Ok buying a TSU7000 from the states as apposed to buying one from the UK will actually save me around £300.

Why do does the rest of the world get ripped off by electrical company!

Has anyone done this? And if so does anyone know of any pitfalls that may arise from doing so.

Could I buy the unit and plug the American style plug into a universal plug adaptor and then into a UK socket?

With the web surly companies have got to start realising that this is the way that ecommerce will develop and therefore produce products that are priced correctly around the world- rant rant rave rave!!!!

regards
Robin

Smaller markets, more stringent legal and regulatory requirements, different RF carrier frequencies allowed, different radiated power limits, VAT, etc.

doesnt explain the over £300 price differance what does explain it though is merging market and want to make excess profits

Hi Robin

You are not being completely fair, Philips is not really to blame for the $ to bee historically low…

However I don’t think it will be easy for you to get a company to ship it to you, either they don’t ship international ore they want a wire transfer from your bank ore something else. These days with the apparent credit card fraud going on the internet shops ere acting very paranoid.
So good luck with buying it overseas.

You can however just use a standard charger, and it will work. But TSU7000 uses different freq than the RU980 will be using, hens the TSU7000 is not approved for use in EU.

I also live in the UK and I own a TSU7000 and it works very well, I have not experienced any EU things it couldn’t control.

Final an advise, don’t download the pronto edit program and begin programming while you wait for your remote to arrive, and use the RU980 as the template. Because it will not work with the TSU7000 remote…I tried.

Regards

Per

You can't have it both ways. You can protect your manufacturers from foreign competitors, which is what the different legal and regulatory standards do, or you can open your markets by using the same standards used in the USA.

If I wanted to make excess profits I'd price the USA models higher. After all, the market here is much bigger.

If it were legal to sell the USA version in the UK don't you think UK dealers would do so? Then the only difference would be your 17% VAT.

I don't know if it is true for the frequency used by the Pronto, but in general it is not. The thing is that RF frequency (like power voltage, phone connectors.....) happened in a different era where they did not matter. If you look at GSM phones , you have 1900 and 1800, why is that (900-1800) makes sense, but why was 1900 added? the answer is that by the time GSM reached North America the 1800 was already used by the US military and so 1900 was added to the standard so that it can work in NA. The thing is it would be nice if all things worked the same world wide, but many standards and regulatory stuff happened in a day and age when globalization was not an issue and to make stuff global today would cost too much in infrastructure and to consumers. And if we are talking about different standards that are equally good, then who chooses what should be the new standard?


actually if you look at it better, X10 switches outside the US use the same as the Pronto, so it should be the other way around and us move towards the other standard if we want our X10 to work with our Prontos

Anthony,

I think you'll find that in the frequencies used by the Pronto it is the other way around.

X-10 was using 310MHz from their first USA RF remote. That was long before there was a Pronto. I think they also used 418MHz here for the Powermid long before others copied that.

And even though they originated in Scotland, X-10 moved to the USA before they started maerketing anything because they saw the market here was much larger than the UK market. They started marketing in the UK and Europe much later.

FCC Part 15 Rules cover 300-1000MHz in the USA. You can use any frequency in that range for things like this. CE did not even exist when the FCC made most of these frequency allocations. CE mandates 433.92MHz for things like this.

The UK used 418MHz for X-10 RF until 2-3 years ago when they moved to 433.92MHz to comply with CE rules.

The first TV remote controls were ultrasonic. Then came IR. RF extenders came even later.

wow some great replies it seams to come down to 3 things
1 the plug on the adaptor is differen - big deal
2 it might be difficult to find someone to eport a untit from the states to the UK
3 the RF ferquency might be diiferant in the UK to the USA - i cant beleave that every manufacturer out there poduces hifi products etc with diff rf recievers therfore if a hifi can be read by iether a pronto or a 7000 surely it doesnt matter?

regards
robin

Other than Bose, I know of no manufacturer that manufactures AV gear with any RF receiver.

The RF extenders receive RF and convert it to IR which the AV gear does receive.

Manufacturers use different RF frequencies because there are laws that differ between regions that require them to use certain RF frequencies.

There are a number of light and appliance control systems sold in Europe that use 433.92MHz. Many can be controlled directly with the 433.92MHz RF from the European models of the Pronto & Marantz remotes.

     [Link: mbx-usa.com]

If you expect to use the RF, now or in the future, you need to buy the model that works with the RF receivers you may wish to use.

Robin, have you seen a UK price yet, and what is it? I thought it has not been released yet.

The lowest price in the U.S. is around US$650 plus tax. Full price is $999 plus tax.

You might be comparing full price in the UK which includes 17% VAT with a discount price in the U.S.

To use a 7000 in the UK simply simply replace the wall plug with a 240V one - costs around 15 Euro.

Peter
As you seen to be all knowledgeable in these matters
1.Am I right to say that using a TSU7000 in UK means changing the plug and that’s all (probably just use an adaptor)
2.all the talk about RF / IR (confused a bit with that) isn’t it Infa red that transmits to HiFi stuff and what stuff would use Radio frequency all my equipment as it uses IR should work fine.

Not found any prices yet but based on previous experience with Prontos the UK will get well and truly raped on price. We have a saying in the UK, rip of Britain, where manufactures always add premium on us queuing none argumentative, don’t wont to rock the boat British

Regards
Robin

Robin - you will need to buy a new 12v transformer from Maplin. If in doubt, just walk in with the US one, and say "I want one of these that'll work here". Should be around £10 (I had one "in stock").

And that's it!

Andrew

Robin: RF is used with a base station and not directly to control the equipment. The Pronto sends a command to the base, the base then sends the corresponding IR command to the equipment. It is only important in he discussion in three aspects
1) it makes the Pronto an illegal device in Europe
2) if you want to ever get an RF base, you will need to get one from the US
3) Philips Europe cannot repair a 7000 because of 1)

sorry to have derailed the thread a bit but since I am in the discussion with Dave, I hope you don't mind if I continue with the side track

Dave: I know the Pronto uses the same as X10 and that X10 is older. I am sure that it is more then a coincidence and that they either both get it from the same place or Pronto gets it from X10 directly (don't forget that it is easier to buy something then to develop it). My comment was tat you seemed to imply that the regulatory aspecs were there for the purpose of protecting markets, and I wanted to show, that it was probably due more to historic facts and decisions taken at a time when no one would have thought of what we are dealing with today.

the other thing that had bothered me a bit about your original comment was "or you can open your markets by using the same standards used in the USA." why must every place in the world pick an American standard to prove they are not protectionists? actually from what you said

[quote]FCC Part 15 Rules cover 300-1000MHz in the USA. You can use any frequency in that range for things like this. CE did not even exist when the FCC made most of these frequency allocations. CE mandates 433.92MHz for things like this.[/quote]

the opposite would be true. Philips could use the same device by simply using 433.92 everywhere since 433.92 is legal in the US and Europe.

Robin, I called it a "wall plug", but should have said power adapter. It is similar to a mobile phone charger and plugs directly into the wall power socket. The wire from that plugs into the 7000 charger base. As Andrew said, it is about 10 pound to get a 240V power adapter.

As Anthony says, RF is only an issue if you want to buy and use the RF Extender. The frequency used in Europe is different to the U.S. so you can only use a U.S. Extender with a U.S. Pronto. Technically, it is illegal to use the U.S. RF frequency in Europe.

Hi Robin

I purchased a TSU300 + RF extender and docking station in the US and saved a lot of €. Easy for me as I was working there at the time, I am now back in Europe. I have failed to find a US site that will ship to Europe. Everyone I have tried and it's many, for other electronic items only ship to US and Canada. Even if you are there on holiday, the sites only accept US or Canada credit cards, they do not accept international credit cards.
If you happen to be in the US staying with a friend, just get the friend to order the pronto.

Changes US/Europe
1. You will need to get a new power adapter, cheap at €15 tops, or a 230V to 115V converter
2. RF, it's simple, US pronto uses different frequency to talk to it's optional the RF extender than the Europe models. Nothing got to do with the end equipment you wish to control.
3. If you plan to use an RF extender, make sure you purchase it with the remote or remember to purchase a US one for a US pronto or a Europe one for a Europe pronto

FYI FCC part 15 rules 300Mhz-1Ghz relate to emissions and immunity testing for class A or B ratings and is just one segment, 30Mhz-300Mhz is another etc, not relevant to actual transmission frequency used, that is determined by what relevant section of the spectrum in unlicensed for use, ie a small band in the 400Mhz segment is unlicensed and is used by garage door openers, RF remotes, pronto and anything else with small transmission powers, typically sub 100mW. 2.4Ghz is also unlicensed, hence microwaves, wireless access points, certain digital house phones use this spectrum band etc