You are correct Gary. Linking to special actions is not supported. Well you can do it, but said special action will not execute.

As for hard button backlighting, I agree that the backlight should be better. It's a feature of the remote that has not been implemented well. In addition, the options listed below should also be offered.

(Auto) Backlight activation options:
1) Backlight on screen activation only.
2) Backlight on hard button press only.
3) Backlight on screen activation or hard button press.
4) Backlight off.

Now I personally don't use backlighting at all. Even if the backlighting was better and offered the options I detailed above I still wouldn't use it. For the life of me I don't understand why people need to be able to see the buttons to operate them properly and with ease. Take a few minutes and practice if you need to. It's not a difficult task. The firm keys, all 4 of them are lined up directly under the screen. Then there are the cursor keys, the cursor pad in the center with two buttons on each side nicely spaced out. The channel buttons start even with the top of the screen. The volume buttons just above the bottom of the screen. To access mute simply work your way in from either end. Knowing the location of the buttons, then working the remote by feel alone is not rocket science. For now the backlight is what it is. As I said though, I agree that the backlight was not implemented well and should be improved upon. In the meantime, why not free yourself from thinking that you have to look at the remote everytime you need to operate the hard buttons and just learn to operate the hard buttons by feel alone. If you master this task you won't want to use the backlight anyway.