Just "discovered" this site and forum from a friend. What a great resource!

I ask you to consider my request for helping yet another new person to select a remote.

I'm looking for a remote that will control the following devices:

- Samsung HL-P5063W DLP HDTV
- Dish Network 811 receiver (RF, I believe. Hoping to upgrade to a Dish Network 922 in latter half of 2005)
- Toshiba SD-3960 DVD player
- Sony STR-DE875 6.1 receiver
- Denon DCM-340 CD player
- Hitachi F382 VCR

My budget is about $150.

I've heard good things about both the Harmony/Logitech remotes and the Home Theater Master remotes. I'm also looking into PDA-based applications like Total Remote.

I'm totally new to universal remotes, so I have no idea whether any or all of these potential remote choices will work with the above equipment, especially the RF Dish Network 811 receiver.

One thing I like about the H/L models is the ability for a family member to simply press "Watch TV", "Watch DVD", "Listen to CD", etc. buttons and have the remote handle all of the details. Can other remotes be setup to do this, too?

I appreciate any assistance and comments!

This message was edited by cwaters on 12/24/04 21:48 ET.

1) nothing will control the dish in RF, but most can be switched to IR and I would guess that is true for yours.

as for watch TV.... the Harmony are built to work that way, the Pronto (or any PDA SW that turn a PDA into a Pronto emulator) can be easily configured that way (on the other hand they are blank lsates and you can set them up any wayt you want) the HTM remotes are built to be device based, but in all honesty it can be relatively easy to set-up that way