This one is quite old (2006) and actually has a straight up RS232 port. I'd tend to agree though it seemed to work on the default factory settings too, just not consistently. Have you ever had issue getting the serial port out of state or anything or having to do some kind of extra "stuff" on the port to get it into the right state? My code is very simple and I've implemented it in both C#.NET and Python. It's worth noting that while the TV is shut off and on, the computer is on 24-7.