A bit of history: A long time ago, I was a huge fan of the pronto. I had a one of the very fist models available, and paid way too much. I loved it, and it loved me. I gave them out for Christmas one year (brother and father). They loved them, but never programmed them. I did it all. It was great.

Then the dark time fell on my home. I was robbed. They took everything. Pronto, TV stereo, PC, Tivo… I replaced most things, but really lost allot of hart. One of the best things I had in my Pronto was a catalog of CDs in my 300 CD changer. Well after that I went to strait remotes.

Also since then, my wife has given birth to my two children. One of them is old enough to monkey with my remotes. This has created a need for me to get back to one, useful remote.

I was given a brand new neo last year. It’s still in the box and I am ready to start using. I have a few questions.

First: it’s all about discrete IR codes. I need to tell the TV to go to Video 2 or Video 5. I also need to do the same with the stereo receiver and DVD. I have been looking around, but I cant find the discrete codes like I used to. I can’t seem to find any of them. I don’t know what I am doing wrong.

Also, I see neoHack. Is that worth getting right into, of should I start slow? I will download all the latest firmware and editors.


I don’t have my TV/DVD/Receiver model number with me, but they are all Philips. (I bought everything from Philips employee store).

Also, I am getting a dell DJ20 mp3 player for Christmas. Anyone know if you can control this with ir?

Discrete Codes: There are a couple of ways to get them. One costs $20, the other takes time. It's your choice. I bought one of the inexpensive learning/preprogrammed remotes from OneForAll and got all of the advanced function codes from their and another website. This included some discrete power codes, discrete input changes, etc. It cost me $20 and was worth it. The other option is to find users NCF's here in the files section which have the same or similar equipment to yours. Most Mfg's use the same codes for every model in their product line. (ie - if you have model ABC-507 and you find a user with ABC-612 in his NCF it will likely have the same codes). You can simply cut and paste segments of any downloaded NCFs. If that doesn't work, you can also find a pronto user who has similar equipment and get the discrete IR codes from their CCF. Those codes will be in HEX format and cannot be entered into the Neo directly. This is where NeoHacker comes into play. If you want to input Pronto Hex codes into Neo you will need this program. Otherwise I find it unnecessary.

The only other purpose of NeoHacker is to allow you to make your own custom "start page". NeoEdit defaults to the main device page no matter what you do. With NeoHacker you can make your own start page and set it as the default. I find this process to be tedious as it adds another step everytime you make a change to your NCF. You have to save it in NeoEdit, open it in Neohacker, set the page to default, save it in NeoHacker, open it in NeoEdit, download it to your remote. You CANNOT save a "hacked" NCF in NeoEdit or it will overwrite your default.

There is a simple workaround that avoids the need for this program. Like many users, I have a macro for "all off" that shuts down my system. The last step in my shutdown macro is a JUMP command to my custom start page. That way, the next time someone picks up the remote, it is already on the start page. I've also added a HELP button just in case someone messes up.

I don't mind the $20, but how can I tell if it will have any of the discreet codes I am looking for?

with neohacker you can use the codes in the file section. Neohacker can be found in the NEO file section and adds other functionality

I don't know if I am looking in the wrong place, But I can find any discrete codes for Philips TV, DVD/receiver, Tivo.

You'll have to read descriptions of user's setups to see if they mention discrete codes. There is no other way to determine if they are included. The easiest way to get the codes is definitely by buying a OneForAll remote and getting the codes from their (and other) websites.