If you can wait just a little longer, Logitech will be releasing the Harmony 1000 activity based remote this fall. It looks quite nice and shouldn't take very long to get it setup the way you want.

I decided to order the Philips RC9800i and give it a shot. It's not very programmable, but since CostCo's return policy I figured it's worth a shot at seeing what it can do in my system. If I end up returning the RC9800i, I'll be looking at the Harmony 1000 next.