Philips Pronto - mom friendly? (1 Viewer)

[John M Miller]

I have given up on my mom. After purchasing and setting up quite a nice HDTV setup for her and training her for several months, she just isn't getting it. She just can't grasp the concept of switching between the TV and DVD player using the receiver, etc. SOOOOOOO for Christmas I'd like to get her a remote that will turn everything on, switch things to the proper settings and so on with the touch of one button.

I have heard rave reviews about the Pronto remote and I am wondering if it is the right thing for her. Simply put, is it too much of a techie gadget or will it actually simplify things to the point where she doesn't have to call me on the phone every time she wants to watch her Sting DVD? Is there another alternative that is cheaper? (she has bad eyes, so I need something with a large display) What about the problems people are having with rebooting?

Much thanks in advance.

 

[Brett DiMichele]

John,

Is it a techie gadget? The awnser is an astounding yes.

Could this be the remote for you mom? The awnser depends

on YOU..

The Pronto line is the most powerful GUI Touchscreen type

remote's on the planet with exception to custom insalled

systems like AMX and Creston which can run many many MANY

thousands of dollars.

If you have the time to sit down and design the GUI and

then give it to your mom, I have no doubt she will be able

to use the system more than she ever could before. But I

stress that it lies in your abilities to set up the Pronto

for her.

The other question would be, will she like a touch screen

remote? I for one love them and wouldn't use a hard button

remote unless I had no other choice. Of course not everyone

agrees with me and some flat out hate touchscreen remotes.

 

[Kevin. W]

Checkout www.remotecentral.com for reviews. I just recently got a Marantz AV560U which came with a 2000MKII. Beautiful piece of hardware.
Kevin

 

[Bob_Hammond]

Go to remotecentral like the other poster suggested, but read up on the HTM MX-500. I originally had the Pronto, and find the MX-500 a lot easier to use since it has hard buttons, and it's cheaper also.

Bob

 

[george kaplan]

It doesn't sound like your mom could program it, but if you can program it (and it's not that hard) it could be the perfect solution for you.

Just to give you an example, on mine I have a button with my wife's name on it. She pushes it. The tv turns on (if it's already on it stays on), the channel switches to food tv (her favorite) and anything else that was on (like the cd player) is turned off. The pronto then has a new screen with user friendly buttons. There's one labeled dvd, cd, etc. One is called channels. She pushes that and a new screen comes on with the logos of her favorite stations. Etc., etc.

 

[Scott-C]

The Pronto could be the answer, but it entirely depends, as others have said, on your willingness and ability to build the kind of automation your mom will require in order to make it easy for her. It's not rocket science - you just need to tinker with ProntoEdit (the software supplied with the Pronto that allows you to build a customized interface), and I find that it's not tremendously difficult to use once you've gotten used to it.

By way of example, I build a button called "TV" and then assigned a series of commands to it (a macro) that turns on the TV, switches the TV to the correct input for watching TV, and then changes the channel to the Preview Channel. It also brings up a series of screens that hold the options for watching TV (i.e. a page of "favorites", menu options, channel surfing, etc.).

Now that it's done, watching TV with this remote is a breeze, but I did spend quite a bit of time thinking about how I wanted to use the remote, what kinds of actions I take when I'm using the system, and how to build them in the Pronto. I know it may sound like a lot of work, but actually I found the whoe process very enjoyable. In fact, I'm always tweaking the Pronto interface. If you want it to be, it can be a never-ending process of always finding and implementing ways to better utilize the remote!