I've tried every kind of battery in this unit, and had high expectations for NiMH rechargeables... but the backlight isn't as bright with newly charged NiMH as it seems to be with brand new disposable alkalines.

I've tweaked the contrast, and still would like the brightest backlight possible. With new alkalines, the remote is a pleasure to use in the lighting conditions I have (and not perfect vision).

I'd like to read experiences on the life and EL brightness with different batteries. The remote gets used a lot especially with a Tivo, selecting programs to record, forwarding throught commercials, etc.

Also, the messages in this forum are scary - I've spent light years customizing the remote, and had no idea the memory of this remote was at all volatile... it's never happened to me, but I read about some losses... I thought this remote didn't even need batteries to hold customized settings once entered (hence no hurry about changing them in a timely fashion or letting them get too low). ???????

Thanks! Bill

Much has been written about battery problems. Rather than have you wade through all of the threads, I will try and sum up the pertinent info.
1. When the display dims, or the clock resets, or you even think the batteries are getting low-REPLACE THEM.
2. When you replace them, remove all of the batteries, leave them out at least TWENTY (20) SECONDS, then REPLACE THEM. One writer said he had a customer who left the batteries out for 5 months, and the settings were still there when they inserted new batteries, so it is more a matter of not enough time between removal and insertion than too much time.
3. I’ve read several times that rechargeable batteries are not recommended. I believe they start out with lower voltage (hence the diminshed brightness), and more importantly, they do not give much of a warning when they are about to expire, which could cause problems.
4. The backlight is the biggest source of battery drain. My first set lasted 3 days, because I was programming constantly and had the backlight on all of the time. Since then, I have changed my first set at 3 months, and probably could have gotten longer but didn’t want to take a chance.
5. The most common recommendations are to set your backlight to go off after 10 seconds, and your screen display to go off after 5-10 minutes. I have read that the screen display takes very little battery current, but why waste the batteries. On my AV2100 I left the screen on all of the time because it didn’t come back on when you pressed an LCD key, and got good battery life, but the AV3000 turns on the screen with a touch of any button.
6. After initial programming and playing with the new toy, you should realize longer battery life. If you use the light a lot you will have to change batteries more often. This is a fact of light (and life).
7. With normal care you shouldn’t have any problems, so quit worrying and ENJOY!

Many thanks, Ron, 10 seconds for backlight timeout it is. I noticed with some of the rechargeables, when the remote was transmitting, the EL would actually dim - I guess both things were taxing the not-so-hot batteries. So... anyone want to buy lots of NiMH rechargeables ? :(