A portable electronic device with a touch-sensitive display (such as a cellular telephone) provides a wireless remote control for an entertainment device (such as a consumer-electronic device). Based on device-state information that specifies a current state of the entertainment device (which is determined by an audio/video (A/V) hub that communicates with the entertainment device) and one or more related states of the entertainment device, the A/V hub may generate user-interface information that specifies a user interface that includes one or more virtual command icons. Note that the one or more related states are related to the current state in a state diagram by corresponding operations that transition the entertainment device from the current state to the one or more related states. Then, the A/V hub provides the user interface to the portable electronic device. In this way, the A/V hub device dynamically adapts the user interface.