I don't have a universal remote and am looking for one for my wife who is technophobic. She doesn't want multiple remotes and has difficulties switching between cable, DSS, VCR, and the DVD. I want to simplify as much as possible. I'd appreciate advise. My needs are:

-- one touch switch to/turn on the TV (Toshiba projection set) with cable on. I like the MX1000's hard key look as being possibly easier to channel surf in this mode.

-- one touch turn on TV, DSS (Sony Sat-A2)/switch to DSS, i.e. CNBC or select channels. I'd like this regardless of whether the TV is already on. From browsing these forums it appears that some TV and other AV equipment have discrete on/off commands, not just a toggle from on to off to on... etc.

-- a little more detail... with the TV either in on or off, touch an icon that says CNBC, or the Golf Channel and have the Universal remote turn on the TV, DSS, and select the right channel. Have a few favorites programmed in for one touch selection whether it's coming from the DSS or the cable.

It sounds like the software for the MX1000 is pretty bad. I'm willing to spend as much time as necessary programming the remote either on the remote or on the PC. I'm assuming that settings can be saved and if the battery goes out, can be reloaded on any of these simply.

I'm favoring the MX1000 (in spite of some bad reviews) or the TC1000 because of the hard key functions. It seems that certain functions, i.e. sequential channel search, VCR rewind, play, etc. will work easier -- by feel rather than by reading the screen and touching. True or false?

I'd appreciate any words of wisdom to help me through this puzzle.

thanks in advance for the help.