Philips TSU9200 shipping yet?

I purchased one from buy.com over a month ago, I was checking several sites daily.

Overall, the remote is decent enough, perhaps a bit pricey for what it does so far.

Philips support on the other hand, is abysmal at best. A month before I purchased it I sent an email asking about Vista x64 compatibility for the 'Pronto Configurator' application. It is Vista ready, but the Pronto Dashboard crashes immediatly after starting in Vista x64. I sent another request for information several weeks later. It is not a deal breaker by any means, but certainly a response is warranted on this issue for a $250 remote. Not a single effort has been made to contact with a response. Not even an automated system reply from the web-based support submission system!

After programming the remote for my components I ran into an issue with channel numbers. As most of you know digital channels, especially HD, have numbers like 5.1, 117.1067, etc. When programming the 'Favorites' function of the remote with channel icons, you enter thier respective channel numbers. Unfortunately the remote does not send the " . ". So channel 4.1 (ABC HD in my area) get sent as 41. I contacted support on the phone about this and the guy, although very friendly, was fairly clueless about the software. Ultimately he asked for my phone number and said someone would call me back with an answer. That was weeks ago.

I'll post more information once a dedicated thread is created and some feedback from other users is available.

I've just got mine setup. I also have a harmony 676 but I think I wore the buttons out.

Compared to setting up a harmony it was a hassle because I couldn't find my components in the database. Learning was quick and easy but the only way I could get discrete codes like "power off" instead of "power toggle" was by using the harmony - I think you can paste the hex codes in somehow though. Overall the setup wasn't too bad.

I generally find it a pleasure to use. The one thing that bugs me is that the directional buttons (actually one ring) are pretty close to the scroll wheel. Other than that the buttons feel good and intuitive.

The real reason I got the remote is to use it to play music with the pcx9200 so hopefully that will ship soon. I'm guessing the software isn't done because I haven't seen any detailed instructions and don't believe it is even downloadable yet.

The sotware was available for d/l before I purchased my remote, in Feb. I think.

Still have not heard anything whatsoever from Philips other than an email marketing the two accessories for this remote.

Even a lousy, uninformed, poorly written email would be better than silence.

The software has been updated once already, but only to facilitate two more products they want you to buy. Not a single bug fix or improvement.

Considering the experience so far, the very late release of every product from every line they sell, and consistent marketing hype for several product lines that has not once come to fruition, this will most certainly be my last Philips product purchase.

I'm referring to the software for the pcx9200. Considering the functionality of these two devices is rare if not non-existent at this price, and assuming it works as advertised, I will be happy to wait a few more months.

As to your problem with favorites I noticed that the manual specifically mentions that you can use '.' and '-' in the channel field. While it doesn't affect me I hope they fix it soon especially because it is in direct conflict with the manual.

I wonder if the '.' and '-' characters need to be called something specific in the database. Maybe check that your device has it named the same as in the template files.

I also have been trying to contact Philips with some pre-sales questions about this remote, and have not received a reply. Maybe those of you with one in hand can answer:

- Does the US version have the four colored (teletext) buttons, and are they user-programmable?
- Any limitations on macro length?
- Can the media-more-fav-home buttons be programmed or included in macros?
- Has anyone used this remote with the rf extender yet? Any problems?

Thanks,
David

Yes and yes.


Not programmable but can be used in macros.

I just got my pcx9200 and am a bit disappointed. This may be a VMC problem but it is impossible to play long playlists (could be any playlists mine are all long). I had problems creating playlists (actually the "add to queue" button) in VMC in that it would take a long time once a few albums were added.

When trying to play a playlist through the remote media screen everything would freeze up. I then noticed that even playing the playlist through VMC while this software was running and the remote wasn't even connected created problems. VMC reported unknown errors then the entire music library became unavailable until I restarted VMC. During this about 6 mediacontrol (pcx9200 software) icons where shown in the taskbar as if the program kept crashing and restarting.

Another frustrating problem is that no changes to the configuration are possible. The program simply says something like "failed to save changes". I had to reinstall the program to try controlling WMP instead of VMC. Luckily this seems to have fixed the playlist problem as I can play the same playlist now. This solution is not ideal though - it would be much nicer to use VMC all the time.

Another problem encountered with both VMC and WMP is that when the program is launched it is not responsive for 10 to 15 minutes - yes minutes! Trying to access it through windows the program says something like "Mediacontrol operation in progress" and trying to connect with the remote brings up a "connecting to PC...." dialogue.

Also the range is only about 20ft which is about 3ft shorter than I was hoping for. This is with the receiver connected to a hub away from any interference.

Yes all in all quite disappointing. I will probably end up uninstalling the software and throwing it in the bin but still want to give it a chance.

Oh one more thing, album art displayed fine with VMC but no album art with WMP.

Edit: A couple more observations. The mediacontrol software has an unfortunate method of sorting music. When choosing an album with more than one artist it will first order the songs by artist then track number rather than just track number. This really makes DJ albums un-listenable.

Also the connection to the PC is stopped when the screen turns off. So if you want to stop the music or skip to the next track the screen will turn on and the connection re-established. Depending how close you are to the rf receiver this can take up to a few seconds.