I am also facing the same issue, I ending up using 1 battery pair in about a day ( remote gets used actively for 3-4 hours, and is left dormant the rest of the time )
Activity Led Timeout set to 0.5s, brightness 3% and the colored ring brightness set to 0, timeout 0.
Need a resolution for this ASAP else will have to ditch the remote, cannot pay for 1 pair of alkaline batteries a day.
Used up Duracell batteries ( 10 pieces ) in the last few days or use. Now planning to switch to rechargeable and test for a few days before deciding to return.
Really torn down by this, worked hard to get the Denon to work along with Jason. Now i can hardly use this remote.