Remote controls have changed from the big clunky boxes with just a few buttons that your grandparents knew. Even the remote controls you knew as a child are but a distant memory. With today's remote controls, you have programmable functionality, large buttons for the visually impaired and even sleek touch-screen remotes that can run an array of devices..
Jumbo Remotes
At the simple end of the remote control spectrum, you'll find basic remotes or even jumbo remotes. Jumbo remotes are oversized remote controls with large, well-labeled buttons, designed for people with visual impairments. Tired of looking for your glasses or bifocals so you can use the remote? A jumbo remote might be exactly what you need. However, oversized remote controls typically only feature basic functionality, so if you need an advanced remote, a jumbo remote might not meet your needs.
Learning Remotes
One of the biggest challenges with remote controls is finding one that can run all of your devices, from the TV to the DVD player. Many universal or programmable remotes lack buttons to control important device features. However, learning remotes can fix this gap. A learning remote lets you program specific features from your original product remote control, allowing you to map functions to hard buttons or create special buttons for specific functions.
You won't need this feature with most DVD players, VCRs or digital video recorders, but it's good to have for your TV, since most manufacturers (Sony and Samsung, in particular) have complicated on-screen control menus that won't work with standard universal remote controls.
Touch-Screen Control
For a little over a hundred dollars, you can find mid-range remote controls with the typical hard buttons and a small touch screen for programming macros. The hard buttons manually control your devices. You can program macros, or control scripts, to take several actions simultaneously, which makes running all that home theater gear much simpler.
For example, if you want to watch a DVD, you may need to power on a television, an amplifier or receiver and a DVD player, as well as select an input source for the television and the receiver. With a programmable macro, you can tell the device to take all of these steps for you when you press one button, saving you five or six separate steps. Macros make it easy for your young child or your aging parent to use your home theater system, without having to learn all the complicated steps to operate your devices.
High-End Touch Screens
For the big spender with several hundred dollars in the remote control budget, high-end remote controls offer the most advanced functionality and programming. For three hundred dollars, you can find remote controls that operate entirely on a touch-screen menu system. These remotes come with software so you can hook your remote up to your computer for programming, walking you through a wizard to set up the features. These software-based remotes operate up to 15 devices and come equipped with a database of codes to work with pretty much any device under the sun.
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