I've had my
MX-500 for well over a year and a half now, and I'm very fond of it. In my system, I have the M1 button set to turn on the TV and cable box, switch the 950 to the cable input (which also turns the 950 on), and set the remote to the cable box controls. The M3 button turns the 950's second zone on and off, while the System Off button turns the TV, cable box, and 950 off. (The "System Off" and "Power" buttons at the top of the remote can also store macros.) The device buttons do not have macros assigned to them. Instead, the buttons are programmed to switch the 950 to the appropriate input. I haven't had a need to store macros on those buttons, partly because those macros only activate if the device button is held down for at least 1 second - something that other users of the remote would rarely remember to do. If there were macros that I needed and nobody else cared about, I would put them on the device buttons, but I haven't had the need.