I thinking of getting one of these to replace a Philips TSU-3000, wouldn't do so if the EL backlighting could be turned up a notch or two, but it can't. I have had Sony's before, had a RM-AV3000 that works to this day, the new owner had the patience to go through all the quirky keypresses and ultra-unclear manual.

I'm not very bright and in reading through the manual for the AX4000 I'm not sure of one specific thing - every "soft touch" position, like it's predecesors, has usually 4 objects etched into the panel, and in the 3000's keypress sequence that always drove me crazy, I could "thumb through" and pick any of the 4 against any button on any device. Of course I realize you're given dot-matrix text buttons at the bottom for exact labeling, as before.

What I'm not sure of is - the manual seems to imply to me that "we've though of everything for you" and the devices will select the soft keys and their 1-in-4 labels in a "canned" sort of way, the user can't decide to add soft keys (using the canned selection of four or less possibilities) and/or hide buttons completely. Of course, you used to be able to learn "any IR code anywhere." Is this still true?

Thanks!

This message was edited by mrbill360 on 10/27/05 00:45 ET.