No, with energy prices hitting record highs I think the idea behind Energy Star is good. Products that use less energy are good for both the consumer in terms of his energy costs, society in terms of reliance on a scarce and expensive resource, and the ecology in terms of waste. However, what idiot would design control circuitry such that when off, the chip to which the serial bus sits it powered off? There is nothing wrong with energy savings, per se. There is something wrong when a manufacturer takes the cheap way out, kludges a solution that screws up others parts of his product and fails to post a solution publicly. Design a product correctly and we would not be posting for help nor supply rediculous work arounds--although I will grant that sending a initialization string is hardly a handicap if, indeed, it works on all models and all sitautions.

I think my good friend, EJ, would agree that a product designed such that when off cannot be powered on is poorly designed. If they could design their IR circuitry correctly they should have designed their serial bus accordingly. Bet energy star exists in the Sharp commercial units but is disabled in software by the factory. This is a bad design and Sharp can give a damn. It screws us but how important are we? Vote with your feet folks but few of you will. And, of course, even if all of us sold LG, Mitsubishi, Sony, or some other brand of LCD it would have zero affect on Sharp and the piss poor product they produce. After all, is it 3 of us here on this board who actually take advantage of serial bus on products?

Alan