Good comments above.
I agree. If I have a non-technical friend, I advise going with a Harmony. They can do wonders for people struggling with multiple remote systems. If they are technical and will eventually want to tweak everything, the Universal remotes definitely have the advantage. You can make things work the way YOU want them to. As long as you are willing to put a good bit off time into them.

With great power comes Awesome irresponsibility.