I use a Harmony 650, and I'm pretty happy with it. I don't think they're made anymore, which is why some of the prices are ridiculous. If you can find it for $35-$50, that's a good deal, though I think this was originally an $80 remote. Sometimes they go on sale on Amazon, I got my for under $40 a year or so ago.
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The color icons are the most important feature. I have green assigned to launch CMC, and red assigned to Close. Their location, central on the remote, is key. I'm right-handed, and these two buttons are easy to reach with my thumb.
The 650 also has handy mode buttons at the top, which I use to switch between watching my Roku and my HTPC. The number pad is critical element on any remote for CMC, as that's how you can type without a keyboard.
The main omission is the * asterisk button, which is how you toggle a movie for WatchLists in CMC. But you can add that to one of the 4 soft programmable buttons around the screen. But the more important button is Clear (bottom left) which toggles a title or episode between watched/unwatched states. I use that all the time (well, less now that CMC automatically marks titles as watched for me, but still...).
On occasion my components get out of sync with the desired power state, i.e. TV turns off when I want it on, or ditto for the HTPC. I make sure I program a few handy power toggles on the soft keys, so I can get things powered exactly as I need when this happens.
In counterpoint, some of the features that make the 650 great for CMC, make the 525 bad.
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The colored buttons are at the very bottom, and will be difficult to reach one handed. That's not great for launching CMC, but not a huge deal. But that's really bad for the red close button, you want that to be right at your thumb. Now, on Win10 CMC can reprogram other buttons to do the Close action, including the big red Record button which is in a good central spot - but if you need that for other programs (i.e. HDHomeRun), then that's not a good solution.
Above the red button is a "* Clear" button. These are two different actions, so I'm not sure how this works. If it's programmable, you probably want Clear for toggling Watched status vs. * for toggling WatchList status.
Ultimately, I don't think the 525 is a good choice.
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Ironically, expensive remotes like the Harmony Ultimate (above) are even worse. Colored buttons at the bottom. No numberpad. No Clear or *. Plus a lot of convenient hard-buttons are missing, replaced by the small touch-screen. Also, I've had bad experience with Logitech rechargeable remotes, the battery doesn't last long and I never notice it needs charging until I'm ready to use it. I much prefer using rechargeable AA's that I can swap in a few seconds and that last about 2 months between swaps.
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Another one to avoid is the Harmony One (above). It's a nice looking remote at first glance, like a sleeker version of the 650, but then you notice it is missing the 4 colored buttons.
The one big omission on all of these remotes? Look at the top of this remote:
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Notice the "My TV", "My Music", "My Pictures", and "My Videos" dedicated WMC buttons. On Win10, these can be reprogrammed by CMC to do other activities, including launching CMC into specific modes. For example, you can configure "My Music" to launch CMC straight into the Music Library, and "My Videos" to launch into the Movie Library. This will become even more powerful/convenient in the future, with a dedicated Photos Library, and possibly launching HDHomeRun when you press "My TV", or alternatively switching to the TV Series Media Type in CMC.
Sure, you can do soft-keys for those actions on the Logitechs, but dedicated hard buttons are both super convenient and also simpler for guests and new users to understand.
I'll do a 2nd post on non-Logitech options.