So I am trying to use just one remote to control everything. The remote controls the T.V. just fine. All I care about is turning the Z-5500's on and off and volume up and down.

I looked through a previous thread and tried what they suggested. It just made the Z-5500's power button "blink", but didn't actually turn it on or off.

Anyone have any other suggestions?

It would have helped if you had provided a link to the "previous thread", so we could tell if we are offering something different. Assuming you are referring to this thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=915014), I have a slightly different suggestion.

In that thread Kupakai said that the protocol is NEC1 device 8, subdevice 8. I think it is actually NEC1 device 8 with no subdevice. So instead of using 11958, use 11523. (Anyone trying this with a different UEI manufactured remote which takes 4 digit setup codes, use TV/1523 instead. Also replace AUX with TV in the below instructions.)

Use the following instructions that I have copied and edited/corrected from post #7 of that thread:

First set AUX to 11523. [press AUX, hold setup until two blinks, and enter 11523. You should see two confirmatory blinks.]

Press and release SETUP and then point the remote to the speaker's ir sensor and type 44533 on the remote's keypad. When you press the last digit, the speaker should power on or off. If that works (try a couple of times if it doesn't work, just to make sure you typed the numbers correctly and in time), you can program that and other functions on the AUX mode by doing the following:

For example to program the power function:

1. Press and release AUX
2. Press and hold SETUP until the remote blinks twice
3. Type 994
4. Press and release SETUP
5. Type 44533
6. Press and release POWER

The remote should blink twice and now power should work. For the other functions repeat steps 2-6 using the advanced code below in step 5 and pressing the key you want to assign the function to in step 6.

Test 61637 5
Power 44485 16
Direct 28613 10
Optical 29637 11
Coax 27845 12
Effect 12485 29
Settings 12997 31
Sub + 62405 3
Sub - 61893 1
Center + 61381 2
Center - 61125 6
Surround + 60869 0
Surround - 60613 4
Volume + 12229 26
Volume - 28357 14
Mute 44741 22
I have checked the original file as uploaded into a Comcast remote, and confirmed that the above 44485 for power gives the same IR signal as the original, so these codes "should" work. Let me know.

ETA: Link showing the above codes work (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1291853)