Customer Reviews

Philips Pronto TSU3500 Home Theater Controller

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I love it !!! I had the orignal Pronto for at least 5 years and I would have never parted with it , but I dropped it. The new Pronto took alittle time to learn and has more manual buttons , then pure touchscreen buttons. Overall I recommend the Pronto for anyone that has more than 3 remotes for their home theater.

If you are looking for a quick fix to remote clutter for your HT, look elsewhere. We had the Chameleon before this and that was a waste of money, so we gulped and invested in a Pronto. If you are apt at programming via the PC interface, you will probably love this. The Pronto can be programmed for many choices in menus, contrast, individual users and on and on. We programmed it to control our home lighting via X10. It is not compatible with every flavor of cable box/PVR out there, but seems to work well with the mix of components in our HT set-up. This is a two-handed remote. Think of it as a peer of a Blackberry or expensive cell phone and treat it with care. Not reccommended for households with kids.

UPDATE: We bought the color model and it is much easier to use than the B&W version.

This is a great improvement over the TSU3000 which gave up the ghost (and has since come back). Programming is still a major project and finding codes for some devices impossible, but the results are worth the effort. This is not for the novice though. I had to start with professional services to do the initial programming and have done my own since, but am probably still missing some of the "cool" stuff. I haven't done any "pretty" layouts, just the basic buttons, but they work. Support has also been pretty good. They haven't had some answers I had to figure out myself, but they are available with reasonable wait times.

I really like this remote. Since it is totally programmable, I can make it do whatever I can think of. The programming software is very simple to use once you figure it out. Programming is time consuming and tedious, but once it's done this remote works great. I did not use any preset functions, I only used the learning functions from my other remotes. The best part is that the program saves your configuration, is easy to modify, and should something bad happen, no reprogramming will be needed.

This will be the last remote I buy.

I have 3 of these remotes and a TSU7500 color model and I would not trade my remotes for any other brand. This is a great remote for someone who wants to fully customize their home theater or whole house to control their lights, heating ang cooling system, drapes, and many other items. Just be warned! This remote is made to be programed by trained Home Theater professionals or someone with previous experience with the Pronto line. If you hire a local Home Theater professional it could cost anywhere from $150.00 and up to program this remote. So remember to figure that into the cost of the remote. On the other hand, if your willing to take the time to learn to program this remote you will not be disappionted. You can go to [...] and goto files and download many sample files that you can learn from and customize to fit your needs.

The remote is way too big to fit in one hand and the screen seems distorted. Maybe the color version is better, but this didnot look good at all. Programming is easy and this remote will do a lot, but one thing it didn't come with was the rf/ir extender and it has been discontinued for this remote, that's why I sent it back.

Other than having the touch screen fail on my older TSU 3000 units I hope this TSU 3500 will last longer ... gosh I love it (to death?)!

I rate it 4 stars not knowing it will outlive my expectations (3-5 years). Else I'd give it 5 stars. Problem is, if it does last, I will not remember to come back here and upddate this review ... sigh ...

Update 6-30-2009. It's still ticking ... no regrets ...

I'm on my second Pronto. The first one lasted about 5 years and just died one day. I've had the 2nd now for about 4 years and, until recently, worked great.

A long time ago I used to be a computer programmer and I quickly figured out how to write code for the pronto. Doing basic things isn't too complicated, but to really use the bells and whistles you need to devote some time to learning. One bright note is the software that you run on your PC is pretty easy to use and there's a good simulator so you can see what things look like before you upload to your Pronto.

Back to my current Pronto. They're built pretty well BUT the other day it fell off of the coffee table onto a tile floor face down. No, the screen didn't break, but now the row of buttons below the screen no longer work. Since I had these programmed to switch between various functions, the unit is pretty much useless.

So now the big decision. Get another Pronto (if you do the math, these things are costing me about $90 a year) or be a lemming and get the Logitech Harmony (for less than half the money). Decisions...decisions..decisions.

Bottom line - plan on investing hours and hours to learn the programming for this device - but it's worth the effort. Also, never ever drop it!

Update: OK, I got the Harmony 880. Much cheaper than the Philips but it doesn't have a touch screen. The good news on the Harmony was I set it up in no time at all - this is one seriously smart remote! The bad news on the Harmony - the buttons are kind of small but workable. Because there isn't a touch screen you can't have channel presets like you can with the Philips (e.g., touch HBO and the cable box automatically goes to channel 200). I didn't use the presets that often, but I will miss them. I think over time I'll find the Harmony easier to use. One thing I didn't like about a touch screen remote (the Pronto) was flipping back and forth between screens to complete a task because you can only put so much stuff on a screen. Yes, you can write "macros" and assign those to buttons but there are times where you have to actually enter something (like a channel number).

I've tried a LOT of universal remotes and keep coming back to the Pronto. Yes, the programming CAN be a little more complicated, but that's half the beauty of this product. Other remotes (like the Logitech Harmony) are hard-programmed with the keys and functions. Pronto allows to to define your own layout and cross-link devices (e.g. volume in DVD mode controls the television).

Remote works well. I spilled beer on the last one so I had to replace it. Best thing about the internet is that you can get anything at half the price than a retailer. I am happy with purchase.

By the way, hire a professional to program it. Don't waste your time on trying.