I have found the same issue with the SA 8300HD codes. And you are right about the channel macro feature; you need valid IR codes for the function to work.

However, it can easily be fixed: download SA 8300HD codes from this site, import to Pronto Edit Professional, copy the 8300HD codes to your "My Database" and then re-assign the newly imported codes to the device.

Make sure you check for function name mismatch though as some dowloaded files will not call the same function exactly the same (like FF will not assign properly to F.Fwd or to Fast Fwd and so on). I recommend a one by one check of the code page after a re-assignment.

Once the re-assignment above is done and checked, you can go back and (re)perform the channel code macro to have good codes assigned to buttons.