TV, VCR, DVD player, PVR, cable box, stereo... too many damn remotes! I gave up on universal remotes years ago; as extensive as their device lists were, they never seemed to have the ones I owned, and the ones that learned from my existing remotes would have to be programmed all over again whenever I changed the batteries. And even then, they never had the right buttons; for example, if I wanted to pause a DVD and zoom in on something, which I did often, I had to haul out the original DVD remote, because the universal ones only provided the basic controls.

But once Karen mentioned how unwieldy the remotes had become, I knew I had to do something. Rather than using cable ties to strap all the remotes into a giant control panel, like someone I know, I decided to give the world of universal remotes one last try.

Thanks to the magic of the Intarweb, I was able to research the available options and come up with one that might fit the bill. It's got a pretty extensive device list, it's got a built-in modem so you can update the device list, it can learn from existing remotes, has permanent memory retention for when the batteries die, and it's got enough buttons that I can stuff my entire 44-button DVD remote in there with room to spare, and keep the button mappings relatively consistent across all six devices (with room for two more). And not even all that expensive if you know where to look.

Now only time will tell if it'll work as advertised, or if it'll collect dust like all the other "universal" remotes I've bought.