That's a great idea, but not all the SA8300s have that command. From what I can tell from the HD boards, only SA8300 boxes with the SARA software have this feature on the menu. Other boxes run Passport software, like mine, and do not have the menu command that allows a power on with number command.

Mine gets out of sync all the time. In fact, my general power on macro, which does not include a power command for the 8300, turns it on or off anyway -- I don't know why, and at this point I just don't care any more. I just have the "On" button set to send the toggle command, so if I go to the watch HD TV mode and the box happens to be off at that point, I just push that button. I can live with that, especially as there is no good reason that I know of to turn the box off anyway. Many people leave them on all the time (like a TiVo).