true system while curing remote bloat at the same time. www.harmonyremote.com, 866-291-1505

Rubber Meets the Road Quality counts in a DVD player, and "portable" shouldn't mean "poor." Sporting a red-and-black rubberized exterior (the tech term for this is "killer"), the Toshiba SD-P1200 portable DVD player ($600) features a bright picture via its 7-inch widescreen LCD, MP3 playback, a JPEG viewer, and 31¼2 hours of juice from its rechargeable lithium-ion battery. You won't want to rely on the player's tiny speakers, but the sound really took off when I plugged in a good pair of earbuds (see "S&V Picks," page 160) and chose the enhanced audio mode. Movies like The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and The Santa Clause 2 were totally engrossing even in stereo. Solid, but not heavy, the Toshiba is definitely road ready but can just as easily park itself on your shelf for in-home use. S-video and digital audio connections, an AC adapter, and a wafer-thin remote mean you can jack it into your main system, too. www.tacp.toshiba.com, 800-631-3811