Daniel - Thanks for the suggestions.

I've tried searching for "long signal" in the forums. The most people talked about was the Sony DSP long signal for certain Sony receivers. No Rec+Play discussion. I've tried this combo on this remote VCR component, since I don't have Sony VCR in my setup, but this remote does not give us a 3-sec hold time with these.

The micro-macro might work, but it's not gonna be easy, I'll try combine some of the display/info signals to see if it'll work.

In the mean time, your first suggestion seems to be the most logical. I can program the SC 1-4 macros as power up and input selections sequences, and then use the Component select to "correct" the input selections when the TV did not catch up with the SC macro when it ends. This is also handy when switching activity, e.g. from a TV mode to a DVD mode or to any other mode.