We've finally got hold of an iPronto from Philips in the UK - still no firm dates for release over here nor firm pricing but I have been playing with one now for a couple of evenings.

I see a lot of frustration on here over the iProntos and when we received this one I was somewhat apprehensive about what horrors awaited me but it hooked up to my home wireless LAN straight off, it updated its firmware cleanly, even the iProntoEdit software found the remote first time.

Dissapointments?

Hmmm ... if I have to be picky then why on earth didn't Philips implement a docking station for this unit? Having to plug in a power lead is a real PITA when there could have so easily been a really nice desk stand/charging base.

The web browser is a bit on the agricultural side ... it doesn't scroll around pages smoothly but then again I have a home intranet which is designed for "small" LCDs (640x480) and that is fine.

The iProntoEdit software seems unstable as hell on my office PC (Win98) but seems solid on my home machines (Win2k or WinXP) and the EPG doesn't work in the UK yet.

Otherwise I had it up and running in an evening from scratch...

Phil

Glad to see there are now a few other people in the UK with the Ipronto. I bought mine in the states earlier in the year.

Philips I think will be using the same EPG as Microsoft's Media Centre which is due for launch in Nov. However the system is supposed to be under test now so hopefully we can expect a UK EPG very soon.

Yeah ... we thought of bringing them in from the US (we did with the original Prontos) but we didn't want to possibly muck up any relationships that we have with Philips so we've been patiently waiting for them to actually launch it in the UK.

Phil

I spoke to Philips before ordering and they said that they were fine with me bringing a unit in from the states and they would still support it. They just said that they were no prepared for commercial launch until the EPG worked in UK.

Have fun with it

Hey Bassfiend

Where are you based.

I've trying to get some sense out of Philips UK - but apparently the iPronto doesn't exist.

"well the computer says it doesn't exist - so we don't do it "

If you are circa M25 - let me know - it would be nice to see if one of these puppies will suit me.

Cheers
Gaspode

"The web browser is a bit on the agricultural side ... it doesn't scroll around pages smoothly but then again I have a home intranet which is designed for "small" LCDs (640x480) and that is fine."

Question: What are you using the home intranet for application wise that you are incorporating the IPronto into? Just fishing for ideas.

Sorry ... don't get to look up here very often.

I basically run www.letsautomate.com on a day-to-day basis and we're (apparently) Philips largest single retailer of Prontos.

I have an iPronto here from Philips which is a pre-release one ... but if they think they're getting it back they have another think coming!!! ;-)

Phil

Sorry for the late response on this. Since you got the unit in the States, what did you do about the charger? Can one just buy a standard 220v charger over here (i.e. in the UK) that will plug straight in?

Best,
Adrian

Hi Phil

Is Mike still around there? he used to be real active on this board back when the original Pronto just came out

To Adrain T

The American unit comes with a dual sensing charger. All you need to do is plug in a UK figure 8 cable and its works fine. There is no need to buy seperate charger or american transformer.

To bassfiend

Do you know when Philips intends to launch the Ipronto in the UK? And when they intend to launch the NTX6400?

Thanks

I have the web page generated by HomeVision (which doesn't really fit but is useable) plus a page generated by something that a friend of mine has been working on which is a web based front end to our home automation and DVD servers.

Phil

Yep ... Mike is the owner of LetsAutomate and my boss - smashing bloke but don't tell him I said that! :-D

Phil

Last I was told we should have our iPronto's by the end of October - the NTX6400 has no release date that we can get Philips to tell us.

Phil

Dear bassfiend,

the NTX6400 will be released at the same time as the iPronto in europe

regards
The Philips Pronto Team

We got our first batch of iProntos in this afternoon - not sure when we should get the NTX6400's in though but we do have them on order with you guys.

Of course then being released by Philips and actually being dispatched from Hayes are two completely separate actions. ;-)

Looking forward to taking a look at the proper UK spec units - hopefully the EPG is sorted now?

Phil