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remote central
I picked up the Home Theatre Master Mx-700 (around $125 CDN somewhere on the net) and have never looked back. Excellent built-in database of IR codes - it even had codes for my old, old laser disc player.
I was really checking the Marantz/Pronto units for a while and was actually price shopping the Onkyo CHAD unit before spending a bit of time on the remote central site.
Those slick units at around $750 or more are complete overkill for my needs. The MX-700 does it all for a fraction of the price.