RC9200: Click to enlarge.

New remotes from Marantz!
A visitor to this week's IFA show in Berlin sent me some interesting details on new remotes being released by Marantz. First is the RC9200, Marantz's answer to the ProntoPro (though, of course, it is still made by Philips). It will feature a 256-color screen, 8 megabytes of memory, plus an optional RF basestation. It will not include a preprogrammed code database, however I note from the photograph (and from earlier rumors) that much more of the screen real estate is available for user interfaces. Also of equal importance, I can count 15 hard buttons including volume, channel, a 4-way menu rocker ("OK" and "Menu" are separate buttons), two "on-screen labeled" buttons, plus a handy hard button for "Home".

RC5200: Click to enlarge.

Secondly, Marantz will be releasing a new 2 megabytes black and white remote based on the same physical design of the RC9200 - called the RC5200. It'll also include the larger user editable area and same complement of extra hard buttons, but will not include RF capabilities. No information was provided on pricing, but both will be released sometime during 2002.

Although I'm sure this information will also be presented at CEDIA, which will be running in Indianapolis this week, I wanted to give a special thanks to Andy for sending me this advance notice and for scanning the photos you see here. I will be attending CEDIA and hope to get as much new information on this and other products as possible!

Learn more about the RC-9200:

Visit the forum: talk with others. ProntoPro review: read all about it. TSU2000/RC5000i: read our review. Unofficial FAQ: answers to questions. File area: download setups.