If you've already got a 360 and at least a 720p HDTV then this is a worthwhile purchase. Owning a 360 and viewing the HD content from gametrailers, movie trailers, and actual games themselves running in HD has made it really hard for me to watch standard def video feeds anymore. I've become spoiled. The King Kong movie that shipped with the HD Drive looks amazing. Mind you, I don't have a 1080p set either so I can just imagine what is possible here. Right now I'm running a 50" Sony HD LCD Projection TV and I'm loving every minute of the HD-DVD offerings that are out right now. The pack-in remote is nothing to right home to mom about though. Its the large remote thats been availble since the system launch but if you have a HT system then you probably already have a superior remote that can handle all your gear. Remote isn't really a selling point. The unit seems to work flawlessly and was a snap to install. The M$ company line is "its all about choice" because they couldn't build the HD-DVD drive in at launch but I'm glad they ended up having to go this route because I doubt I'd spent $600 on the system at that time. It was much easier for me to pay the $400 at system launch and enjoy probably a dozen games before the HD-DVD drive hit at an affordable price. Bottomline, this unit is a *buy*.

Can you use another universal remote to control the Xbox 360?

I have a Sony RM-3000 (I think thats the model) touchscreen programmable remote that works fine. Pretty much any learning remote should work. I just taught my remote all the buttons that where on the 360 remote including the ABXY buttons with no problems.

Interesting... because Microsoft doesn't allow 3rd party manufacturers to create wireless controllers. But if your remote is able to learn the signals, couldn't a 3rd party make a wireless controller that does the same thing? Maybe the analog buttons would be too difficult to learn properly. It would be cool though, especially if someone made a 3-in-1 remote that worked with the 360, PS3 and Wii.

I see where you're going but the remote isn't wireless like bluetooth, its only IR like regular remotes. Since the XBOX 360 remote has the ABXY and guide buttons on it which it sends via IR then the remote can learn them.

Ah, so the 360 has its own wireless protocol. But it also has the IR port that can detect the ABXY-Guide signals. I'm sure the triggers and and analog sticks don't have signals that go through the IR port.