Hi Community!

... and it survived!? A 6 Meter throw! Amazing!

You may now ask if I am a litte creazy, and yes I am after messing around with that Philips Crap for 6 hours.

I bought this for my home move theater about 4 years ago, but I did not imagine one has to make his diploma in remote control configuring. For that price, one should expect a product is good and ripe.

Well, I experimented with it at the beginning and my first thought was "Cool", second thought was "What a cheap software for that price", third thought "The hell, I just want to use my Home Theater" and took all the other normal Remote Controls instead of the Pronto.

Since I tried to flash it to the actual software version one year ago, all the standard database is gone, no brands available error message for every device. Even Reverting did not change this.

Tonight, I wanted to give it another try. As I did not get the default codes back, I loaded some nice ccf Files some people out there made and tried to learn my codes. After wondering why it worked sometimes I had a closer look at the Hex codes. That damned thing produces other codes every time i learn the same key. They are quite long, about 40 Hex pairs on every Remote I tried. I cannot image this is correct. On top of that, sometimes it learns a code sometimes it runs in the timeout.

This thing was the greatest mistake i bought so far in my life. When I think about the price, it is a shame Philips does not support it any more after only 4 years on the market. Its not a computer, its a Remote! They just put every work to the communities... thats it! With that in mind, this sure is the last Philips Product I have bought in my life. Sold and Forgotten!

I should have sold it years ago, now I will keep it to remember that forerver. Maybe I gonna fool around with it in some month again, but if it keeps working like that, I will make sure it breaks next time ;-)

Good night!

dudl

If you want to try some different software, try Tonto @ [Link: giantlaser.com].

Funny, I consider my Pronto (RU890) one of the best things I've bought in my life. And I do use Tonto, as Lyndel suggests, so maybe that makes a difference. Maybe there's a difference too in expectation. My first thought, five years ago, was that I just want to use my home theater. But then I discovered the power of the Pronto and now it's become sort of a hobby. I got everything working in short order. Now it's all about, "Hey, if I put a button here to do that it will simplify this" and, "What clever ways can I make my Pronto program even better?"

Hi Guys,

thanks for your words.

I tried Tonto, but I cannot see much difference exept for the better learning mode. I would have used it, but next day I wanted to start it, just nothing happened even after reinstalling. Not even a task opening in the task manager. I will investigate that, when I got some more time left.

I kept trying and after hours of experimenting, the ProntoPro just hast access to the motor screen and some lights i access via intertechno RF Controllers and the Philips SBC LI 800. Thanks to Thomas Mueller for the great work he did.

I even managed to get the default remote codes back, after reading this forum for hours. With that I managed to get the clean codes for my TV and even have set up all channels with logos. I had a laugh, when I found the cff for the Canon EOS 300D and it really works with taking pictures via the Pronto.

I also found out, why the remote does not learn correctly. This is because i program it in the computer corner, and here are a lot of interfereces. I'll go to the underground parking next time i need to learn some codes *lol*

What really annoys me, that I cannot learn any codes from the remote of my 3M Moviedream Beamer. Would be really nice if the Beamer would go on when the screen comes down.

Sounds as if I liked blood, but if I imagine the time this all took, it is sure far more than the time I would have pressed my other dozen remotes for the rest of my life. I am really used to work with any kind of software, but all that is available for the Pronto is not intuitive. It's all hardcore techie stuff you sure get into, if you fool around some time. And it is great there are people out there who try to make part of the work I expect Philips to do on a far higher professional level.

Regards,

dudl

If you don't want it, I'll give you $10 for it.

Seriously -- these are all known problems. Read the FAQ

1) Put fresh batteries in your remotes before trying to use them to teach codes to the Pronto. As batteries age, the codes they emit are still good enough to trigger your electronic devices, but corrupt enough that they givebad learns (and give learns that can vary from one press to the next).

2) Codes will be better learned with the Pronto disconnected from the PC

3) I use the pronto connected to the PC using prontoedit, but only as a starting point. There are a number of very good utilities out there that will determine what type of IR code it is, and what the device and command number is, and which will generate "clean" copies of the hex code. I take the learned code, determine what it is, generate the clean code and paste it into my CCF.

If you don't have any experience with Pronto utilities, I suggest you look at this thread [Link: remotecentral.com] for details on how I got started with IR Tool and Make Hex to generate "clean" IR codes.

Joe