ATARIMAN "Well, it's really only down to marketing laws."

I see where you are coming from, but I doubt Philips will be quaking in their boots about this issue, and will almost certainly ignore you on the legal issue. They can easily afford a defending lawyer, and your costs would be huge if you could find someone to take the case on against Philips. You should watch a documentary made about the people who took Hoover to court over a marketing issue in the UK, theyu have lost lots of money, and overall still lost their case, and this issue was clearly Hoovers mistake.

I think if you wrote to them to ask for your money back and send the unit back to them they may oblige, but they should take a amount of money off for the time you have owned and used it in the state it was in when you bought it. This would probably equate to the same amount of money that you would receive if you sold it on the internet, so I belive that may be a good solution to your issue.

Most companies make marketing statements that they intend to keep but fail. Its virtually part of all marketing campaigns. They are usually written at the point of a launch of a product with all the good intentions that you would expect. Look at Tivo, promises of all sorts in the beginning, Sky's backing, till they found their own agenda etc. I am just being realistic in a world that runs on business and money issues, I really think you will be wasting a lot of time and energy if you pursue it, but its obviously up to you. I would sell it on ebay and find one that does what you want (good luck :) ). I am in marketing by the way :).

I just am glad that Philips have put their input, money and expertise into this market, as without them we would all be stuck with those "other" remotes out there. I would bet Philips have not made as much money as they would have liked from this market, as it hasnt exactly taken off yet, even if everyone does have four remotes in their house.

I think the best way to try and get the other bits working is to find enthusiastic owners of remotes who are programmers, and hope they take it on. It happens in the games industry, and a few others. Dont know where to start looking though. Anyone got any ideas, might be worth placing them here.