Kevin, I had to laugh when you mentioned the M-X255i. I picked up that model about 2-1/2 years ago (middle of the Dark Ages in remote time) at Good Guys for the same price you paid. At the time I just knew it was the best thing since ... no, even BETTER than sliced bread. (It was the only URC the store carried "back in the day.") Now humor me as I recount a sad, sordid tale:

Not long afterward (November '98), the Sony RM-AV2000 came out, and of course being a Good Guys regular (read 'easy sales commission'), I snapped it up for $169 -- no extended warranty, no nothin'. I figured I'd find the time real soon to sit down and replace that horrendous Mitsubishi with a REAL remote. Besides, the girlfriend (now wife) couldn't seem to remember how to use the Mitsu. Oh well, couldn't seem to find the time to program the big Sony ... just too much trouble.

And so it went for one year, then two, then another one-half: Just she and me and my Mitsubishi. "Hey, honey, let me hold the remote so you don't have to worry about all those little buttons." (Heh-heh -- every man's DREAM!)

Fast forward to last month, when, after stumbling upon the wondrous Remote Central ("Come ON, a whole site about remote controls? This is STUPID!"), I picked up first the Home Theater Master SL9000, then the Radio Shack 15-1994 (in fact, SIX of them, for buddies in my wedding party) and now the UCommand, and am still considering the Sony 2100.

The hilarious (pathetic?) punchline to this joke is that, to this DAY, the ONLY remote I've EVER programmed or used at all has been the Mitsubishi. (But boy, those other four sure look GOOD sitting in the drawer, all dust-free.)

Of course, since I 'cut my teeth' on the Mitsubishi, that's where I acquired my love of hard buttons, but listen well when I tell you that it sure is FUN having to remember that in TV mode, for instance, ENTER swithes the PIP and main pictures, SLOW activates the TV's 'Sleep' function (well, both words do start with an 'S'), the left-facing PLAY button opens Guide+ (I left the normal right-facing PLAY button empty in this mode), the lower half of the INPUT rocker switch opens PIP. (NOTE: we COULD use more of those rocker switches on current remotes, yes? Quite satisfying and practical from a tactile standpoint.) Hey, at least POWER and MUTE do what they're supposed to.

Cursor/menu buttons -- what are those? Hmmm ... let's find five unused, non-adjacent buttons for that. OK, we'll use the small ADJUST rocker switch for up-down and, oh, how 'bout these + and - buttons for left-right. AAARRRGGGHHH!!! (Mimics Jim Carey hara-kiri knife-in-the-gut routine from "Liar Liar".)

The moral to this story, boys and girls, is that yes, hard buttons do have their place in God's master plan. So do LCDs. Which of the two you prefer, and in what proportion, is up to you.

I will now close by repeating the mantra of all dyed-in-the-wool LURC (Learning Universal Remote Control) junkies (and all our new friends too) posting on this site: "Where, oh where, can I find the perfect remote?"

Thank you for listening. Must go now; need to find a 12-step 'anonymous' program for LURC addicts. Any suggestions? :^)