ElectroNext.com

Hugely under-rated universal remote (2009-12-27)
This is a brilliant remote!
How many remotes have infrared and wireless operation? This is one of the few, and nothing else comes close at this price.
After a bit of a learning curve for newbies, it is easy to program, and I have it controlling all of my devices PLUS my Itunes on my laptop media centre (with the additional PCX9200 USB dongle). The Itunes cover art even appears on the remote display! Awesome!
The size is nice for one-handed operation, the display clear, macro programming via PC is a snap and the rechargeable battery life seems excellent.
My only complaints would be a less than optimum layout and small size of some of the keys, and the rattle due to the internal tilt sensor (the remote turns on as soon as you pick it up).
It really surprises me that it isn't more popular.

Really wish it had worked. (2009-10-22)
For the price this seemed like a deal that was "too good to be true" . . . it was . . . I am very experienced with RTI and Nevo remotes, but had shied away from the touch-pad only Pronto because of its lack of hard buttons. I thought the new hard button Prontos looked promising, so, when I saw the Amazon price for the TSU9200, it seemed like the opportune time to try out my first one. Build quality was on par with other remotes in its price range (Harmony, URC). . . nice, but nothing great . . . the charger seemed a little bit finicky (you have to make sure that the remote is sitting properly which can get really annoying) . . .the gloss plastic seemd like a mistake, but since I never got to use it, I really can't say one way or the other. One thing I really appreciated . . . IT WAS NOT MADE IN CHINA!!!

The problem . . . I got two (2) defective remotes in a row . . . J&R (the actual seller) took about a week to swap the first one which had "locked-up" the first time I downloaded a configuration . . . there is no programmer master reset on the thing, so there was no way to fix it (talked to two different Pronto techs for about an hour each . . .they agreed that it was defective). After receiving the second remote, I loaded a much simpler configuration (just the control for one receiver) to make sure that the problem wasn't with the configuration . . . did exactly the same thing. Back it went for a refund.

I was really looking forward to trying-out a Pronto . . . disappointed. Went out the next day and got a new Nevo . . . couldn't be happier.

Soooooooooooooo Disappointed!!!!!!!!!!!!! (2009-08-27)
I purchased the TSU9200 and like many others previously had the Logitech Harmony. While researching new remotes, I came across the Philips TSU 9200, was impressed with the looks and the styling, and the description provided for the remote. Thought I would give it a try. I received the remote, downloaded the updated software and firmware and proceeded to program. Here is where the problems began. Could not find any of my codesets initially, so I went to the philips site (royal philips actually) and downloaded the new database code. Updated the remote and configuration and nothing would work. Keep getting configuration error. DAY 2- Try to reinstall everything back to its original status ginally get a watch tv program set up and realize that there is no way to switch to individual components. YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME. There are only controls for the macro watch tv. Cannot use tv volume only radio volume. This remote makes the harmony remote look fabulous. The cheapest harmony beats this by far, easier set up, larger and easily understandable code database, individual remote controls not just macros. I think I was wowed that I could get this for 190 bucks, instead of the 249 I paid for the harmony. Big mistake. I wish the harmony was not built as shabbily as it is, I would have bought another initially, now it looks like I will be going back anyway.

An initial review (2008-07-20)
I have been waiting and looking for reviews on this remote for some time but have been unable to find anything substantial so I just ordered it keeping in mind the hassle free returns I've had with amazon in the past.

I purchased this remote for my father-in-law and our primary reasons for doing so were the reputation of full customization Phillips has garnered for their pronto line of remotes and the ability to display music being played from a media center PC on the remote's LCD thus allowing the TV to remain off or for use in a separate room.

Thus far I've only spent a good hour or two with the remote and have not completed initial setup but wanted to give some preliminary insights to those who might like us be on the fence with this remote and its likely competitor the Logitech One.

This remote while dubbed a Pronto can really be considered a pronto-lite. The higher end Pronto remotes use a seperate piece of software called pronto edit while this one uses a brand new application called ProntoConfigurator which is more of a setup wizard. While still very powerful, the ProntoConfigurator is definitely suffering from initial release bugs which I hope will be fixed in subsequent updates. As an example some input boxes hide partially behind images and other parts of the form.

I'm certain that the idea behind going to a wizard based setup for the TSU9200 is to make the Pronto a little more end user accessible like the Logitech One (other Prontos are designed to be programed by a professional installer). To this end however I don't believe Phillips has been successful. I was rather disappointed with the very limited database of components found in the database. In fact of the devices it is intended to control, only the Windows Media Center PC and the Sony receiver were found. The Pioneer Elite Plasma and Motorola DVR/Cable box were not. The second area where the initial setup falls short of Logitech's is that while this is an activity based remote, when you assign components to perform an activity the automatically generated macro has very few steps in it, really just a sample and not nearly enough to actually perform the task. While I'm not really put off by this I offer it as fair warning to those just wanting a quick and easy remote setup.

Physically the remote is a beautiful product. The exterior is the currently popular gloss piano black and the LCD screen looks very nice and clear. This remote is not a touch screen and I'm actually glad of it as I haven't had good luck with button precision in the past on remotes that use them. On a small screen I've found it takes way longer to find an icon and correctly align your finger than to spin the cool dial on this remote to select it. The dial is also something I really like for quickly scrolling though lots of items displayed on the LCD.

I have not yet gotten to the stage of setup where I am able to review the features of this product which actually compelled its purchase, however I will post back here for you all as soon as I can.

Awesome design, great effort, but still falls short! (2008-07-18)
My Harmony 880 remote died recently due to the infamous battery charging issue. Anyways, as I was researching a replacement for the 880, I came across the Philips TSU9200. First impressions were "Wow, this a stunning piece of equipment!". It also had all of the features I was looking for, i.e. activity based commands, ability to learn new IR commands, customizable (more on this later), rechargeable battery, and reasonable price. I was excited when I received the remote. Aesthetically, it is a truly a beautiful remote (kudos to the designer)! My research had told me that there was some legwork to be put in to get the remote to work properly, but I didn't realize how much. So, I loaded the Pronto Configurator, the software that you use to configure the device and connected the remote to my computer via the USB connection. Similar to the Harmony 880, there is a default device database. I entered my equipment in - most of my equipment was found in the database, except for, ironically, my Philips DVP-5960 DVD player. I started setting up my activities... I really like the 'Test' function in the software that let's you test the remote commands with the remote still connected to the computer. I recommend, if you are configuring this remote, to connect it to a computer that is close your equipment or to a laptop. I had a little trial and error since not all of the default codesets are tied to a descriptive equipment name as with the Harmony remotes (i.e. instead of 'ReplayTV 5504', I had to figure out that it was 'ReplayTV: Codeset 0643'). Of course, I also misplaced my Philips DVD remote. The Philips DVD player codeset was nearly impossible to find. I searched for about an hour for a suitable codeset. Nothing on the Philips Pronto site. I finally found a usable set on remotecentral.com but I had to extract it out of an existing CCF configuration file - that was time consuming. Ok, so I get it configured to a point where I think the remote will function properly. The update of the remote is really quite quick - much faster than the Harmony process. I click on the 'Watch TV' activity that I've set up, great, TV turns on, ReplayTV turns on, Tuner works, Inputs switched. Next, I click on the 'Watch DVD' activity, DVD turns on, TV input doesn't switch right from Component to HDMI. Ok, no biggie. But, I notice that the ReplayTV is still on! I expected it to shut the ReplayTV off and turn on the DVD player, just like my Harmony used to do. Hmmm, ok, I re-hookup the remote to my computer. A little research later.... oh, my DVD player, ReplayTV, CD player, and cable set top box only have a Power Toggle option that defaults for the equipment - not a Power On and Power Off action. For those of you who are used to your remote switch from activity to activity while shutting down the previous activity, this is a problem. Since a Power Toggle cannot determine the state of the equipment, i.e. whether it is currently turned on or turned off, if you are switching from activity to activity, the remote won't be able to effectively turn on/off your equipment. It's not as simple as clicking on 'Device' as you would with the Harmony remote, selecting the device, and clicking on a Power action. You need to set all that up as well! Ok, I'm thinking, there must be discrete codes for Power On and Power Off for my equipment somewhere on the internet. I spent 3 hours locating the discrete codes for the majority of my equipment, downloading hex editors, hex converters, CCF disassemblers, sorting through CCF configuration files, testing and retesting. I still don't have it the way I'd like it configured. And the missing discrete codes for some of my equipment almost makes it impossible for this remote to function properly!! I'm sure I could spend another night to figure out how to make it all work, but what happened to ease of use? I miss my one-click Harmony, click 'Watch TV', my TV comes on, ReplayTV on, Tuner on, I flip over to 'Watch DVD', my ReplayTV shuts down, my DVD turns on, I hit 'Power Off', everything shuts off.

5 hours later of fiddling with this thing, I'm on the verge of returning it and just getting another Harmony 880. Bottom line, the remote is very nicely designed from an aesthetic standpoint. The software is intuitive, fairly flexible. The programming logic (or lack thereof) will make this remote challenging to set up correctly (i.e. the remote doesn't remember your previous activity and knows what state your equipment is in so that when you select another activity, it can determine which devices it needs to turn on/off). The seemingly impossible to find discrete codes that make this remote usable was an utter disappointment. If your equipment doesn't support discrete codes, at least for Power On and Power Off, I think you are going to have some real problems using this remote.