Jsattv,
FileZIlla and MaZEdit 3.0 are still viable programs, and they are both still important at this time. Continue using them, but keep in mind that there are advancing steps that are going to improve and help us here. While you seek out these other new programs and dabble with them, you may continue to use what you have learned thus far and be just fine. But down the road a piece, you will want to start increasing your exposure to these other programs. It's a fast paced rate of change, for sure. You'll do fine as one step builds on the other, so it is not a huge untertaking all at once and most of the programs are just the same thing with a couple of new twists. That is just how this hobby goes, so get acquainted with it now.
The story behind this all is that the AZBox editors and AZBox control center programs have now been upgraded/revisioned and many of the original "bugs" have been worked out. These programs are now fairly reliable and mostly glitch free. This is a great step in the positive direction for us AZBox owners.
The next point, which is extremely valuable to us, is that the ACC (or AZBox Control Center) program does something automatically that would have required us to perform manually through a myriad of steps using TelNet codes to access the backup files in a normally "read-only" location within the AZBox.
This step would require you to send specific LINUX commands using the TelNet service of MaZEdit. First, you have to make the read-only area where the back up files are stored "writable", then send your files to it, then make it read-only once again. The ACC program does this automatically for us now.
Simply backing up those three files with MaZEdit was the simplest measure to secure your channel and satellite list before, but it didn't alter the resident backup files within the AZBox, so that is why the European and Asian sat lists would keep popping back in if you did any format and restore procedures.
Now, we can rewrite the channel list and sat list to our liking and always ensure that it remains there (for the most part anyhow - there are still some issues with satellites playing musical chairs, but the foreign sat list won't pop back in on us).
It still isn't totally perfect as no one of these programs (AZBoxEdit, ACC or MaZEdit) can do everything on its own. Each program has its own forte.
The AZBoxEdit 2880 program is very good for actually editing/deleting/adding satellites, transponders and channels to your list, but it doesn't do so well in the transfer department.
The MaZEdit program is simple to utilize and you can transfer files fairly easily with it, but it is lame as an an editor.
The ACC program has the perk of being able to rewrite the backup files resident in the AZBox automatically when you send the files over, whereas the other two programs can't touch this area without doing it in a lengthy process that is a bit confusing to most.
Now, I understand the apprehension regarding learning a new program, but trust me, if you feel fairly confident with MaZEdit, you will pick these other programs up with a breeze. They are simple and straightforward and not much different than MaZEdit.
There is a purpose to our madness here.

I think that eventually we will be able to accomplish everything we desire with ONE program. But, currently, we don't have that luxury. For the most part, each program is being developed separately in order to specialize on one task or area and do it well. I am hopeful that when these programmers get their individual projects perfected, they will merge them somehow into one program.
The author of the AZBoxEdit and the ACC is "TELESAT". I am not certain that this an individual, a group of programmers or a company, but watch for good things from this source in the future.
I hope that this helps clarify some of the details about the multiple programs for you and makes it less confusing as to why we are using multiple programs.
Heck, even the Coolsat 5000 required more than one program to edit the channel lists, and that was a very simplistic box compared to the AZBox. Fortunately, all the programs we require are FREEWARE.
I would truly LOVE to see SharpC come out with a version of ChannelMaster that would handle the AZBox files. Now THAT would be GREAT!
RADAR