1. Neither the timer you mention or Time of Day Timers Like the ones on the NG are are supported.

2. Support for TOD Timers is doubtful on the 9600

3. You can always ask for this new multi-threaded feature. But I highly doubt you will get a "Yes we can do it". Why? Simply because you are asking for 2 background threads to execute and then obtain a resource (IR xmitter) to send a signal and let the user do something else while your timer actions execute. To do something like this would completely circumnavigate the 'pressed' button image that so many bitched/complained about in the NG line.

From your description, I see this as a user perception issue that you could easily avoid by putting in some "Working..." animation screens. For what it's worth, build in the delays and put some animation around it.