Now maybe I'm not understanding the obvious, but the System menu will indicate the battery charge level. There, you can set a warning that will alarm at X% of full capacity.

However, when I get the word "battery" on the display, I can't do ANYTHING on the remote (the panel is blank except for the word "battery"); no buttons work.

I mean, I could have figured out the batteries were depleted without a message.
FWIW: My alarm level is at 10%.

So, if I push the warning up to 50% will the remote get locked out at 50% power too?

If I'm not mistaken - the word "battery" on screen with no functionality means your batteries have reached a point where they can no longer power the remote control - has nothing to do with your preset alarm levels.

Related note - I havent been able to make good use of the alarm function yet. This post just reminded me to raise the alarm value to 15% in hopes that I get a warning when the batteries are becoming useless. Usually, the remote just starts working worse and worse and I change batteries well before I ever get the beep alarm.

I have a similar problem with my TX-1000.

I never get an alarm no matter what percentage it is set for. The last set of batteries ran for 14 days with the System Settings showing zero power. Then all of a sudden the buttons stop working and the screen goes blank.

The good news is that I'm getting about 5 1/2 months of everyday use on one set of batteries.

Agreed-
The batteries dont last as long as my satellite remote batteries used to, but they are doing ALOT more work via IR and RF for various devices. Plus the backlight. They last an acceptable time, and it's pretty clear when the remote is no longer working correctly (to me - customers is another matter).

I still wish they would use AA instead of AAA batteries and the darn alarm would work.

My alarm settings don't work either. But it does have an alarm setting of it's own. When the batteries get really weak the remote's backlight starts flashing on and off uncontrollably, it starts beeping uncontrollably and none of the buttons work. The only way to make it stop is to let the batteries die completely or pull the batteries out of the remote.