I recently got this remote, and I'm having huge problems with the command center. I can't get any more than 3-feet range with the RF capability, despite
placement/orientation experiments. I exchanged the unit (Circuit City) only to have the same problems again. I'm not in any apparent industrial zone, and there don't seem to be any radio towers or other obvious sources of interference nearby. Tech support
so far is not encouraging. Any ideas?

Additionally, when the command center is plugged in, the reliability of IR control of my Sony CDP-CX300 300-disc changer is diminished - maybe 1 out of 5 keypresses is recognized. Interestingly, I have two of these units, and it's only the one programmed as "unit 1" that experiences this behavior. It's as if the command center is constantly transmitting garbage codes for this unit alone!! Any ideas?

I'd like to think that this isn't user error - I'm an
electrical and software engineer, and I've done a fair
amount of experiments trying to get this to work without any noticeable change in the behavior of the system.

I'm about ready to return the unit permanently, and look for another RF/learning remote - any recommendations?