I have 2 questions:
- Firts, does anybody know a remote with more buttons than have most of them? I would like a remote like Logitech Harmony One, or other similar, but with more buttons to be able to program them as I want. For example, it will be great to have another joystick-style 5 buttons plus 8 other in 2 rows… This is because most of the times I need to press too many keys to change the device and then to come back to my main one only to do a task (like a zoom on the TV, or a PIP).
- Second, how can I program the remote to do something that even on the original remote needs to be done by repeatedly pressing a single key? For example, to program an activity to change the input on the TV. If I want to watch DVD I need to change the TV to HDMI1. To watch TV, I need it to HDMI2. Of course, when turning all off, the lat state is not known, so I can’t only program to send a number of times the command “Change input”…

What's your budget?

Harmony remotes (and similar) have an LCD to solve your lack of buttons problem. There is no need to change devices because you can put any commands from any device on the LCD for quick access.

Most devices have discrete input commands so you don't have to perform multiple presses. These commands exist on universal remotes like harmony but not on your original remote. For example, Harmony will have an HDMI3 command that goes directly to HDMI3, without having to press Input several times or remember how many Input commands from HDMI1 to HDMI3. So your watch DVD activity macro will turn on all the appropriate devices and send the discrete input command for your DVD input. Watch TV will do the same for your cable/sat input. It doesn't matter where you started, the discrete command always goes directly to the proper input. This is how universal remotes work.