I have a complicated Home theater system with a TV, a cable box, a Blu-Ray player, an AV receiver, a 3D adapter, an HDMI switcher, and an Intel Compute Stick. Over the years, I've controlled this system with various Logitech Harmony universal remotes. They've gotten better over the years; my first one was controlled by buttons, then they introduced touch screens, and now my latest one comes with a Harmony hub which bounces infrared light off of walls. And it comes with an iPhone app you can use if you don't have the remote handy.
But there's one complaint I've had about all the Logitech Harmony devices I have owned: when the remote fails to turn on everything properly, you to have to use a "Help" feature where you specify what devices are still not on and what devices are not set to the right input. So my question is, are there any universal remotes that automatically detect what devices are on or off, fixing those problems automatically to save you from the hassle of using the Help feature?
It should definitely be possible to check the state of various devices. After all, I used to have a Google TV Blu-Ray player which plugged into your cable box and access data from it. Are there any Universal Remote systems that plug into your various devices, or somehow wirelessly ping your devices to see if they're on, and maybe even what input they're set at?