Yes indeed this site is graced with yet another PRONTO review,and a sneak peak of a yet to released Pronto($1,000)remote.
Perhaps its time to review the Ipaq 3950 with the PDAWIN software.
Even the most loyal of Pronto fans would have to admit that it is foolish to spend $1,000 on a Pronto, when you can have the same quality remote on a pda for the $15 that the PDAWIN software cost.
If this site is to be the unbiased source of information that is mentioned in its vision statement,its time to stop misleading people into foolishly spending their money on overpriced remote controls.

It's not quite the same as the real ProntoPro (at least not yet anyway) for a whole variety of reasons, mostly software-related but some hardware issues too.

What might be an interesting article would be a review of PDAWin's TVRemote software (www.pdawin.com) on several different PocketPC platforms. For example, the Dell Axim with CF IR card, the non-Nevo-enabled IPAQs (38xx series) with CF cards, the Nevo-enabled IPAQs (39xx/54xx series) and so forth. Maybe with a twist on the NetRemote (www.netremote.org) software with an PC-based IR transmitter/receiver (UIRT?).

I think Daniel's pretty busy so a lot of these things depend heavily on his available time. He's only just got the new Pronto TSU3000 review up! ;-))

Also if Daniel had to buy all these remotes it would be impossible (or at least extremely expensive). He gets most of the remotes he reviews (I know he mentioned in a review or two that he actually bought those remotes). But if you had a Pronto for free, would you then go and buy a PDA + SW + IR Hardware? the only reason you like your PDA is that it is cheaper.


Also, for your solution you need the actual PDA, still cheaper then a Pro, but it has more hard buttons and RF.

Now as far as unbiased. Considering there is a PDA forum, and considering you are allowed to say that people that get Prontos are foolish, I will definitely say it is unbiased. Also if Daniel does make a review and he does say that the Ipaqs IR range is weaker (like he actually did) you will just dismiss it as biased (like you did)

The reason I suggested Daniel review the Ipaq 3950 is that he already has done a review of one with the Nevo software.
I thought that if he was allowed to keep the 3950 he could review it with the PDAWIN software.
As for the cost of the pda,everytime I purchase a program I don't include the price of the pda into the cost of the new program.
Example:I purchase a game for $20,to your way of thinking that game cost the $20 plus the cost of the pda.
I know the old argument that if you use your pda as a remote control you no longer can use it as a pda.
Thats not true.
How many households do your think there are where more then one member of the household owns a pda.
The correct answer is ALOT.
In that case you could have a household with several remotes in it equal to a Pronto Pro.
As for Daniels review of the 3950,I think the fact that he dwelled on the blanket test for several paragraphs,and as a one sentence side note,mentioned that the range is 25 feet,and SHOULD work fine under normal conditions,ridiculous.
The fact that he used the word should tells me he did not test the remote under normal conditions,just with fluffy blankets over it.

Like I told the makers of Harmony when it first came out, try contacting Daniel so that he can review your product. Same thing goes to PDAWin. If Daniel still has the 3950, I agree it is not a big deal for him to test it (on the other hand if UEI gave him the 3950 to test there might be ethical reasons not to use it for testing PDAWin). Also I agree if you have a ipaq 3950 that you are not using then the only cost is the SW. But that is not everyone's case. And just because you have a PDA, it does not mean it is an ipaq.

That is why I consider it a bit deceitful comparing the price of a Pronto (HW + SW) and only look at the PDA as only SW

As mentioned elsewhere, I was a serious candidate to replace my Pronto TSU1000 with a Prontopro or Marantz RC9200 color remote.

However I have passed over both in favor of an iPAQ 2215 (arrives tomorrow!)

It was obvious that the color Prontopro was on the horizon but at this point I still think the PDA is the right route, because

(a) A fully-featured PDA and remote software can be bought for about half the cost of the $ 600 being asked for a Mk. 1 Prontopro.

(b) When the Mk II Prontopro does get to ship in volume, it is likely to take a while (say 6 months from past experience) for street prices to get to present Prontopro level. Say mid-2004.

(c) Based on Philips' propensity for shipping beta or even alpha product on first release it will likely take 6 months or so for the firmware to stabilize and for the support structure to materialize. Again say mid 2004. There's also the question of an unproved new hardware platform.

A Pronto lover but bitten once too often to believe their marketing hype.

a) agree

b) disagree. when the 2000 and the 3000 came out they reached the previous MRSP almost immediately (Philips tends to wait a bit until their stacks of old models are finished and the new ones are full)

c)disagree. The 7000 is a colored 3000, so chances are that the editor and firmware will be as good or better then the 3000. The 3000 and iPronto were the only ones that had this problem, and they were both totally new remotes that had nothing in common with the previous versions

I like the idea of using a PDA as a colour remote, they have better screens than the original pro, are much cheaper, smaller, lighter and can also be used as a pocket pc. I cannot understand why all the best remote software out there uses ccf files. This format was created by philips for their prontos some 5 years ago and even philips have now conceded that it is time for an upgrade to their new pcf file format. The only reason your pds is so good is because of all the hard work pronto owners have put into designing their ccf's. In a few years time when pronto owners have moved over to the 3000/7000 series, will you lot still be playing around with our old ccf ciles and converting them for your pda's. If you are going to be using software that used ccf files, then surely the only thing needed tested on the pda is the hardware, and the most important factor of a remotes hardware is the ir signal. As I am lead to understand, only a few pda's have a strong enough ir signal (without additional hardware that seems quite hard to get hold of) to function well as a remote. If more pda manufacturers start thinking about remote use when designing their pda's they could one day kill off the pronto but until then we will all need to learn to live together in harmony.

I think the reason is obvious - until now only the 3000 used the .pcf format, and why would anyone want to use a color PDA to emulate the 3000?

Now that the color NG is 'here' I wouldn't mind betting someone, somewhere will be working on PDA software that uses the pcf format.

And I don't think it's a question of preserving harmony. I have been a Philips user for more years than I care to remember, and even worked for them in Holland for spell, but if they continue to insist on marketing premature product at inflated price points then they deserve everything that's coming to them.

It is not deceitful at all if you could objectively think about it.
The fact that the pda can run thousands of other programs,while the Pronto can only run one is the difference you can not seem to understand.

So in your opinion if I buy a PDA so that I can use it as a remote, and only as a remote, then I should consider the PDA as free because someone else might be using his PDA to play games? If that is how you see it, then the ProntoPro is free, it has two games on it. The remote part is free, the editor is free and the extender to get decent IR is free. It is just that each game costs 300$

As to my "objectivity" I am not the one who complained about a review on a new remote for the only reason that it is called Pronto. I have helped (or at least tried to help) people in this forum who have asked question. I have also discouraged people from buying a Pronto when I did not think it was the right choice for them. A PDA is not the right remote for me for several reasons. 1) for work which is the main reason I come here, I don't think a PDA on a conference room table is a good idea. 2) I like the form factor of the original Prontos much more then a PDA and the same for the ProntoPro.

Too ridiculous to reply to.