Turns out that I wasn't doing anything wrong. As a test I bought the Philips SRT8215 universal remote and although the Philips universal remote has discrete input and power buttons in its LCD display, they don't do anything, they CANNOT control the TV. The SRT can only do what the original remote can do, nothing more. The 2010 Philips TV 55PFL5505D simply does not support discrete power and input selection. I can easily program my old MX-500 and MX-600 remotes with the power toggle RC5 0,12 command and that works but the TV ignores any dicrete commands, for instance RC5 0,61 power off is ignored.

I wish I knew that this series of Philips TV are TOADs. Funny though, as this Philips support post says otherwise: [Link: supportforum.philips.com]

I guess Philips just doesn't understand the needs of the home theatre marketplace.