Hi all,

I set-up my Sony 50ES this weekend and I am NOT happy
with the remote! First off, the display has hardly
visable in the daylight and even in the dark when it
is backlit, it is hard to read. In regards to the
backliting, it isn't even "back"lit! There are a couple
small lights on the ends of the display which try to
light u the entire display. As you get closer to the
center of the display, it isn't lit very well.

And my second gripe is the touchpad. If you want to
change the stations on your tv, you have to turn on
your remote, LOOK at it, and then press buttons. You
can't blindly change stations. (It makes channel
surfing ver difficult!).

The good thing about it is it's bi-directional. The
remote will display your cd's from your multi-disc
cd changer, the radio stations that are pre-programmed,
etc.

So, my question is "Can this RM-AV2000" help me out
here?? How is the display? Bright enough to read
in the daylight as well as dark?

I can change channels without looking at the remote
(yeah to channel surfing!).

But is it bi-directional? The specs don't mention
anything about bi-directional functionality and
would hate to lose that if I purchased this remote.
Is the Marantz bi-directional?

Any suggestions are appreciated!

Thanks,
Steve...

No, as far as I can tell, the RM-AV2000 is NOT bi-directional. That's a specific feature of the new "Commander" remotes.

As far as the backlighting goes, the RM-AV2000 has an Indiglo-style backlight, and I've never had troulbe reading it. I did set the light to the low setting, as it was awfully bright in a dark room on it's high setting.

Right, the RM-AV2000 isn't bi-directional, but I've heard that it will work with the 30ES. Perhaps it will work one-way with the 50ES? I haven't heard either way yet.

As for the backlight - it's very very bright, and is a smooth even blue color from corner to corner. You can probably read a book to this thing in the "bright" setting!