I can seem to get the macro to work consistently,
someone mentioning about increasing the repeat and uncheck the "repeat while pressed"
I tried that ( in IR Data setting) but they keep getting back to 1 and re-check the "repeat while pressed"

Can anyone help?

I am trying to program the mx-980 to work regularly ( with macro etc) as I am still waiting for the starter kit for my msc400

This thing seem more time consuming than programming mx-950 or even mx-3000

You have to go to each of your power on and off buttons (and sometimes even the various inputs) IR codes itself, double click the IR that shows up in the macro window and then uncheck the "Repeat While Button Is Pressed" box and this will increase by 3 times the number of repeats that each command sends. You can also increase the repeat to what ever you want. But I have found that just unchecking that box will make your macros work. But you have to do it for each button in your macro that is a power on or power off or input switch.
You are right about the programing possibilities of this remote. You could literally spend weeks programing one. How do you charge for that?