Just a quick question - does anyone have one of these??

I've never had the opportunity to have a proper look at one but have recently been considering purchasing one after reading several reviews and comparing it to the other universal remotes available - is it worth buying???

On another note, I am currently "holidaying" in Australia for a few months and due to the exhange rates etc it will work out quite a lot cheaper to buy one over here - does anybody know if I will have any compatability problems with European components??

Thanks in advance,

Kelvin.

 

There a couple of people here with Prontos and a couple of recent converts.

Personally I love mine. After some time invested in setting it up, it's replaced all my Remotes pefectly. Even the wifes admits its more convenient now. The original sony programmable remote which came with my AV amp was a complete nightmare in comparison

You have to be prepared to invest some time up front to programme it how you want. Dont even think about it if you havent got a PC as programing on the remote will never get the same results.

Make sure you check www.remotecentral.com as the files are invaluable and do a lot of the hardwork for you. You can download the PC editing s/w "ProntoEdit" from there and pretty much configure everything and run the emulator for free to see if the remote will do what you need.

Deano

 

I've got the Marantz version which is very very very slightly different to the Philip remote even though it is made by Philips and is only badged as Marantz! I've had it for over a year and I couldn't live without it now. It takes a bit of getting used to but once you've set it up it's great.

As Deano says you need to spend quite a bit of time setting it up and definately use a PC but other than that there are no downsides. That website is very good. Definately get one!

Edited to add: I don't think there will be a problem with getting it in Australia. The RemoteCentral website is American and everything I've downloaded from there has worked fine including a firmware updates. The Marantz comes with a recharge docking station and I know you can buy one for the Pronto which might have power supply problems but you can always buy the Pronto in Australia and the docking station in the UK! Or you could just run it off AA batteries!

Scott

[Edited by ZAZ - 12/27/2001 6:43:43 PM]

 

It's a wonderful device, there's no way I'd be without mine. I broke it last month and was without it for a day before I was able to fix it; that was horrible

It does take some considerable setting up - you'll need a PC and a week's worth of evenings to create a download for it that includes all your a/v components, and organises them in a way that you like. Many people just download other people's setups (eg. from www.remotecentral.com), but you'll undoubtedly want to customise your own setup further. Having a laptop to hand will help enormously. For example, I have a custom macro (called 'Bedtime!') that switches off the TV, amp, DVD, TiVo and VCR, switches off a small table lamp and turns on the main lights in the lounge. This is the machine's best feature IMHO.

Will you save much by getting one in Australia? www.letsautomate.com have the basic 1MB version (which is plenty) plus the docking station for £180. You shouldn't have any compatibility problems if you do import one, though.

Go on, you know you want to!

Andy.

 

only got mine 3 weeks ago, took day and a half to set it up then sorted- superb!

Tiggs

 

Only a day and a half? I'm still fiddling with mine after 2 years .
Martin.

 

me too - had mine for ages and still keep changing the setup.

i was thinking of getting the new colour one, but at 600 quid, I think I'll pass!

www.remotecentral.com is a MUST see site if you have or are thinking of getting ANY sort of remote control!

 

Spent a little while trying to get my menus working as i wanted, failed miserably again.

why did they make this side of it sooooo frustrating and annoying to use??

am getting seriously close to lobbing it out the window now, had it two months, still not right

 

errr, maybe i've not set mine up to its fullest potential or maybe i dont have that much kit (tv,vcr,dvd,hifi, camcorder) but after i set it up i havent done a thing to it....

what are you lot trying o get it to do? make tea?

Tiggs

 

I got one too! very nice! takes a while to get used to it but it's great, going to be creating my own interface for it due to my odd way of setting things up! dead easy to use though, just setup the PS2 dvd remote on it, so it's doing that as well (pity there is no on/off eject IR for the PS2 though )

 

Thats the bit im struggling with, it worked fine with standard menus and learning the remotes etc, but the minute i binned the standard menus (cos there were loads of screens i didnt need) its all going horribly wrong