Hi-

I've been a Pronto user for about 3-4 years now. I have a TS1000 (the original). Over time, me and my wife's use of this remote has deteriorated. At first, it was used for every single component I owned.

Then, I got a Tivo. At that point we used the Pronto for evertyhing that wasn't the Tivo. Since TV watching was our primary activity, this means the Pronto was being used about 20% of the time. This year, I got a new DVD player. Since that point, the DVD remote has been sitting on the coffee table next to the Pronto. I never had the time (or motivation) to go through the huge task of redesigning my remote. This situation just got worse in that I got a new receiver.

So here I am, back to a coffee table full of remotes. I loaded up ProntoEdit tonight, and started looking at button layouts, IR codes, bitmaps, and my eyes just sort of glazed over. I can think of about 800 things I'd rather do than spend 3 weeks doing another CCF file in ProntoEdit.

While I do like a Pronto when it's configured well, it's painfully obvious how the lack of hard buttons hurts it. Furthermore, the serious time investment involved in creating/maintaining the CCF files is close to making me forget the thing entirely. It's kind of hard to convince myself of this in my mind though. Here's a remote I spent $300 on, and I'm about to write it off entirely.

That being said.. Do you think a MX500 is right for me? I seriously doubt ANY remote will replace the Tivo remote, because I'm so used to it. But for the other components, it looks like this might be a good choice.

Can any of you MX fans try to sell me on this? Please help ease the burden of my past $300 purchase. :) I haven't really looked into the MX-700 or other models due to price, mostly. And at this point, I'm not sure if I should get the IRClone if I end up going this route. My other options are of course, other remotes. I looked briefly at the OFA Kameleon and their Tivo-wannabe remote.

FYI: Components I need to control: DirecTivo (Hughes GXCEBOTD), Toshiba 32" TV (CZ32V61), Panasonic VHS (don't know the model offhand), Panasonic 5-disc DVD Changer/DVD Audio player (F85S), Denon AVR-3803 receiver. I'm doing all of my video switching at the Receiver level. And unfortuantely, my TV doesn't support discrete on/off codes.

Thanks for any comments/advice.

- Mike

The Kameleon has been getting some poor reviews. A friend had it and sent it back due to poor response from the button pad.

If you do a search in this forum, you will find that the MX-500/MX-600 are THE remotes to buy if you want to have a universal remote that works well with the TIVO and other PVR's.

Read some of the MX-500 User Reviews and you'll find that many of them love the remote for use with TIVO.

I don't think you'll go wrong with the MX-500/600 layout. Plus, you'll notice that out of 132 reviews, the MX-500 has a 4.81/5.00 rating.

Greg

Greg

For what it's worth, I also made the move from the original Pronto to the MX series (first the 500 and now the 700), and I am very happy I did so. The Prontos are terrific as hobbies, but the MX series (particularly the 700) are terrific as actual usable remotes. :-)

While I don't have a TIVO, I do have a PVR and both remotes work extremely well with it. What was three pages of functionality on my Pronto is effortlessly available.

I was in exactly the same situation. I junked my Pronto in favor of an MX-500 and have never looked back. It will take you very little time to program the remote exactly the way you want it and you will be thrilled by the improvement in usability, particulary because of the hard buttons. The MX-500 is perfectly suited for TiVo usage and you will find that you won't need your TiVo remote at all once you get used to the MX-500.

What do you guys use for a layout for Tivo controls on the MX500? In particular, I was wondering about the instant replay, skip, select, and Tivo buttons.

i agree with the other guys. i did a 4 wk research project on getting a remote.. was going to buy pronto but not good for the tivo.. The reason i needed a new remote was because of the tivo i purchased. I gotta say, the Tivo remote feels real nice in the hand but hated using 5 remotes for everything. I bought the mx500 and it does ABSOLUTELY everything and more for what I need, especially the tivo. has some extra functions w/ the favorites and such.. i would recommend the mx 700 though because of discrete codes and easier programming, otherwise you will need to figure out how and which other remote to buy for jp1 programming and such...

Well actually, I could just put discrete codes on my Pronto and have the MX-500 learn from that...

i have a replaytv PVR and this is how my mx500 is set up:
play, rew, fwd, rec, and pause are the same as the oem remote. >>> is skip, <<< is instant replay, other button functions i put up on the lcd area.

I do the same as Equium. The Select button is already available as the center of the joystick. Some people put the TIVO button on the Prev Channel button above the mute button, others put it on an LCD button or another hard button like "Stop" (which is not needed by TIVO).

You can also use the 1st page of FAV to store 10 TIVO macro shortcuts (as well as any TIVO macros you make on the dedicated macro buttons). You have many options :)

I previously had a Harmony 659 but I ended up having to use my TIVO remote separately for TIVO functions, but with the MX-500 my 8 remotes have now been fully retired for good.