Pronto universal remote

[1tribeca]

Eventually I plan to complete some sort of home theatre. With the coin I'm preparing to drop, I think it would justify purchasing a nice remote to sync everything up nicely. Everyone A/V guy I've spoken to says this is a wise and very common move.

I have some experience (seeing & touching) a Pronto remote by Philips (TSU7500 I think) Although they look very nice and the unit seems to work well, are they a good buy? I've heard there can be software issues with them. I also noticed that every single unit I've picked up seems to have a slight rattling sound to it...like there's a small piece of loose plastic inside, but it doesn't seem to affect the performance.

Suggestions? comments?

 

[BMXTRIX]

I'm not sure how much that model is, but I swear by the Universal Remote Control MX850, and others will swear by other models. Having a good universal remote should be the FIRST thing many people consider.

I mean, who cares how good, or how crappy your system is if nobody on the face of the earth can figure out the 20 remotes you have to go through to make it work.

Of course, my remote is sicker than all, so we'll just ignore it.

 

[croseiv]

Eventually I plan to complete some sort of home theatre. With the coin I'm preparing to drop, I think it would justify purchasing a nice remote to sync everything up nicely. Everyone A/V guy I've spoken to says this is a wise and very common move.

I have some experience (seeing & touching) a Pronto remote by Philips (TSU7500 I think) Although they look very nice and the unit seems to work well, are they a good buy? I've heard there can be software issues with them. I also noticed that every single unit I've picked up seems to have a slight rattling sound to it...like there's a small piece of loose plastic inside, but it doesn't seem to affect the performance.

Suggestions? comments?

That "plastic" may be a motion detector. My harmony 1000 has one so it turns on with movement.

 

[dorokusai]

I've had two Pronto remotes and the Harmony was like a walk in the park compared to them both. The setup was just more my speed, slow and easy, and its just my personal experience. YMMV.

Mark
Polk Audio CS

 

[majorloser]

I have a Pronto Pro. It's nice when you get it fully set up.

But it ain't easy to set up. It takes a little time and patience to get right. The nice part is it's all done on the PC then up-loaded to the remote after completion. It will accept color images to use as icons, buttons or backgrounds. This allows for a very custom look.

 

[Johnd]

I've had a Pronto for 3 years...and love it. Like majorloser wrote, there is a learning curve. I would say 10 hours to become a novice, 40 hours to become a semi-pro. If you understand that going in, I don't think you can possibly be disappointed. There is a huge following of Pronto fans at Remote Central, and for good reason.

 

[Gasman]

I've had two Pronto remotes and the Harmony was like a walk in the park compared to them both. The setup was just more my speed, slow and easy, and its just my personal experience. YMMV.

Yep, totally agree.
I had the Pronto TSU-3000 and the one handed TSU-500.
Both were great remotes, but the Harmony I have now (880), was by far the easiest to program.
And, yeah I am fairly good with computers and remote setups.

The only thing I can say bad about the Harmony, is that it feels really cheaply made when compared to the Pronto remotes (that I had)

Basically, if a person is intelligent enough to make a post here, then you should have no problem setting up a Harmony.
It by no means has the custom setting of a Pronto, but it will control the same devices with ease.