Digital Home Thoughts: New York Times: When Three Remotes Are Better Than One

"Almost half of households in the United States have three or more remote controls, according to a Web-based study conducted by JupiterResearch, a market research firm. But only a tenth of the households surveyed had universal remotes, which can single-handedly control many different devices High- and low-end universal remotes have failed to catch on for different reasons, according to Michael Gartenberg, a director at JupiterResearch. The cheaper models cannot communicate with many devices. And the high-end units, which sometimes have their own L.C.D. displays and can perform functions like dimming the lights, are hard to set up, he said."

I can certainly sympathize with this article - I have, let's see here, remote controls for my TV, amp, DVD player, Xbox 360, and cable box. So that's five. Last year I dropped $300 or so on a Logitech Harmony Universal Remote (they wouldn't even respond to my email requesting a review unit) - I had it set up and working for a while, though switching inputs on the TV was something I was never able to automate and the input selector was buried six levels deep (I kid you not). The remote eventually died, and Logitech sent me a new one. That was six months ago, and I haven't set it up yet - I found the process too mind-numbing. On the surface, the Harmony remotes seem fantastic - you get a cool remote, program it via a slick Web-based interface, and you're golden right? Not for me - I found the Web site configuration to be utterly baffling, and could find no way to move my input selector up to the top level, or to automate it properly.

It's stunning that the consumer electronics industry hasn't solved this problem properly yet. What about you? What's your remote control situation?