Need help programming a universal remote

my kids pushed something on our sylvania tv and now we can't watch dvds. the needed channel seems to have just been deleted. We don't have cable and our tv is used solely for watching dvds. I think that maybe it was taken off of dvd mode or something, but our remote is missing so I can't check or fix it. I bought a new universal remote thinking that I could try that, but now i am clueless as to how to program it since the manual was missing from the package. Help!?