How to Program Your Home Theater Remote Control

With the increased popularity of home entertainment systems in many homes, a home theater remote has become a beneficial utility. Setting up a home theater entails several gadgets. This would usually consist mainly of a large TV, usually of an LCD type, a DVD player and surround speakers amongst several other gadgets. Inevitably all this technological equipment has to be controlled with a remote control, and this brings us to the drawback of having numerous remote controls on our hands. Obviously, the more there are, the greater the difficulty to recognize and operate them. Therefore, it would be useful to have just one remote control which controls everything, and a home theater remote control helps to solve this problem.

Step 1 - Purchase the Remote Control

Purchase a home theater or universal remote control. Ideally try to select one which is of the same brand as the majority of your electronic stuff in order to facilitate the programming of each of them onto the remote. Insert the batteries in the remote control you purchased.

Step 2 - Familiarization 

Try to get acquainted with the several buttons of your home theater remote control. You may also wish to browse through the manual of instructions. Although there are several buttons try to keep in mind that each serve a particular function and the ultimate goal is to simplify not complicate your life.

Step 3 - Acquire the Codes

Each electronic component has connected to it a particular code. So basically in order to program your home theater remote control you need to enter these codes that correspond with the equipment that you would like the remote to direct. These codes are normally included with the product, most commonly you can find them in each of the manuals. Alternatively you can ask the outlet from where you had bought them or the company that manufactures them. Some are also available on the Internet.

Step 4 - Start Setting Up

The home theater remote control or universal control will have a number of buttons which you have to set up individually for each component of your home theater system, namely the TV, DVD, surround speakers and cable/satellite set top box. Switch on any one of your electronic components, say the TV. Then start by pressing one of these buttons to start setting up. It is important that throughout the whole procedure you keep pressing this button. These buttons are usually called the component keys or buttons. Usually the remote will feature a small light that will turn on at this stage. A connection will be initiated.

Step 5 - Insert Code

The nest step is to insert the code that corresponds to the TV in this case. Once you have completed inserting the code which usually is made up of four digits, release the component button. Usually when you start inserting the code the remote’s light turns off, but upon inserting the last digit and releasing the component button, it turns on and off again automatically to show that the code was valid and accepted. Should the code not be correct the remote control light usually blinks three or four times to show you that the code has not been accepted.

Step 6 - Repeat for All the Components

Simply repeat the procedure for each component you wish to program into your remote control, such as the DVD player, surround speakers and so on.

Using such a remote control helps to simplify life and remove the clutter of several remote controls by combining their function into one remote control.