I currently have a Pronto NEO (TSU500) and I'm getting a bit frustrated with the small screen not being able to hold all the buttons I'd like to keep things simple. I was just about the pull the trigger on a TSU3000 when I realized they now have a TSU3500 available. The TSU3000 can be found for a really good price on the net, but apparently, the TSU3500 is not available on the net and where you can find it, it's almost twice as much as you can get a 3000 for.

My question, is the TSU3500 much better than the TSU3000? I see they have improved some features and capabilities but are the improvements worth it? Should I hold out for the pricing on the TSU3500 to come down (and maybe start showing up on the Web more), or would I probably be just as happy with the TSU3000?

Thanks,
Ray

this link gives you more info and it's on this forum website:
[Link: remotecentral.com]

Thanks, I had already seen and read that. It's basically the same marketing info as from the Philips site.

I was hoping to get forum members personal impressions and opinions from anyone who maybe has had the opportunity to use the new TSU3500 and compared it with the TSU3000, something along the lines of "yeah, Philips got it right with the TSU3500 and you'd really be better off getting that one", or "yeah, the updates and enhancements are nice, but they're really not worth paying almost double the price - the TSU3000 is still a great unit."

Not having seen or used either device yet, I don't have any real reference point from which to base my decision.

-Ray

The TSU3000 uses a blue backlight which makes for poor readability of the LCD screen. In contrast, the TSU3500 uses a white backlight which improves readability big time. That being said, I would not recommend the TSU3000 or TSU3500. In my opinion your best move would be to purchase a TSU7000. The TSU7000 can be had brand new for well under $600. One such site would be B&H Photo, Video, and Pro Audio for example. They sell the TSU7000 for $564.95 which is a great deal. Keep in mind that the TSU3000 and TSU3500 only have 4 megs of memory. This is a paltry amount of memory. Not worth the investment at this stage of the game. Even if you do plan on keeping your configuration file simple there will be no room for any real growth down the road. The TSU7000 on the other hand has 8 times the memory over the TSU3000/3500 at 32 megs. It also has a color LCD screen which is simply outstanding. It's easily worth the price difference over the TSU3000 and TSU3500, especially now that the prices on the TSU7000 have started to dip down substantially.

Lowpro - Thanks. I'll take a look at the TSU7000. If I can find one cheap enough, I may go for it. The wife would likely be impressed with teh color screen. However, I've been getting by just fine the past 4 years with a Pronto Neo and the only reason I'm looking to replace it is becuase the screen is a bit too small (Can't fit the additional buttons I'd like on certain pages for my new PIP and HD cable features). I'm thinking the TSU7000 is probably overkill for my purposes. I don't have an overly complex setup (just a receiver, DVD, HD cable box, ReplayTV, and PlasmaTV) and mainly just needed something that my wife could use to watch a DVD or cable TV with a single button press and easily change channels and volume. If I could get the TSU3000 to do the same thing for about $200 (which is about what I paid for my Neo 4 years ago), I'd probably be more than happy. I'm not having any problems with memory limits on my Neo, so I doubt I'd ever need the 32MBs of the TSU7000. However, rather than drop the extra bucks for the TSU3500, it does seem to make sense to go with the TSU7000 if I could get one for around the price of the TSU3500.

-Ray

I'm in about the same situation and have just started looking. The process of selection is sure confusing.

So aside from the memory issue, why would I *not* want to get the TSU-3500? I currently have a TSU-2000, which is on its last legs, but has served me well for 5 years.

Memory is not a concern for me...4MB is huge. I use about 1 MB total across all of my devices.

I heard bad things about the 3000, so I figured I'd wait until the 3500 was available -- and it is. it seems to have everything I want...rechargeable battery, a dedicated joystick area, plenty of memory, better backlighting than the 3000, so what are the downsides?

It's still a B&W remote, although it has 16 grayscale colors.

I have the RU950 (equivalent of the TSU3000) and I have the dreaded dim backilght problem. I'm looking at the RU960 with it's better screen and was wondering how it handled hard button presses. Does it still need two presses of the hard buttons in order to activate them or do they all send on the first button press? I still get extremely irritated by having to press the four hard buttons twice to send, especially as one of them is pause. Does the TSU3500 still have this problem?

The latest firmware for the RU950/960 allows you to configure the firmkeys so that they either transmit only, transmit & display screen or display screen only on a keypress.

Thanks the_zap_gun. I've not been here for a while and completely missed news of this new firmware. I'll try it tomorrow. This should make things a bit better despite my dim screen.

Any news on the fix for the backlight coming on for the channel up/down and volume buttons?