I'ved done a number of Harmony remotes, Phillips Pronto, and more recently a few various URC's. In my experience, the easiest remotes overall to program are the Harmony's and they've had the most user friendly end product. I personally work with mostly Crestron products, but absolutely love the Harmony One for one room systems. In my opinion for the price you can't beat the options, end product, and user interface of the Harmony One.
Good luck with your search; you can pick the harmony one up at best buy for around $250 and on amazon for $200 ( but the harmony one specifically will require either an ir repeater (ie xantech) or the rf add on to work in your situation)