I've finally made up my mind to upgrade from my pronto TS1000 to a TSU7000. I've been searching the forums in a last ditch effort to find out anything I should know before I drop the cash.

My main question is: I've found a lot of threads talking about problems with the TSU3000 and how the firmware was supposed to fix it. What I havent seen is wether the TSU7000 had/has the same problems and if there has been a firmware release to fix said issues. I may be wrong but I'm under the impression that the TSU7k is the same thing and the 3k except for the obvious, color screen.

The thing I'm worried about the most is the reliability of the TSU7000. I dont call my TS1000 reliable because it locks up in the middle of operation somewhat frequently.

Also, can someone list or direct me to a thread on any known issues that the TSU7000 has.

Thank ya'll very much in advance,
Dave

The 7000 went through extensive beta testing which ruled out nearly every bug with it. The few minor bugs that remained have been greatly improved with several firmware upgrades. The only downsides would be we still do not have access to the full 32 megabytes of memory and some IR codes do not work as reliably after the last firmware upgrade. These are definately not deal breakers. This remote is amazing. I used my TSU2000 the other day while my 7000 was charging. It was very hard to read the screen after being used to the color. The only good thing about the 2000 is it sends macros much faster. The only reason I care about that is I have a macro that turns the volume of my reciever down to zero the 2000 only needs around 7 volume down commands to accomplish this. The 7000 would need 20 or 30 because of the built in delay between commands.

Again, none of these issues are dealbreakers. Just mild inconveniences. I say buy it. As for the thread with known issues you just need to keep searching, you will mostly find threads about the memory and lockups - which were fixed with the latest firmware.

Jon is correct, the 7000 has not been plagued by the problems of the 3000. Philips handled the 7000 very well. It went through an "extensive" 3 month beta test. For the first month, we had software only, then we got the remote. Both Peter Dewildt and I had over 150 bug/enhancement reports/requests. We put it through its paces and found many, many issues that were addressed early on by Philps.

The Pronto Engineering team listened and made enhancements when they made sense. Overall, the 7000 is an overwhelming success when compared to the 3000.

Hi there,
I got my ru-890 (ts-1000) replaced with the new tsu-7000 .......... Upgraded the firmware and have been using it for about 2 months now. NO PROBLEMS what so ever it`s great !!

Ronald

Thanks for the quick responses! That's what I was hoping to hear.

BTW, the 7000 does come with a docking station right?

Yes it does.

Perhaps the pcf files generated by other users is not as extensive as mine, but have had recently extensive download problems, which happens on large file to many in this forum for the TSU7000. Phillips has promised upgrades to activate an additional 16 MB of internal memory, and had not come through with their promise for the 3 quarter of this year yet.

The new firmware fixed many problems, but the download problem is real and is quite frustrating. If I had it to do over, I would probably purchase the new competetor, the MX-3000 which many are doing. Also Phillips is coming out with a new remote as well which has been recently announced on this web site, the RC9800i which I would give serious consideration to, however it is Philips which places into a similar class to the 7000.

There are no major bugs as far a reliability is concerned with the 7000. I'm generally happy with it except for the following complaints:

The buttons along the edge of the screen are a bit difficult to distinguish from one another, so it is difficult to use these 9 buttons without looking at the remote. This can be fixed by gluing pin heads to the top of the buttons (I read about it somewhere in this forum).

Two hard button presses are required to get some hard buttons to send commands. The first press wakes up the remote and the second sends the command. I've never seen a remote that doesn't send a command when a hard button is pressed, so I find this very annoying. The 6000 did not have this problem (although it was a little slow in this situation). I don't remember the 1000 having this problem either.

The button backlight does not automatically illuminate. As stated before, the buttons are a little difficult to distinguish from one another. The only way to illuminate the backlight is to press the button on the side of the remote. This is a slight annoyance in a dark room. The 6000 did not have this problem.

The pickup sensor can't be disabled. This is not a major deal but I did like having it turned off on my old remote. As you might have guessed, this was not an issue on the 6000.

So, since you didn't have a 6000, there are probably no missing features and you should be perfectly happy!

This message was edited by Carlton Bale on 09/14/04 10:06 ET.

It's funny you should mention that because that's been a concern of mine since I first saw this remote. I don't think it's a deal breaker though.


Thank you all for the honest opinions, I really appriceate it.

Archer was the one who posted this fix with pictures a while back in case anyone wants to search for it.

Here is the link to the post:
[Link: remotecentral.com]

Very clever

Well, I went ahead and bought a 7000 and spent all day today configuring it. So far I'm very happy with it. It's a huge improvement over the TS1000.

Hi all
I've finally made up my mind to upgrade from my pronto RU 940 to a TSU7000
I live in Switzerland and want to buy the TSU7000 instaed of the European RU 980 becouse the TSU 7000 including the shipping costs is almost less then half price
The only thing i can not figure out is the Charger you got shipped together with the TSU7000.
Can the North American powersupply deal with the European 220V Standard?
When not is this powersupply something standard without Chariging intelligence?
I am very happy when somebody who already own the TSU7000 can post it here.
Thanks in advance
zbee

I doubt that the transformer that comes with the 7k will handle 220V (my "electronic principles" training is a bit rusty). What you may be able to do though is buy a generic power supply designed for AC to DC voltage conversion (one that works for 220V or course). The kind they sell at walmart for powering you cell phone, portable cd player etc. I THINK the voltage that ends up being supplied to the docking station is 4.8VDC. I don't have a voltmeter accessible atm or else I'd check to be sure.

I'm, by no means, THE authority on this though. The factory 7k charger might work just fine using 220. I'm sure there's another member around here that knows for sure.