I looked at Philips web page on the Pronto Pro, and it mentions "two-way IR input/output" but I'm not sure if it's referring to it's ability to learn IR codes, or can it truly receive IR? I'm interested in using it to control a CD jukebox where the remote has a lcd showing the title, track, etc., having recieved it from the changer. I haven't bought the changer yet, but that's how I understand they work, please let me know if I'm wrong.

tia,

Barrett

I'm pretty sure the Philips site only means it can learn IR as well as transmit it. Changing what's on screen based on IR input would be a huge difference to the way the Pronto and ProntoEdit works and there's no indication of this change in ProntoProEdit.

I wouldn't worry about it, though... The two-way remotes with CD jukeboxes are only really useful in that you can enter the disc names in one place (remote or device) and have it transmitted to the other. It's a pain to enter the details more than once, but it's only a one-off operation. Also, the remote on my changer does a really bad job and the Pronto works much better. I wouldn't have written Super-Nudelist if the Sony remote was any good; in fact, when I got the changer I saw myself using its remote to select CDs and the Pronto for everything else, until I actually tried it.

Stuff that sucks about the remote for my changer:

* It's limited to 12 (I think) character names. This is lame in itself but made worse by the fact that the unit's limit is 13 characters. After naming two discs "NIN-Fragile-L" and "NIN-Fragile-R" on the unit, the remote displayed them both as "NIN-Fragile-". Great. :-)

* It can only show discs in slot order. No sorting by artist. Not even alphabetic sorting by disc name. Makes it pretty much useless, especially if your collection becomes fragmented, which is inevitable unless you never buy new CDs or are prepared to move everything around each time you do (or leave strategic gaps).

There are a couple of other lesser things which I could add but, basically, the Pronto does a much better job for me and everyone else I've spoken to and the two-way IR ain't all that.

Of course, someone -- maybe even Sony -- may have produced a much better two-way remote for their newer changers.

The newest Sony changers are what I've looked at, don't remember the models right off. The remote can display alphabetically, sorted by title or track, search, etc. One thing that's cool (but too expensive) is that there's a company making a slink - serial interface & software to interface a pc with internet access (to all the CD databases out there) to the changer and update the changer that way. You'd think a someone would get smart and put a usb or ethernet jack an a changer where it could update itself.

Even without the bidirectional IR I'm being tempted by the pro for it's rf capability - I'd like to control the volume for in-wall speakers throughout my house.

thanks again for the reply,

Barrett

It's a fancy way of saying you can get IR *in* and *out*. Out of interest, the original Pronto was designed -- and built -- with a special IR receiver just for two-way communications with receivers and such... but it was never used and the hardware was removed.