11/26/10 UPDATE: I have noticed over the past couple of months that even with fresh batteries, the buttons require a firmer push for the remote to respond. Put another way, like many of Denon's recent products, it was designed to be brilliant, but only for a short time. Deducted 1 Star for that.
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I absolutely love this thing...It makes working my system so much easier! I would have paid the $300 MSRP for it eventually, but when it went on sale for $207, I had to have it. As far as I'm concerned, it wipes the floor with other remotes at any price.
STRENGTHS
Has hard, (i.e., not touchscreen), transport keys. Touchscreen remotes typically make a cumbersome, menu-driven, insanely-annoying multi-step "process" of SIMPLE TASKS like Play, Stop, Back, Fast-Forward, etc. On the other hand, most remotes that do have hard transport keys still heavily emphasize the menu navigation keys, with the transport keys seeming like an afterthought. The 7000's transport keys are logically placed with respect to one another, making use convenient as it should be.
Just about every button can be programmed/customized.
Warns you when batteries are getting low.
Gloss black remote with blue backlighting wins high marks for wife approval.
WEAKNESSES
Software freezed my computer up considerably more frequently than most software.
Learning function sometimes required several attempts for it to take. Fresh batteries, and experimentation with several lighting scenarios did not yield better results.
I have relatively skinny fingers and still find the buttons to be a bit small, particularly the fast-wind and previous/next buttons.
A dedicated backlight button would have been icing on the cake.
I'm on my 2nd one. The backlighting didn't work on the first, right out of the box.