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Original thread:
Post 13 made on Friday June 8, 2007 at 23:53
Lawry
Lurking Member
Joined:
Posts:
June 2007
1
On December 7, 2005 at 12:22, dhallag said...
This is what I sent to Philips customer support... I
know many of you have the same complains but I just wanted
to add my two cents...

I am one of your contest winners and now that I have been
using your remote non-stop for over 24 hours, I would
like to make a few comments and ask a few questions (please
be aware that I am currently using pronto sbc ru950):

Great Things about the remote:
1. Style: the look and feel of this remote is awesome!
2. streaming is a wonderful feature. I love that I can
listen to my MP3's AND view photos from my server.
3. Setup -- your setup wizard is a great idea and helps
make an easier setup
4. Activity based flow -- I also love this idea as this
is how i make my decisions on how and what to watch
5. Included TV guide is also very nice
6. Ability to upgrade firmware and software on unit
7. Through your navigation, you have solved a lot of
my power on/off discrete code issues that I have with
my current remote. This is very good!

The following are some things that would make an overall
medium remote a much better remote. For a $400 remote,
I am actually very dissapointed that these features are
not included (please feel free to comment and/or correct
me on the below):

Networking and UPnP use:
1. The screen resolution should be better for viewing
pictures. The pictures I can view are choppy and sometimes
hard to make out
2. The fact that the wireless hardware is based on 802.11b
and not 802.11g is very confusing to me. Now, I have
to use mixed mode in my wireless network which has DRASTICALLY
brought down my overall wireless network speed. This
would've made your wireless users a million times happier
as 802.11g is faster AND has longer range. I also use
a laptop to view movies on my server AND now I am having
major problems getting a smooth picture.
3. Better internal speakers and a headphone jack
4. Ability to sort the lists in folders AND ability to
customize different levels of filters. For example, I
would like to navigate folders like this: Music -- Generes
-- Artist and/or Album -- list of music. OR have some
group my functions within the displayed lists
5. List viewing: the fonts are too big which doesn't
allow you to see the entire name of the song. This can
be fixed by having a different screen layout and having
the option of decreasing the font
6. Autoscrolling of pictures. Although there is a play
button, you have to manually scroll thought the directory
of pictures. It would be nice if it autoscrolled by a
user defined number of seconds between pictures.
7. MP3 quality -- the quality could be better. Of course
this is related to the speed of wireless network -- no
802.11g!?
8. In your documentation, you should suggest using QoS
for wireless networking
9. No video streaming?!

Remote Navigation and Setup of Audio/Video equiptment:
Overall, a lot of work needs to happen here. My impression
is that if you have a very basic system without many units
to control, this will work only OK. My $100 Pronto SBC
RU950/00 works much better.

1. Large issue: Users should have the ability to add
activities. Through your activity based navigation, I
cannot get to many activities that I do: listen to tape,
DAT, phono, and others. To get around this, I have to
navigate through back to the individual device control
which is 7 or 8 different screens just to change the input
to TAPE or just to press the sleep button or just to press
the record button, or just to navigate through present
radio stations.
2. Large Issue: Cannot customize screens. You force
me to show buttons that I don't need or use, then page
though to find buttons I philips thinks I need, ultimately
missing functions/buttons that I need and use. Along
with that...
3. Large Issue: No ability to change/add/remove buttons
to screens. There are many buttons I use daily that I
have to navigate back to the individual device control
which forces me to go though 6, 7, or 8 different screens
just to press one button. There are many functions that
I use which are not available. If you are going to force
me to display buttons I don't need, at least let me change
the name of them. I know I can learn over functions,
but who wants to press or can remember the button "menu
off" is really to change the input to TAPE? Along with
that...
4. No macro setup. Don't really know how large of an
issue this is based on activity based flow. But because
you cannot add activities, the ability to assign simple
macros would be extremely helpful.

Other:
1. No PC setup or PC save configuration. What happens
if this crashes or I forget to charge for a long period
of time?


My overall impression is very mixed. Unfortunately, based
on the above, I will still be using my older pronto until
a firmware version that can come out to address some of
the above: I just find myself having the navigate back
to the individual device control way to many times. Additionally,
this unit hasn't passed the wife test. MP3 listening
and picture viewing is great... when watching TV or listening
to media on my system, my wife has to ask me a million
times how to do "x, y, and z." It just doesn't make sense
to have to navigate through 6-8 screens just to press
one button that's on the origianal remote AND it doesn't
make sense where a button labeled "menu off" is actually
change input to tape. I eventually wind up using the
control screens in the individual device control for all
my device control which this is unit is really not designed
to do that, and because I cannot add buttons, there are
just things I do a lot which I will never be able to do
on this remote.

Your comments and corrections would be greatly appreciated.
I would be more than happy to talk to someone directly
on this.

The concept and idea is fantastic; just allow us to add
activities, change screen layout, change/add/remove/create
buttons, and save setup to PC, and you will have yourself
a winner!

Thanks in advance for listening.

You're right ,my friend ,and your review seems to be a very..."A to Z" one. It is (maybe ?) just because our expectations from a company like Philips ?The idea that this RC is built with it in mind is realy generous but let's don't forget that ,in fact, is nothing more than an Universal RC that has some extended features.
For shore it's doing its main purpose - to act ,mainly, as an Universal RC - and I like to think that is doing this on the best posible way. Unfortunately, all I can do on this moment is just to discuss "off hands" about this RC because I don't own one yet.
I'm currently looking for a such "gadget" - targeting a Philips one ( maybe just because all my electronics are Philips ) - and I'm still oscillating between some models like: SBCRU 960 , SBCRU 990 , RC 9800i and ,of course, the last "born" the TSU 9600. There are a few weeks since I've started my "research" for the "best posible for money" Philips Universal RC and still hard to take a decision yet. On the other hand, still a hard deal to find one within NZ market - looks like the NZ Philips retailers are realy scared to "jump" out of the crowd ( as long as all that they can offer is just a range of Univ.RC with very basic features ) - but if you realy find one the prices are almost prohibitive. All in all , after I will decide which one is the most appropriate for my needs and pockets my attention wiil go to an US , European or any other suitable "On-line Philips Dealer". I will appreciate your help and advice in order to get the best Philips Univ.RC for the money .

Thanks in advance,
Lawry

P.S. You can contact me at : [email protected]


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