RE: Pronto opinions

["Phil Harris" <phil@xxxxxxx>]

> Personally Phil I think you should speak up...

Fair enough then...

I reckon you should go for an RU940 (I'll cover my reasons why later.)

On the RU940...

The criticisms first:

The screen ... the screen *COULD* be a lot better. It would be nice if
it
was brighter and had higher contrast. *HOWEVER* that would cost a
significant amount of money more and should be addressed on the new
RU950
(which was due out now but has now been put back to the end of March but
may
of course go back further).

That's my only criticism of the RU940.

The "plusses":

It has one of the most pervasive IR emitters that I have ever come
across
... christ knows how they make it so effective but it is the best IR
emitter
I have used in a remote.

If you buy the docking station you'll be able to find it. (Yeah the
dock
charges the battery pack too but I get about 8-9 months out of a set of
Duracells in the Pronto upstairs and about 3 months out of the
downstairs
one if I run it on Duracells.)

Huge resource of graphics and configs available at Remote central.

Reasons to get the Pronto NEO.

1) It has the cursor pad.

Reasons *NOT* to get the NEO.

1) The screen is half the H and V resolution of the RU940

2) You can't port across IR codes and configs from an RU940.

3) They are nowhere near as good at learning IR as an RU940 ... I
haven't
managed to get a NEO to learn my Panny TV or VCR codes for example.

Reasons to get the PPro.

1) You can switch off the IR transmitter and use RF to an RF base
instead
either globally or on a device by device basis.

2) You can have multiple RF bases and address each individually (like an
X10
house and unit code).

3) The screen is much better than an RU940.

Reasons *NOT* to get the PPro.

1) It's expensive compared to the RU940 for what is to most people
"just" a
colour screen.

Now, I know that someone is gonna jump in and say "use an iPaq"
but I
personally don't like the idea of using an iPaq ... to me an iPaq is still
a
PDA first and any software remote is an add-on ... I like remotes to be
remotes, PDA's to be PDA's and things to do one job and do it well.

I do not want my washing machine to microwave my socks...

(Oh yeah ... The RU950 is also expected by Philips to be selling for
about
?299 so assume at least ?100 more than the current ?149 for the RU940.)

Phil



http://www.automatedhome.co.uk
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