I may have an inexpensive solution for those of you who want to use a single remote for all your A/V equipment. I tried several of the programmable remotes and always had one component that I couldn't control. There are several high dollar learning remotes that are way out of my league, but I found a Sony Remote (RM-VL600) that is only $25.99 at Best Buy. (Actually, I bought an open box and got it for $15.99.
) Anyway, I now have one remote that runs my Maganavox HDTV, RCA HD upscaling DVD, Bose 321 receiver and Dishnetwork DVR. It even has System Control buttons that can be programmed for watching TV - i.e. turns on tv, receiver and Dish DVR with only pushing one button. This remote can learn from your existing remotes by simply putting it in learn mode, pressing the button you want to program and then point your existing remote at it and press the appropriate button you want it to learn. I am very pleased with this remote. And more importantly Debbie likes this remote because now she can press one button and watch tv.
As to the quality of the picture on your HDTV, I have a Magnavox HDTV and it has a great picture on Over The Air antenna local HD channels. I also have an upscaling DVD player that upscales standard DVDs to near HD. Wide screen DVDs look really good from this player. (I will upgrade to HD-DVD as soon as the prices drop a little more and the HD-DVD, Blu-ray fiasco works its way out.
) The pictures I get from my Dishnetwork DVR are not hi-definition and really don't look as good as they do on my standard definition tv. Eventually, I will go to HD on Dishnetwork and the picture will be much improved. However, OTA antenna HD will still look better because those signals do not have the compression that Dishnetwork and DirectTV have to use to put all those channels on their satellites. Hope this helps.