Any IR issues with this 3 zone theater head-end? My intentions are not to use the included remote and probably go HTM mx3000 or mx700. Is the three zone toggling arrangement all one way discrete IR? (The manual says a light changes on the faceplate of the component to signify which zone is being addressed)

The Remote has four 'faces', Main, Zone, Rec, and Shift. When you change the 'face' of the remote you have discrete codes for anything you may need. We will use a MC12 in the theater with a K2 keypad in a remote room and this works well. There have been some quirks with the setup of shared digital sources. We have had some units not work correctly. The normal way to set the unit up is to set zone 2 input to DMIX. Great unit!!

Robert, thanks for your reply. I am driving a 50" Pioneer Plasma and (2) LG 23" ED-HDTV LCD's in a POP fashion
[Link: iaxs.net]
I want to use the three zones of the Lex to address these three screens. I see in the manual that only the main zone has the component video outputs so I'll probably have to use some of the LG's switching for the HTPC, ect. I am using a couple of Xantech MRC88's for the rest of the house (big house) so I can use the Lex just for the theater room. So you think I can just assign pages to the HTM remotes for the different Lex zones and I'll be fine?

This is just my current observation and not at all disrespectful, but I have a Balanced version 3 piece in front of me right now so I can break down the serial protocal. I have to tell you, this is a serious peice with some real nice protocol. It would be a shame to not give your client some killer two way communication to go with this awesome sounding high end peice.

Does the MC-12's GUI display only on the one composite video output labeled "OSD" or does it also come up on the component inputs? I could see the advantages of an AMX type interactive remote if you can't get feedback on the screen in HD. I really don't want to push the budget into the stratosphere.

Sorry, I mean't component "outputs" for the OSD question.

jazzman,
As I remember you can turn on component OSD in Main, Advanced, and you will get an OSD. The problem is the MC12 is not overlaying the OSD on it’s output. It blanks the video output and puts up the OSD. After the timeout the video returns. Bummer. So it really doesn’t work. It sounds like your approach to control will work.
digitlife is correct about using a more advanced type of controller. Also, digitlife, Creston has updated the serial protocols over time from the DC2, but almost everything is backwards compatible. We used the MC1/DC2 module from Crestron for a long time because they had not updated it for the MC12. If you have something that already works it would be easy to use it as a starting point.

I'll get back to you guys when the products arrive. Thanks for your input.

Robert,
I'm with ya, the protocal is the backwards compatible, am I am using old modules I have for the DC-2. What I am doing is adding to them for some additional functionality. It's just a fun protocal to play with, call me stupid, but I have a little bit of extra time dedicated to this project. The main reasoning is I just don't want to give the peice back to engineeering, my office is rocking!