One of the pitfalls of putting together a halfway decent home theater system is a coffee table cluttered with remote controls. Put together a television, cable box, audio receiver and a DVD or Blu-ray player and you are already starting to overload on remotes. Throw in a remote for a CD player, game system, separate DVR and more and you're buried up to your neck in little black and grey rectangles.

While many devices come with universal remotes, they often can only control two or three devices at a time and if you add a device to your set up that is newer than your older remote, you may be out of luck when trying to get them to talk to one another. Purchasing a universal remote can be a good way to simplify your life, but choosing the right one for you can be just as much of a problem. There are a ridiculous number of remote controls out there, each with their own separate set of features. So how do you know which one is right for you?

 

Price

The biggest factor here is price. While a universal remote can be handy, it’s probably the least necessary item in your home theater. Worst case scenario, you can combine all your existing remotes into one super remote for a few pennies worth of duct tape. While that might be a bit extreme, a high-end remote control can cost upwards of $1,000! If you can afford a $1,000 remote, more power to you, but most people are going to be looking at a lower end option.

You can purchase a remote control for as low as a few dollars, but it is going to be a lower-end remote control. You’ll have to program it yourself by hand, it probably will only control two or three devices at once and it may not control all the different kinds of devices you have. Take inventory of your home theater system and figure out how many devices you are going to need to control, what kind of devices they are and what brands. It may be difficult to find a remote that can control obscure brands.
 

Ease of set up

The whole point of a universal remote is to make your life simpler -- theoretically, no more grabbing at 14 different remotes and praying you picked up the right one. But using a universal remote can be just as difficult. Programming one to work with your set up can be torture. Low end models require you to search through an arcane code sheet to find a number associated with your equipment, which you then have to enter into your universal remote and pray it enables the two devices to talk to one another. Some slightly higher-end models have automatic search features and some can even learn your old remote’s functions by holding the two remotes end-to-end and pressing the old one’s buttons. 

As the cost factor rises, universal remotes will feature better set up functions. Onscreen LCD displays make things easier, at least in theory. Many high-end remotes allow you to set up your device from your computer, uploading codes and preferences to the remote by USB.
 

Ease of use

The next hurdle of the universal remote -- you have to be able to actually use the thing. If it’s too complicated to switch between your television’s volume control and your audio receiver’s volume control, you might want to go back to the duct tape option, or at least look at getting a different remote. 

Ease of use is a strange area, because a remote that costs more money can often be more difficult to use. While a remote may control more devices and have more features, the buttons all too often aren’t properly labeled. If your receiver has an unusual feature, there’s a good chance that there won’t be an obvious corresponding button on your universal remote. The remote may even assign a button to that function automatically, but there’s no way of finding out unless you press it.

Top-of-the-line remotes have figured out a way around this. Many have touch screens that can automatically change the name of the areas that you would need to press. However, given that we are now talking about a computer touch screen instead of the tactile pressing of buttons, it can cause a headache as well.
 

Alternatives

There are a few other options for the high-end universal remote. If you own a smart phone with an infrared port, for a few dollars you can purchase software that will turn it into a universal remote. Your best bet to find out if you can is to do a Google search on you the name of your smart phone with “universal remote” after it.
 

Conclusions

When is it a good time to buy a universal remote? If you have more than one audio/visual device in your house, it could already be time. Depending on how much functionality you need, how much tolerance you have for learning curves and often arcane user interfaces, and how much you're willing to spend to reduce the clutter on your coffee table, there is almost certainly a remote that suits you. With a bit of research and consideration for your overall needs, you'll have freed up enough space for more drink coasters in no time.