Hi... Slowly but surely I'm getting this great unit set-up but I just ran into another problem.
I have my Pioneer Elite Amp set-up and on the on-screen display of the 2500 it has video, tuner, cd, dvd, etc.... but what it doesn't have is "Amplifier" which is on my original remote. Once I press Amplifier (on my original remote) there are different keys for selecting Dolby digital, THX, etc.
I assume I need to "teach" the 2500 this.. but I'm not sure how to do it. What key on the 2500 to I press to teach to be "amplifier"? Then, assuming I am able to that, which keys on the 2500 do I teach to act as Doly digital, THX, etc?
Thnaks as always for the help...

You can teach to any key you want to. You should pick out some unused keys, in a convenient configuration, and learn the missing commands on them. Unfortunately, there are no titles for what you want to learn, so you will just have to remember, or write down, what you learned and where.

I am assuming that the Amplifier key on your Elite remote is just a shift key, and doesn't send a signal, so press it, then put the 2500 in learn mode, press the key of your choice on the 2500, and then press the key(s) you want to teach to the 2500 from the Elite remote, and you should be able to learn the signals.

When you speak of "teaching any key" are you referring to the keys in the middle of the 2500 i.e., arrows, ok, volume, channel, system control (a,b,c.) etc., and not referring to the the keys on the "touchscreen display" as well as the bottom two rows of the componenet keys?
I believe you are correct that the amplifier key on my remote probably doesn't send a signal as nothing changes on my receiver when I press it. All it does is allow me to use the four keys on my remote to select the A/V mode (THX, Dolby Digital, stereo, etc.)
I first tried to Teach the Amplifier key to the "ok" button on my 2500 - but this didn't work, but what is interesting and a bit confusing for me is that I then taught the 4 arrow keys (surrounding the ok key) on my 2500 to learn the four modes on my receiver remote - This worked... and now whenever I select my compnent to Amp, I can use the arrow keys to select one of the four modes - which is great - just what I wanted.. but where I get confused is I have no way of letting my 2500 know I want to be in the "amplifier" mode - yet somehow it doesn't matter. If I use my AMP remote, it won't let me select any of the four modes unless I first press "amplifier" -
I'm not complaining - I'm so happy it works - I would juts feel better if I knew why...
Thanks for all your help..

I can see where you might be confused because of the terminology used. I am used to calling everything a “key”, but I should have used the terms that the 2500 manual uses, and you wouldn’t be so confused.

When I said “any key”, I meant any key or button. You can teach every square LCD touch key on any screen, and also the hard buttons, except for More, Light, and Commander Off. This means you can teach a command, if you wanted to, to any of the component buttons, the system control buttons, plus all the other hard buttons (except as noted), as well as the keys on the touch screen display. You should have been able to teach to the OK key also. It sounds like you may have already learned a command on that key, so you can delete the learned command and learn something else, if you want to.

The AMP key on the Elite remote is used to tell the REMOTE, not the receiver, that you want to select a mode. Since you have already taught the infrared commands to the 2500 by pressing the keys on the Elite remote after pressing AMP, you can directly access the modes without having to press the AMP key, which you couldn’t have learned anyway because it doesn’t emit an infrared command.

Clear?

Very clear - Thanks so much.. Sony should hire you to write their manual....
A few other questions...
I have programmed my A,B and C System control buttons to follow a series of commands; I noticed in the manual these series of commands can also be done on the "component select buttons". Is there any advantage of using either nethod over the other? Which is preferable?
I have a remote control for my ceiling fan/lights but it doesn't appear to be infrared so I am correct in assuming the 2500 cannot learn it? (I don't know know how it transmits as I don't have to even point the remote at the fan/lights for it to work)..
To use the 2500 on another TV and DVD (in another room) can this be done? Since I haven't used the M1 and M2 component keys - would I substitute those two for the other tv and dvd??
As always, thanks for all your help and patience from a non-gadget oriented person...

Whether you use the system buttons or the component buttons is a matter of choice. The main problem with using a component button is that the macro will always end on that component, where in a system macro you can make it end on any component you want by pressing that component button last when making the macro. Also, when you put a macro on a component button, you have to hold the button for two seconds to execute the macro.

I have never seen a ceiling fan that wasn’t RF. Put your hand over the front of the remote and send a signal. If it works it is RF and you can’t teach it to the 2500.

You can put anything you want to on any component button. When you assign the preset code, the first digit determines what device it is, so you don’t have to do any changing.

You were right about the ceiling fan being RF, thus not able to teach the 2500.
I believe I have everything programmed and working correctly (thanks to you)with just just one last function I am having trouble with.
Previously you explained how to Teach my Pioneer Elite amp to learn how to select the various modes (THX, Dolby digital, etc.)which I setup on the four arrow keys in the Amp. mode. This works great. However, I would like to have this same ability to select those same modes while in the TV mode so I don't have to constatntly switch from TV to AMP in order to change the modes. I searched through the manual and can find a few references to what I want to do... but either I'm not looking in the right section or am doing something wrong. In a nutshell, I want to copy the four commands (using the four arrows) in AMP mode.. so that I can use those same four arrows doing the same function while in the TV mode...
Is this possible? Thanks so much..

Why copy the commands when you can just teach them the same way you taught the first set to your AMP page?

This is easier than using the Alias feature, and if you ever changed the arrow keys on your AMP page for some reason, the ones on the TV page would no longer work. The Alias feature is primarily designed for people who want to copy a preprogrammed command to another screen, or people who learned a command but no longer have the original remote to learn from.

You were correct - It worked...
For some reason I was thinking a component select button i.e., TV could only "learn" from my TV remote (my logic was that since it (The Tv button) was initiallly programmed for my TV, other components could not use that button), but I have since Taught the TV button from my AMP remote...
THanks for the info as I was thinking I was going to have to try and figure out how to use the Alias function..
Many thanks for all your help... I think I'm all set..... for now...