...and need to replace them with a universal. My receiver is a Denon, as is my CD player, and my DVD player is a Sony. I have Sony 36" TV and RCA DirectTV. My VCR is a Sharp....
What remote can you recommend sub-$100 that will function effortlessly. Keep in mind, my moving company lost all my remotes and I don't have access to them. My biggest hurdle, it seems, is programming CD shuffle, etc...Thanks.

Your best bet would probably be to get the 15-1994 ($30) from Radio Shack, I think it has codes for all of your gear. You can then use advanced codes to recreate any special buttons, such as the CD shuffle.

The only problem that I foresee is the RCA DirecTV, there is a bug in the way that the RCA device codes have ben programmed into this remote, resulting in about half of the buttons working, for example, channel up will work and channel down won't, etc.

I would suggest taking the remote home and playing with it, set everything up, etc. Then go though the RCA code and document which buttons that you need don't work and then go back to Radio Shack and learn those buttons from one of the many RCA remotes that you'll find in Radio Shack.

If you still had the original remotes I would have recommended getting the RCA RCU810, but you won't be able to recreate any missing buttons without your original remotes using the RCu810.

Rob.
http://www.hifi-remote.com