IR Toggles

I hate toggles. Power. Mute. Input select. Pause.

Its preventing me from programming the functions I want.

One solution I can think of would be if there exists a set of
more or less undocumented commands for common consumer electronics.
I have heard that Sony has explicit Power On and Power Off IR
commands. Is there a source of information on the internet about
consumer electronics IR commands?

Can anyone think of another way to program around the toggles? I can
think of one very bad hack: Use X10 switch to power off the equipment so as to get it in a known state. Then monitor the IR in each room and try to keep track of the button presses. This is very bad for several reasons... its easy to miss IR (tv picks it up but I don't or vice versa). Also the people in my house may press buttons on the equipment directly, etc etc etc.