Patent ID: 8643477

Claim:
A remote control method, comprising: receiving, by a multimedia handling device including a network adapter to receive multimedia content from a multimedia content distribution network server and a decoder to process multimedia content for display on a display, a request from a user to reprogram a universal remote control, wherein the request includes a device type of the remote-controlled device; prompting the user to activate a first control element of an original remote control associated with the remote-controlled device; receiving, by the multimedia handling device, a first code transmitted by the original remote control in response to activation of the first control element; attempting to identify the remote-controlled device based on the first code; responsive to identifying multiple remote-controlled devices based on the first code, repeatedly prompting the user to activate additional control elements and attempting to identify the remote-controlled device based on all codes received until the remote controlled device is identified; and responsive to identifying the remote-controlled device based on the first code: retrieving programming codes for the remote-controlled device; and programming, by the multimedia handling device, the universal remote control to associate a code selected from the programming codes with a control element of the universal remote control, wherein the universal remote control transmits the code to the remote-controlled device in response to activation of the control element.