I'd like to say a big thanks to Philips for allowing me to test the 9600 and the 9400 extender. I spent lots of time analyzing many problems. I'm very happy to report that I had no issues installing/uninstalling software. Furthermore, the software is very solid (built on the PPENG foundation). I had no UAE (unrecoverable application errors) to speak of during the entire test. Lowpro, Peter, myself, and several others whom I got to know via telephone this past month worked really hard to get a good product to you folks out of the gate.
I firmly believe that Philips is committed to building on this platform going forward. They were very open to suggestions during beta testing.
Here's something really cool. I have my own home-brew media server that I've been using for a few years and controlling with SuperNudelist. But, the TSU9600 supports Escient Music servers. Could I make my media server look like an Escient?
I downloaded the Escient protocol document from the Escient Website and implemented this protocol first in a test Java program (which has been sent to Philips for further testing of the Escient Interfaces) and then finally in my Visual Basic Media Server with an Access database.
What's really WAY COOL is that my Media server now talks to my 9600 as if it were an Escient Fireball and serves up jacket pictures. The only thing I had to do outside of my Media Server program was to install IIS or other suitable webserver to serve up jackets to the 9600 as the remote downloads jackets via http.
I look forward to the future for this remote. I personally found the extra firm key to be a big help, along with a hard Power button.
I've dropped hints along the way about having to redo graphics. For you 6000/7000 owners, plan to redo all of your graphics as they are not resized on import. Also, you will want to monitor the Philips website as they will be opening up an FAQ page with lots of good info.
