I too am royally pissed!!!! This is completely unacceptable. I may be able to get an authorization code (I hope), but no one should have to go through that trouble... especially if they are willing to or already have done their certification through Philips. I've been programming these remotes for almost 10 years. All Philips has done is discourage a lot of potential sales of their products. What are they thinking!

Scott

This is insane. I have been a Pronto user form many, many years and have steered a number of other people in the same direction (some do there own programming, others have it done for them).

I am based in Canada and have bought both through the US and in Canada, but my Canadian reseller normally has nothing to do with Pronto. In Canada we need to contact our distributor and they don't sell direct, so I don't have much confidence that I will be able to get a code.

In addition, this website and a number of those in this particular section have helped with product development either collectively or as individuals - now these contributions are recognized by ignoring what has been a strong supporting group. Wow!

this just blows.

What a timing! I got level 2 certified a month ago or so and after reading some preliminary encouraging info about tsu9300 potentially having some scripting support enabled when PEP3 is released, I bought one yesterday from B&H :)

I doubt B&H will have the registeration code for me - they say the model is 'discontinued'. Well, one good thing is that I can at least return the panel with no restocking fee.

I think this is ridiculous. Like several posters, I am a home hobbyist & Level 1. I purchased my most recent Pronto (TSU9400) online from a store that has since gone under. This was my second Pronto after my old TSU3000 took too many shots to the tile floor. The reason I chose Pronto again, and the reason I have recommended and programmed friends' Prontos is their ability for customization & programmability. Now I cannot even get firmware updates or new ProntoEdit software without a code from some 3rd party I have never dealt with? Unreal...

I've just mailed my local distributor. I'll give them a couple of days to reply. If they don't then I suppose I'll have to mail the Pronto Team and ask what what I should do.

I too was hoping to do the Level 2 exam. How do you become a Pronto Professional without access to the Pronto Professional site?

Access to the old site is still available, but for how long?

Hope my distributor gets back to me soon.

Please contact your dealer so they can help you out.


Peter / Altavox (pronto distyribution sweden/denmark/norway)

Okay guys take it a little easy. I do understand where you are all coming from.

I have been in touch with the Philips Pronto team management. And they are discussing how to setup something for the Hobbyist/non porofessional. They do recognise the contribution that this subset of Pronto Pro users has made (after all I, Lyndel and some others who are active at RC are in that group).

As soon as I hear something I will get back to you. I do not believe it is in the Philips team's best interest to cut this group out, nor do I believe they believe so either. One thing you can be certain of organisms (people and organizations) almost always act in their own best interest. The Altruism gene is very rare outside of the parent child relationship.

Barry, with all my respect this is unacceptable.

The rules were fixed when we bought our equipment. Knowing that this kind of material doesn't work out of the box, but need a program to suit your needs.
This environment was provided and updated by Philips.
The limit of hobbyist/non professional is hard to fix as everyone of us is professional for himself as he needs to do some professional work in order to get his material working..
it's not a problem of altruism, it's a legal issue of ending a contract from one side, and I hope from your side to have a more honest position.

gdnsa

I Already contacted them, but no respond so far. It's B&H in NY, They are not listed as distributor according to Philips Website. So I'm not so hopeful that they will provide it.

I really hope Philips is looking into this thread. I've been using Pronto for almost 15 years now, and this is my third one. And this is the way they treat us now. Lock us out from their own website. All my plans for my upcoming project for next year were torn apart now. And there was alot of suffs included from this series of control system.
If they won't open it for us, I will buy another system and I'll hope you guys would do the same.
But they loosing their regaular customer at this way, so it's their own choice.

Gotta love Philips. Screw your happy customers.
So I look at the Philips web site to find my Sales contact for the Utah area. It's a company called SoundTech Marketing out of Colorado. I go to their web site. Turns out they don't even list Philips as a brand they carry.

This gives me great hope....

Aaaaargh!!!
I really hope they where just a bit unlucky when they where thinking,
because otherwise this is one of the worst actions I've ever seen in terms of suddenly removing access to software updates.
I will not even try to contact any dealer or whatever, instead a simple reply asking for directions to where I can find firmwares and PEP2 updates for download will be my initial respons to this royal F***-up.

Also
"We apologize for any inconvenience caused, and hope you will enjoy the new Pronto website."
A small tip to the Pronto Team: - Don't hold your breath while hoping ...

They really should have thought this through before just turning off access. What did they think - nobody was going to complain?

I completely agree that they should keep it limited to only people that have spent the time to get certified at a certain level. They should have given everyone a heads up that this was going to happen and give them an opportunity to take the tests to get to that level and then grandfather them into the program.

The way this has been handled is just causing bad will with the community and should have been better thought out.

I reached out to my distributor, but they cannot help since they no longer sell the Pronto equipment. I have forwarded that response to [email protected] for advice on how to proceed. Let's see what happens.

Disagree, there is no reason that people that have these devices home shouldn't be able to find firmware and current PEP2 releases.

The rest of the professional area is another matter.

I especially 'like' the post above where a distributor only supports those that have purchased from them.

So , in effect, if a reseller have dissappeared, all their sold devices becomes almost bricks.
.... Try selling a Pronto remote on ebay now ... :(