Every now and then, a skirmish may break out over who will have access to the remote control. If you and your roommate or spouse have ever started an argument over what channel to watch, you may want to look into making an infrared LED driver circuit which will trump pretty much any other remote in the house.

This IR jammer uses a 555 timer to constantly transmit infrared traffic. The signals it puts out don�t correspond to any TV (or any other IR RC devices for that matter) will respond to. Its light intensity is strong enough that it will interfere with any other signals coming in from a remote. Which essentially means you get all the power and the other remote won�t be strong enough to override yours. You can hide all this circuitry in a regular remote and your fellow couch potato will never know what hit them. Think of it as the anti-TV-B-Gone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GW9p_JLYFUE