High end 4K Blu ray players

HDMI CEC may offer enough remote control capability without having to do anything fancy for remote control using an app. For example... with CEC (manufacturers are assholes about this though, almost every one of them has made up their own name for CEC... Sony calls it Bravia Link and several other names in the past, Denon and Marantz have a name for it. Onkyo/Integra have another name for it. But it is all CEC that gives you control of devices connected with HDMI cables. For example: with CEC enabled, you could put the disc player BEHIND the surround processor or AVR and not be able to reach it with IR controls from remotes. Enable CEC on the AVR/processor and on the disc player. Now, when you aim the disc player remote, aim it at the receiver and the receiver will send that remote control command over HDMI to the disc player. If all of this always worked together with ZERO problems, it would be that simple. Unfortunately, in the real world, companyies way overthink this concept and you rarely get the simple result you were hoping for. After you enable CEC communications between your receiver and the new device, it will probably work. But there are still issues with control over HDMI that make it POSSIBLY not good enough. There are infra-red repeating systems that have a sensor you aim at placed in a convenient location. Where the disc player will be placed, you install an IR Blaster that "repeats" the signal the sensor in your room detected. The IR Blaster makes a bit wide infra-red beam that repeats what the sensor "saw". That's usually the simple-est way to get control without having to deal with an app. There are apps that will turn a phone into a universal remote control. So you COULD end up with your own control over Wi-Fi setup with your phone communicating with the device. How you go about this is more of a choice on your part. You have cheap and dirty options here, but you can spend a little more and get more and more control/integration. You can control an entire system with a note-pad--either with stuff you buy and program yourself, or with a commercial home automation control system (Control4, Crestron, and several others). It all depends on how custom/cool you want things to look. Control-Over-IP (network control) is the big "new thing" replacing systems with components connected to a central controller with serial port communications with connected devices. Some newer devices do support Control-Over-IP, but you have to check on that if it is a feature you require.