I'm using a TSU7000 and has worked so so so great. I recommend it !!!!! With all the already developed files you can make a good one without a lot of time.
On the other hand, I haven't tried Maratz products yet, they seem great but I have only experience with TSU7000 and is great !!

Humbly, I stand corrected.

I'm definitely surprised that Marantz did a Beta Test, especially with the case of leaving the RC9200 in the dirt with only a few firmware updates and still having a few unresolved bugs.

RC5000_Guy, since you are with Marantz, do you care to comment on this?

You know, in general, the Marantz product has been preferred by the custom installers because the Pronto product is so whored-out in the US market place. That being said, the asethics of the Marantz get my vote.

But Philips gets my vote for the energy on updates and improvements. They have improved their process and included beta groups and they seem to be genuinely interested in improving the product, through consistent updates. This is more important than esethics, in my opinion.

Hardware versus hardware, the Pronto also wins on hardbuttons.

Dave

The Marantz products are OEM'd from Philips, and, except for the number of hard buttons, cosmetics and the Wizz-it software, they are essentially the same products.

Marantz aims at the installer market, while Prontos are ubiquitous. Marantz tends to be more expensive than Prontos for that reason. Dealer margins on Prontos are slim indeed as Dave noted.

Software/firmware upgrades are generally released for Prontos sooner than they are for Marantz products.

If you are willing to pay the price for Marantz, you might want to take a look at some of the next-generation remotes from RTI and UEI that are priced the same - around $1000 US. As someone else pointed out, Prontos can be purchased for less than half that amount.

Yeah, but you don't have to sign up for a whole line of A/V product to buy a Pronto.

Actually, the continuing niggling little problems with the NG product of both brands puts me smack in the middle of switching to RTI after doing Prontos and Marantzes for about five years. I did Lexicons (early RTI software) and Crestron SmarTouch before that.

In the past, I liked the RC5200 best; its hard buttons made some sense and were more than the Pronto had at the time. The NG layouts don't look so much like cursor pads any more and I don't think they supplied the book explaing the Stargate-looking lettering on the other hard buttons.