Clear the coffee table: universal remotes reviewed

The frustration of "remote juggling" — holding three or four remote controls, and switching between them as you try to operate the required components in your home entertainment system — makes people do crazy things.

Well, OK, it's made us do crazy things — like try "universal" remote controls that turned out not to be very universal at all.

So we set out to discover if there really are any truly all-in-one remotes out there ... not one that takes the place of two or three of your remotes, but the perfect replacement for all of them.

Other criteria we looked at in our hunt for the perfect remote included: ease of programming, ease of operation and extras such as macros, which let you assign multiple operations (and even timer options) to a single button. We've also noted that many remotes, in an attempt to provide the maximum number of features, end up with page after page of options to click through to get to the desired operation. So the remotes must also be able to be configured to your specific needs.

Finally, most of the top-end remotes we looked at come with PC applications, and while this can make it easier to program and configure your remote, we also looked at these applications as having to provide an awful lot of extras to justify the extra work.

So here is our collection of top-end remote control reviews — is there one that will help you clear off that coffee table?