Has the universal remote had its day?

ThinkGeek's Star Trek Phaser looks like the universe's greatest universal remote.

With the rise of smart TVs and clever gadgets, do you still need that one remote to rule them all?

A few years ago I would have said that a decent universal remote control was an essential addition to any tech-savvy lounge room, to help you escape the mountain of remotes piled up on your coffee table. Even if you know exactly how your lounge room is wired up, your loved ones shouldn't need a degree in electrical engineering just so they can turn on the television at the end of the day.

A universal remote can certainly help ease tensions, plus something like the Star Trek phaser universal remote from Think Geekwould make a classy addition to any lounge room it even makes the sound effects.

I've long been a fan of Logitech's Harmony universal remote controls, because they're highly flexible. Logitech maintains a database of thousands of AV devices, and if you get stuck the Logitech remote can actually learn the commands from your existing remotes. You can program complicated macros to configure every device in your lounge room with a single button press.

My old trusty old Logitech Harmony 785 universal remote finally gave up the ghost this week, having been knocked off the coffee table and dropped on the floor more times than I care to remember over the last seven years. It got to the point where even my kids weren't overly apologetic when the remote control hit the deck.

After all the rough and tumble it was actually a worn-out button which finally brought about my Harmony's demise. To tell the truth, I pulled it apart in an effort to mend the button and managed to "fix" it beyond repair but it was already living on borrowed time and the charge cradle was flaky. It's time had come. Unfortunately newer model Harmony remotes tend to offer fewer features than the old ones so, rather than buy a new one, I've dug up an old Harmony 525 to take the 785's place.

I wouldn't dream of living without a universal remote, because my television only has two HDMI inputs. One is hooked up to an HDMI amplifier with four HDMI sockets, and the other TV input is connected to a four-way HDMI switch.

To watch most of the devices in my lounge room you need to turn on the television and set it to the right input, then turn on the amp or switch and change it to the correct input. Next you need to find the remote for the device you actually want to watch, such as the TiVo, Blu-ray player, media centre or Apple TV. The thought of doing all this manually every time I flop down on the couch doesn't thrill me.

While a universal remote is mandatory for my lounge room, they're becoming less important in lounge rooms with all-in-one devices like smart TVs and Blu-ray players with internet access. When your devices handle more tasks, you switch between them far less often. At this point you might find the basic universal features built into the supplied remote controls are up to the job. More so if you're abandoning optical disc players and Personal Video Recorders in favour of internet video.

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Has the universal remote had its day?