It is either off all the time or on all the time.

True it's on/off all the time, but you can also dim it. My husband likes it on at full bright, because it looks ,....gaget-ie (I guess) I get tired of the electronic light pollution around the house. Too much blue/green/red/orange glowing everywhere and turn it down or off.

I have the panamax 3500 also. It seems to do its job. I recomend it. Once reason I bought it was too much invested in new pieces and the regularity of storms here and power (not just brownouts) but just the grid in the neighborhood bouncing on/off line. Had a week recently where I lost power from 2 to 20 min. 2-3 times a day for 3 days in calm weather.

One thing that attracted me to this unit was its all-in-one since I was in a hurry. Some solutions offered do not include antenna in. You have two on the 5300. If you run all 3 (cable,OTA,satelite) you'd be short one. I run OTA and satelite only. (A big backdoor you leave open if you don't protect your coaxial lines also).