Not too long ago, the universal remote control seemed to be the answer to everyone’s problems. Only one remote to control three devices! So simple! So easy! No more frustrations and lost remotes! But it’s becoming clearer now that the universal remote control may be seeing its last days. That’s right — it may be time to bid farewell to the universal remote.

What makes these little monsters so difficult to deal with? Well, for starters, they really aren’t capable of controlling every device, thus rendering the “universal” part in the name quite useless. Back when universal remotes were created, developers weren’t thinking about all the new technology that would be developed and which would require remote controls. When you have three different devices, and each comes with its own control, it actually seems quite silly to imagine that one little device could handle everything. When each device has its own power switch, how is one power button on one remote control going to know whether to turn on the TV, DVR, DVD player, or cable network?

All too often, you find out only after you’ve bought a universal remote that it isn’t actually universal at all, and you had not way of determining which functions on each device it would be able to control. Suddenly, all your hopes of having one organized system have vanished. Suddenly, you’re carrying around six different original TV remotes and trying to figure out which TV remote controls go to which device. Suddenly, you become convinced that technology is the worst thing to ever happen to the world. You feel a fear — oh, it is such a terrible fear — when you order this brand new TV online and it comes with no manual buttons, but only … more TV remote controls. And then one day, in a fit of rage, you take a hammer to the remotes. Every last one.

Fortunately, it IS possible to buy replacement remote controls for TVs when this inevitable mental breakdown happens. Lucky for the rest of us, some brilliant and future-oriented business people realized years ago that universal TV remote controls were only going to lead to destruction. For more, read this link: remotes.com