Next Gear: The Ultimate Remote

My fiancée, Lisa, moved in with me several months ago, but whenever she wants to turn on the home theater system, we still play a game of remote roulette. Should she use the remote for the cable box, the one for the AV receiver, or the one for the TV? All bets are off if she wants to watch a DVD. Guests seem equally puzzled. So when I got the chance to try a handful of new universal remote controls that would let me exchange a coffee table's worth of remotes for just one, I leaped at the opportunity. Wedding planning is stressful enough without endless queries from Lisa about which remote to use for listening to a CD and which one to use for watching, say, Desperate Housewives.

You might be surprised at how many options are available. Universal remotes range in price from around $20 for a no-frills number from Radio Shack to over $1000 for one from a custom home theater installer. As a rule, the more you spend on a remote, the more devices you'll be able to control, and the more likely you'll be able to connect it to your PC (usually via a USB port) for easier configuration. If you don't connect the new remote to a PC, you'll have to enter a code for each of your devices, train the new remote by aiming your old one at it, or perform some combination of these two tasks. I spent two weeks examining four units priced between $90 and $700. Ultimately, there's only one I'd consider purchasing.