I agree with most of the views expressed here: I'm very disappointed with my new RC9800i (which was highly praised in Issue 129 of Home Cinema Choice) for the following reasons:

1. There does not seem to be any way of incorporating cassette tape decks (I have a number of very good ones which do not have remotes);

2. I cannot get the device to power on/off my Denon DVD-A1XV/AVC-A1SR combination unless I leave the units in standby mode - very wasteful of power. What is the point of the RC9800i (which is not cheap) if it cannot deal with state-of-the-art equipment such as this? I can find no workable code to power on/off an admittedly old but excellent Yamaha CDX-10000 CD player (which does not have an on/off button on its remote);

3. No advice anywhere on how to treat a Freeview Humax digital box [I assume I can use Satellite input]. These have been around now for a few years, so there is no excuse!

The Philips Technical Support telephone helpline - for which one has to pay - was ABSOLUTELY HOPELESS. They had no answers to my questions (I suspect they were simply consulting a computer database), and simply suggested I search for help in Internet Forums such as this!! Why could we not contact an engineer who really knows something about the product?

I'd always had faith in Philips, but all this is giving the Company a very bad name. Have they just got too big for their boots?