I'm having trouble programming (using advanced codes) all 4 Learning Keys in Home Theater Mode. I can program the first 3, but when I attempt to program L4, I do not get 2 blinks after entering 9-9-4, just one slightly longer blink. It does not store anything after this. (Same problem if I try to program L4 in learning mode). Is it possible that after assigning all 5 control groups, there's not enough memory left to program all 4 learning keys? Can anyone confirm this from experience? Does one slightly longer blink, as opposed to two short blinks, indeed indicate "out of memory". Thanks to all.

You should have enough memory to program about 45 keymoves, or less if you have also programmed macros. (The memory for learned signals is seperate and doesn't have any bearing).

Have you tried programming the keymove to any other button? I suspect that you've simply run out of memory, rather than there being anything special about the L4 button.

The story is getting stranger. Now the function that I tried to program repeatdly to L4 in Home Theater mode has suddenly appeared! But a worse problem has also appeared. I had programmed one macro to do the following: turn on the dvd player, turn on the TV and switch to Video 1 input, turn on the receiver and switch to dvd input, and switch the 8810 to Home Theater mode. This is has worked since I programmed it, but suddenly, not only are L1-L4 disabled in Home Theater mode, but so are the Fast Reverse and Fast Forward buttons. If I turn everthing on manually and switch to Home Theater mode, L1-L4, Fast Forward and Fast Reverse all work as they should. This strange behavior seemed to appear at the exact moment that L4 mysteriously began to function. What gives? Are these units all so tempermental, is it possibly defective, or is it something else?

After considerable experimentation, my problem no longer seem to be related to the macro. If I come to Theater Mode from any device mode other than DVD, the 6 above-mentioned buttons don't work. If I press the DVD button and the Home Theater button again, they work again. All in all, I think I'll just take it back to Walmart and try another, unless someone can recognize the problem and offer a solution. Thanks.

Another what? Another brand, another model, or another 8810w.

I don't think you'll find another brand or model with a Home theater mode that works even as well as the 8810 for the sort of behavior you seem to want. (IIRC the 8910 fixes the specific issue of this thread, but in other ways has worse HT behavior. Walmart doesn't sell the 8910)

I know another 8810w won't help because your problem is in the design of the 8810w, not a defect in your unit.

The only really good answer is to get a JP1 cable (internet order, see links on Rob's web site, about $14 plus shipping) and use it to load some software called an "extender" into the 8810 to give you more detailed control of its behavior.

Without that extender, Home theater mode defines only most of the keys. When you enter HT mode, some keys retain the definition they had before you entered HT mode. I (and most of other experts) wouldn't remember exactly which keys those are (because we either use the extender or avoid HT mode). But from your symptoms the L1-L4 keys must act that way.

So you think you learned them in HT mode, but you really learned them in DVD mode and they will work only when they are in DVD mode, and they remain in DVD mode when you switch directly from DVD to HT.

I meant another 8810w, my assumption being that I had a defective unit. However your post strongly suggests I do not, in which case, I'll stay put, and learn to live with the 8810's limitations, and consider JP1 programming. Still, I'm surprised that Home Theater does not define Fast Forward and Fast Reverse, but it's right there in the manual: transport controls in Home Theater mode are only Play, Stop, Fwd, Rew, Pause and Rec. I defined L1-L4 the same in DVD and Home Theater modes, so what I guess this is showing me is that you can't really define the learning keys in Home Theater mode, but that these functions are being retained from the DVD mode. Thanks for helping to clear things up.

I was quite surprised at that design error also. A nice feature of the 8810 family of remotes is that it has 8 transport keys rather than the usual 6. Then they wreck it by including only the basic 6 in the set that HT mode understands as being transport keys.

When I wrote the "extender" program for that family of remotes, that was one of the defects I fixed.