I’m tired of lugging at least three remotes (TV, cable, and home theater) with me around the apartment! Plus 2 others (DVD, VHS)on an occasional basis. 3 of the 5 have limited capability to control one or more of the other remotes. But each of those missed some critical functions of the harware they’re bit originally designed for.
I have a SONY Remote Commander (1200 I think) and it does everything!, controls 12 things, backlit, touchscreen, macros, it is BADD, downside?, it was $199.00.
Remote Central is an excellent review site for remotes. I’m using the ATI Remote Wonder, myself. I personally hate touchscreen remotes, although they’re very versatile, and much prefer real buttons.
Check the brands of your stuff.
My Philips/Magnavox VCR flat out refused to work with anything but a Philips/Magnavox Universal Remote. (I went through several before finally coming across a remote that worked.)
The Philips “Pronto” works really good, is highly customizable, can learn stuff from any remote and you can save it all on your PC, the only problem is that it’s fairly expensive.
A few years ago, after trying several different brands and failing to find one that would control my stereo receiver, cd player, television, vcr, and satellite receiver, I bought a Sony universal remote (model RM-V60) and it controlled everything perfectly! It doesn’t, sadly, control my fairly new DVD player–possibly because DVD players were not as widely spread when I bought the remote. I haven’t checked on currently available remotes, but IMO Sony is pretty good.
I have the Home Theater Master MX-500, and it’s an excellent remote. It’s got a great review at Remote Central, which I see someone has already linked to above.