I'd been on a quest lately trying to find a single remote to control my TV, VCR, and stereo. The real trial has been trying to find something that would control my Panasonic SC-DK1, which is a surround-sound stereo just like Panasonic's AK-57 except with DVD player built in.

It started with an incorrect product listing online somewhere that stated that the remote that comes with it was a universal remote. It isn't.

The universal that came with my TV, also a panasonic, would only control the power, volume, and start playing chapters 1-9.

I then pulled out my old ProProducer 7, and found out that one of the codes for it (518) would control more, but wouldn't re-learn anything but the 16 buttons at the bottom, and didn't have a layout for menu buttons.

Next, a product description on ww.800.com lead me astray with a Jensen SC-590, which contrary to the product description, isn't a learning remote.

Then, I picked up the RadioShack 15-1994, which was an OEM version of the Cinema 6 (I don't like number-shaped buttons and lack of backlight). Imagine my surprize when I found out that that remote didn't support the 0518 code, though 0308 was the next best code. It didn't have enough that I could learn the rest and have normal usage.

So, I checked, and the actual Cinema 6 did support the 0518 code. So I headed to Walmart and picked one up. Imagine my surprize to find that the 0518 mode of the Cinema 6 didn't support the stereo nearly as well as the 518 mode of the ProProducer 7 (over 10 fewer keys).

So, I went through and carefully picked out 28 codes that were the most important to me, with a few semi-optional, just in case I came up short, or got more than 28 codes.

I trained the power button, then the DVD menu controls. I paused to test the training. They all worked, except for menu left. So, I retrained that button. It still didn't work. So I 9-8-0'ed the remote to clear memory, and started with that one button. It still didn't train. So I tried training it to another button, and it still wouldn't work. Both the ProProducer 7 and my pilot would gladly train the button, and my pilot confirmed that the button had the same frequency as the rest.

So, at this point I'm torn between a hammer (for anger therapy) or a screwdriver (for all sorts of nazi-quality experiments) on those remotes that haven't been returned.

The Home Producer 8800 would be fine if it could learn any key, rather than just the 6 L keys. The SL-9000 doesn't have seperate menu and transport keys in a diamond pattern. The TC1000 I saw was so horribly sluggish that it would drive me batty.

The Sony RMA V2000/V2100 doesn't quite make the grade because the buttons are prelabeled so they can't be arranged in the order that the device expects.

And I'm not paying more than $100 for a remote unless it reaches perfection, so I can wait for the MX-1000 or get a Pronto now, unless someone has any alternatives I'm not aware of.