Like me, a lot of people have more than one remote control in their home to control the TV, VCR, DVD player, Stereo, and on and on. I remember the first time I heard of a universal remote. I honestly didn’t care much because we pretty much just had a TV to control, but I remember thinking it was kind of cool that you could program it. Unfortunately, as I later found out, they don’t always work for all devices and these days, the function set of your TV or component might not be supported by the standard buttons on a typical universal remote control. Just take a look at the remote for your TV or newest component and count all the buttons. My new TV has at least 8 buttons that I’m not sure even do anything with my model of TV. The solution is to have one remote, but it has to really be able to handle everything you try to control with it.

An example from my life
I really like my in-laws. So much, in fact, that I was pleased when they stayed with us for a few weeks last Spring. There was really only one problem while they were here, and that was my media system setup. They’re smart, just not really into all the tech like I am, so my wife let me know that I was “on call” while I worked late to help with any issues that arose from the use of our system. We had the VCR, DVD player, XBox and cable to manage. They only wanted to watch TV and the occasional DVD, but we had four remotes and cats that step on remotes, so if the input button on the TV remote got hit by accident, I might get a call asking why the TV didn’t work and it could be much worse. When I lived with a roommate who loved to hook up all kinds of audio and video components, there was actually an order in which I had to turn the system on. I had him write it down for me because it involved three remotes just to watch TV. Something like this would have been pretty handy at the time.

What is neoHD?
What is this holy grail of remotes I’m talking about. It’s the Yamaha neoHD and it’s more than just a remote like I initially thought. Normally, you think of a solution to this problem and a universal remote comes to mind, maybe even a fancy one, but this is more of a system with a simplified remote to control it.

Less buttons is a good thing. You hook up all your components to the base unit and then throw all the old remotes in a drawer somewhere because the whole system is now under the control of one remote. The blue Control button gets you into the system switching and more advanced remote options like you might need to access if you want subtitles with that French film, but at all other times, you just navigate like normal with a need-based set of standard buttons. I love the concept because, the geek that I am, even I would hit a button on accident and have no idea what I just hit or what it did. The setup seems simple enough, and the site has videos on how the system works and how to set it all up. It also comes in a WiFi model for streaming music and one with surround sound speakers so you’ll be all ready to go. Starting around $600 it’s for someone who is enthusiastic about their home media experience and can afford to do it right. For the money, it seems like a really complete system that should simplify things.

And here’s the good news… You can also try and win your own neoHD for free just by submitting a Yamaha neoHD Sweepstakes Entry like I’m about to do. A couple really easy ways to enter:

- Head to this blog post and leave a comment (make sure to read the post, too, for a couple more ways to enter)
- Tweet the following to enter:
“I just entered to win a #neoHD b/c I have too many remotes, visit (http://urlbrief.com/e44caa) to enter”

Are you on Facebook? If so, search for neoHD to learn more about the company and the product. Finally, let us know how much you could use one. Is your coffee table covered in remotes? How many remotes do you have?

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