The new color Marantz RC9500 was shown at CEDIA with little fanfare at the
Marantz booth. The remote is similar to the Philips ProntoPro TSU7000 with a few
notable differences. I'll e-mail some additional pictures to Daniel, here is a
summary of the information shown on the display board:

• 16-bit, 65,000 color screen


• 320x240 screen (completely customizable)


• Software upgradeable 48 MB memory (assuming this means that the entire 48
  MB is not yet addressable)


• USB 1.1 interface


• Docking station with USB, NiMH rechargeable battery


• 15 tactile buttons for programming


• Optional RF module

No one I talked to at the Marantz booth knew much about the remote, so I
wasn't able to get any more details. If I were to pick between it and the
Philips TSU7000, I think I would my choice would be the Marantz for the
following reasons: 1) The buttons were easier to locate by feel alone 2) The
button backlight turns on either with the pickup sensor, when a button is
pressed, or when the screen is activated and this feature can be disabled 3) The
pick-up sensor can be deactivated. I was unable to test if double hard button presses
are required (where the first hard button press activates the screen and a second hard button
press is required to send the command). If this TSU7000 "feature"/annoyance is
eliminated, it would be an outstanding feature for the RC9500. I'm not sure if
all of the 48 MB of memory is addressable; the description was not clear and no
one could answer the question. I assume there is a planned software update to
make all 48 MB usable. The only negative for the Marantz is 2 fewer hard
buttons.

I'm hoping future Philips TSU7000 software updates implement the new auto
button backlight feature. Hopefully Philips/Marantz didn't intentionally
remove this feature from the Philips product to give the Marantz a more premium
feature set. The Philips 6000 had this feature and so should the 7000, but
I digress.

Here a comparison between the Marantz RC9500 and ProntoPro NG TSU7000 with
the latest production software (sorry for the spacing, I can't get the HTML working):

	Marantz RC9500	Philips ProntoPro NG TSU7000
Software Boot Version	3.73	3.25 (?)
Software App Version	3.2.14	3.3.4
Number of programmable hard buttons	15	17
Hard Button design	Buttons easily identified by feel alone. Smaller, separate buttons that are raised from the case of the remote. Direction pad is round with 4 surrounding buttons. Two buttons below screen.	Difficult to identify buttons around screen by feel alone. Buttons around screen are large, smooth, integrated and do not protrude from the case of the remote. Direction pad is square with 4 surrounding buttons. Four buttons below screen.
Addressable Memory	16 MB (assumed, not verified)	16 MB
Total Memory	48 MB (via a software upgrade?)	32 MB (software upgrade to be released?)
Turn Pick-up Sensor On/Off	Yes	Feature not currently available
Auto button light (buttons illuminate when screen is activated)	Yes	Feature not currently available
Color / finish	Gloss metallic black case, matte silver face, matte silver buttons	Flat back case, face, and buttons
Button backlight	Blue	White

This message was edited by Carlton Bale on 09/14/04 10:04 ET.

Carlton did you go to the Philips booth? in the iPronto forum they said they would have some news on the Pronto line (I assume that meant new SW)

I did stop by the Philips booth. I politely discussed some of the complaints I had with the ProntoPro NG TSU7000 (double button press, no auto button backlight, no pickup sensor disable, no 32 mb memory; all complaints already submitted via Philips website 9 months ago and no progress, etc). The representative I spoke to was very friendly and said she would take my feedback back to the product development group in Belgium but, unfortunately, did not mention any software updates. Maybe I missed something?

The Philips RC9800i iPronto-like device was announced last week but there was no demonstration unit at the Philips booth that I could find.

Please explain the problem. As I follow your description, we start with the remote off, touch the screen to turn it on, then since the screen is turned on, we can locate the button we want to hit, and hit it. (With the screen dark, we cannot see which button we want to hit.)

You want to hit a button on a blank dark screen, send a command, and this will be successful? Am I misunderstanding the problem?

Incidentally, this "problem" is how ALL the various prontoid progeny have operated since Philips first introduced the Pronto at a small booth with nobody there who knew much of anything about it.


I also do not see what all the fanfare is about. When I first heard about the 9500, I checked, and sure enough, Marantz has not yet put the 5400 HELP on the internet. I need this help because nobody has yet been able to tell me how to learn commands properly on the 5400, or copy and paste without the software modifying the code into occasional uselesness. Why would I want a color version of a remote that has no HELP and nobody can tell me that it will indeed learn or retain a command I put into it?

I really do not want to sound like the curmudgeon that I sound like, but I was really HOT on the 5200, 9200 and the Pronto 6000, and the problems with all of the NG units, both Pronto and Marantz, that make it impossible for me to price programming a unit for a client, make me want some answers before I ever sell another one.

What I would LOVE is for somebody to tell me that the problems are solved and I can go back to supplying actually programmable Marantz remotes to my clients.

Anybody?

Sorry, I must not have explained the situation well. I'm talking about pressing an actual hard button on the remote, not a soft buttons on the screen. None of the previous Prontos required a double hard button press to send a command. On the Pronto 6000, you would press one of the 4 buttons below the screen, the remote would wake-up and fully illuminate, and the command would be sent. The 1000 was every more responsive and sent the command immediately before going through the wake-up sequence.


Sorry to hear you've had problems. Actually, there was no fanfare at the Marantz booth. They didn't know much about it at all.


Not sure about Marantz remotes, but the latest firmwares seem to fix most of the problems with the Philips NG remotes. I haven't experienced any major problems with the 7000, only some design annoyances such as the double hard button press issue. Have you called Marantz? A squeaky wheel may get more attention.

Here is the official press release:

[Link: audioholics.com]

Marantz RC-9500 Press Release
Wednesday, September 8 2004
Marantz RC-9500 Press Release
Marantz RC9500 Remote: A Bold New Take On “Total Home Entertainment System Control”
Featuring New USB Interface, Full-Color LCD Touchscreen Display, 48MB Flash Memory, Plus a Host of Sophisticated, Easy-to-Use Feature

Marantz America recently announced the introduction of a bold new look and feel in versatile programmable learning remote controls: the compact touch-screen RC9500. Featuring a USB interface and new full-color LCD touchscreen display, the U-shape RC9500 provides easy, complete control of every component in a home entertainment system and offers customizable programming along with a host of sophisticated control capabilities. Available later this month, the RC9500 will carry an SRP of $1,199.
Noted Kevin Zarow, Director of Marketing and Product Development, Marantz America, Inc: “The programmable remote control market is one of the fastest-growing in the CE arena, and Marantz is committed to being the number one supplier of high-end remotes. The RC9500 is an incredibly full-featured and easy-to-use remote, and it clearly establishes Marantz’s leadership in the category.”




A Perfect Union of Form and Function
With its slim horseshoe-shaped design, bright LCD screen and comfortable, ergonomic controls, the Marantz RC9500 is a major advancement in the programmable remote control category. The full-color 240 x 320 pixel LCD touch-screen display, featuring a 65,535 color palette, is fully customizable, and electroluminescent backlighting makes it easy to read in darkened home theater environments.

Maximum Versatility for Custom Applications
In addition to its ease-of-use and unique cosmetic, the RC9500 offers greater versatility than most dedicated custom installation control systems. Because the RC9500 recognizes both BMP and PNG images, it can utilize both types of images from earlier remotes as well as new transparent images. In addition, the remote’s advanced Wizz.it9 software has the same look and feel as the Wizz.it1 software utilized in the acclaimed RC5400.

The RC9500 features an industry-leading 48 MB of flash memory and a high-performance Motorola DragonBall MC68328 processor for ultra-high storage capacity and complex management capabilities. The RC9500 is USB 1.1, W98SE, WME, W2K and WXP compatible. Setup can be further customized via a PC interface and Windows® PC programming software that enables users to import custom animations, channel icons and even their own graphics and photos.

Completely customizable, the RC9500 features fifteen tactile buttons that allow programming of any audio or video component selected, along with conveniently located “hard” buttons and a cursor control for most-used functions. It also features an extensive complement of additional state-of-the-art features, such as exclusive Jump Forward / Jump Backward commands and a programmable Instant Surf button that calls up any channel at the touch of a single button.

The RC9500 is designed for the ultimate in set-up ease and use. It offers a host of convenient functions such as one-screen access to all the controls of any selected component, and macro capability that enables the user to transmit multiple-step control sequences with a single command. The remote can learn the control codes from virtually every brand of IR remote, can display hundreds of control screens and comes pre-programmed to operate a wide variety of Marantz audio and video products.

The RC9500’s additional advanced features include: a setup protection feature that prevents settings from being accidentally changed; an Auto On function that automatically activates the remote when it is picked up; an adjustable backlight and sleep timer; and the ability to import full-color channel icons and personalized graphics.

The RC9500 is fully RF compatible with the optional RX-77 accessory.

The RC9500 comes with a recharging unit/docking station, USB cable and rechargeable NIMH battery, eliminating the need for constant battery replacement. Available in September of 2004, the RC9500 carries a suggested retail price of $1,199.

About Marantz
Marantz America is committed to upholding the tradition of technological superiority initiated by founder Saul Marantz. In keeping with this emphasis on quality, Marantz audio and video components are carried only by the nation’s premier independent audio/video specialty retailers. Additional information is available at www.marantz.com. Marantz America is a wholly owned subsidiary of D&M Holdings Inc.

About D&M Holdings Inc.
D&M Holdings Inc. (TSE II: 6735) is based in Tokyo and owns the Denon, Marantz, McIntosh Laboratory, D&M Professional, ReplayTV®, Rio® and Escient® brands. Denon, Marantz, McIntosh and D&M Professional are global industry leaders in the specialist home theater, audio/video consumer electronics or professional audio markets, with a strong and long-standing heritage of manufacturing and marketing high-performance audio and video components. The ReplayTV, Rio and Escient brands represent award-winning technologies in digital home entertainment. Additional information is available at www.dm-holdings.com.

DISCLAIMER
Statements in this news release that are not statements of historical fact may include forward looking statements regarding future events or the future financial performance of the company. We wish to caution you that such statements are just predictions and that actual events or results may differ materially. Forward looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties surrounding competitive and industry conditions, market acceptance for the company's products, risks of litigation, technological changes, developing industry standards and other factors related to the company's businesses. The actions referred to in this press release are not an admission or acknowledgement of any claim or allegation. The Company reserves all of its rights.

I think the word "horseshoe" above should be labeled "tombstone". After all, turn the remote on its nose and see what I mean. No help file, no purchase, even for this seasoned programmer.

I refuse to let Marantz supply a new remote with no help file and all the "newbies" rely totally on this forum for support. As you may have noticed, I typically don't respond to RC5400 questions if at all possible. Not because I can't but because of the policies set forth by Marantz with regard to providing NO help file or online documentation.

Let me caveat this to say that I'm an RC5000i and RC9200 owner. I still use both of these remotes in some capacity. However, a company that relies solely on a public web forum to support their customers, in my book, does not deserve my funds.

Now, SuperNudelist is another story. This program is free and I find myself spending less and less time answering support questions. However, I always "jump" if there is a question and try to provide both timely and suitable workarounds or bug-fixes if necessary.

Perhaps a bit off this thread, but SuperNudelist capability is built into the new Sony Navitus. I just borrowed one, and it is a very nice feature.

BEGIN extract from the Product Literature...

List Screen
If you have a 100, 200 or even a 400-disc changer, you know how important it is to keep track of all your titles. That's why this remote's list screens can accommodate Album, Disc Number, Artist and Genre. You can use the Search function to select and play discs - or even create a Zapping key from the list.

END extract from the Product Literature...


Important to note here that this appears to be related ONLY to Sony CD Changers, not to DVD changers and does not cover MP3 Media Servers. Not to say that wil Girder/IRMan, you could not improvise.

I do strongly suspect that Sony took a shortcut and only added this functionality to their CD players that support direct disc selection, not the DVD changers that use the Folder Explorer or the long sequence beginning with 'Display' to select discs.

MBurwen, can you confirm?

IMHO, Supernudelist still and always will RULE!!!. Especially with larger memory capacities in remotes that allow album covers/DVD Jackets to be shown.

Again, I am not sure this is the right place for this post, but I'll continue until Daniel or someone else tells me to move it.

The Navitus "SuperNudeList-like" facility is a general-purpose list manager that can be associated with any device. e.g., a list of TV channels, CDs, DVDs, etc. Sony calls it a "Component List." To create a list, one can input for each item, "Title" (31 chars max), "Disc (or channel) number", "Artist name", and "Genre." The software then provides various sorting options. Items in a component list may also be assigned to up to 9 user-defined groups called "User Lists." For example, "News Channels" might be a User List.

As far as I can tell, there is no way to associate a graphic with a list element, so TV channel logos or DVD jacket graphics can't be seen, although one could custom-design a list that did show graphics.

A facility like Sony's could easily be incorporated into ProntoEdit in my opinion - it is just a little database management system that Philips could probably OEM from half a dozen database software companies. I can see ways to make it much more elegant than Sony's.

I am compiling a table comparing Navitus features to the Pronto TSU7000 for the shop that loaned me the Navitus. If someone will tell me where to put it, I'll post it in the files section of Remote Central when I'm done with it. Email me instructions at [email protected].

The one thing the Navitus has all over the Prontos is the hard button design. It is fabulous.

Lyndel, I absolutely agree with you. I was hoping for, and was told by support at Marantz, that the RF funcitonality of the 9500 would be a significant improvement over that of the 9200. Yet their own descripton fails to mention anything regarding an improvement in the RF, and for that matter, seems to offer nothing in the way of incentives for the 9200 user to upgrade to a 9500....it seems to be just an improved resolution screen, and some very IMO minor improvements. The kind of support offered thus far has been for firmware that is three years old (what good is upgradability if no new firmware is offered?), and newer firmware on the Denon version of the 9200 (which is NOT interchangable). Some support indeed....

The differences between the 9200 and 9500 should be similar to the differences between 6000 and 7000 which are somewhat vast:
- greatly improved color and brightness
- move from CCF to PCF format
- transparency support
and more

Good Day!

I don't know whether I had the opportunity to speak with you, Mr. Bale, at CEDIA or not. I hope that I was not one of the people that did not know enough about the RC9500 to answer your questions to your satisfaction. Until recently, I've not posted much at Remote Central, but I've certainly monitored the exchange here for years. Perhaps if you'd post your questions here, I can respond to them directly.

Dave Stoneburner
Marantz America, Inc.

Dave welcome to the forum and thanks for becoming active. I know it cannot be easy, but it is always good to see some people in a company be interested in what the users think.


PS love this line from your profile

I think a lot of us can identify with it.

Thanks Anthony!

I have a lot of respect and admiration for this website and the people who frequent it. I'm glad that I have been given the privelege of posting here.