Pronto Mini-Tutorial/Walkthrough
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Introduction

The Pronto allows for an amazing level of customization. That flexibility can make the initial setup seem a little overwhelming. I am not an expert or anything, but I may be able to provide a few tips. I think the easiest way to get things rolling is to tackle it in chunks.

The First Choice

The first thing you need to decide is how you want to get started. You can program the Pronto using the ProntoEdit software, or you can program it manually. I think there are benifits to both methods.

Programing the Pronto manually gives you the opertunity to become really familliar with your old remotes, and you may discover features for your devices that you did not even know existed. This is how I got started, but that was because the software was not released when I got my pronto. Programing the pronto without the software is not that difficult, but it is a little limiting layout wise.

If you want to get the most out of your Pronto, you are going to want to use the ProntoEdit software to tweak your configuration. You may be able to save lots of time too, especially if someone has already created a configuration that includes IR codes for your equipment. I will continue on assuming that you have decided to use ProntoEdit on a PC, if you want to do it manually, I suggest you read the manual.

The Stuff You Will Need

You will need to download the ProntoEdit software from the www.pronto.philips.com site and a Pronto serial cable. New Pronto's are shipping with the cable, but if you did not get one Philips is sending them out for free. I would suggest you call them to get the cable. The part number for the cable is 483532117142 and their phone number is 800-835-3506, just tell them you need to order the Pronto cable. They will probably need your serial number. If you do not want to wait for them to send you a cable you can make your own using the pinout diagram that you can get at www.prontoedit.com.

The next thing that I sugest doing is reading the manual for the Pronto itself, and for ProntoEdit (which you can to download from the same place on the philips site as the software). I know that manual's are for sissy's, so I won't hold it against you if you decide to skip it. :) You can always read it later if you need too.

Getting Started

You will need to plug the serial cable into a free com port in the back of your computer, and then plug the headphone-like jack into the pronto itself. The com port needs to be able to run at 115k, so you may have some problems with this if you have a really old computer. Getting a com port free was a real hassle in my configuration because I had a palm pilot hooked up, and the pilot's hotsync manager held onto my com ports until I closed it to remove the conflict.

After you have finished installing the ProntoEdit software, there are a couple of things you will want to do. The first thing that you will want to do is make a back up of your current configuration if you have already started programing your Pronto. To accomplish this, you will click "upload from pronto" found either in the "file" menu or on the toolbar. You may need to touch the pronto's screen to "wake it up" before that will work. When that is done, click "save configuration as" from the file menu and save your backup.

The ProntoEdit software also includes an update for the Pronto's internal OS. To perform the update, I suggest you touch the screen to wake it up then click "update pronto" from the "tools" menu. A dialog will come up asking you to update the pronto, click "ok" and then "continue" on the next menu. It has been a while, but I remember that it the update would happen and the software would say something about hitting reset in the back. I remember the wording being confusing, but that all it really wanted was for me to press the reset button on back of the Pronto (I used a twist tie because my paper clip was too thick).

Finding CCF's

One of the Pronto's greatest strengths is that you can download other peoples configuration files to use with your equipment. These ccf files are a great way to save time and get awesome layout ideas. I would recomend looking at the ccf files posted on www.remotecentral.com or www.prontoedit.com.

Using ProntoEdit

Where you go from here is up to you, the possibilities are almost limitless. There are a few things to remember when you are using ProntoEdit. The first is that if a button does not have any action assigned, it will not be visible in the emulator or if you download it into the pronto. You cannot cut and paste between two instances of ProntoEdit, the way to get around this is a pain, but not that difficult. You can open the CCF you wish to copy from, copy what you want, then open the CCF you want to paste into and perform the paste. A second way to accomplish this is to open the CCF you want to paste into and then open the CCF you want to copy from. Select Merge from the window that pops up and now the two CCF's are together, delete what you don't want and then you will be on your way. BTW, it is important that you open the one you want to paste into first because if you don't then your jumps and aliases could get screwwed up.

There are a few tips that can save you lots of time if you learn them up front, they are in the unofficial FAQ which you can access here near the end of the FAQ.

Designing Your CCF

Dale Crawford made a post on RemoteCentral that I found to be really helpful, he explained his approach for designing a CCF. He was kind enough to allow me to reproduce it here:

I design interfaces for software programs for a living, and to me, programming a CCF is essentially the same process. If you see the situation the same way I do, then my design procedure may be useful to you:

Start by making direct button-for-button devices of all your existing remotes. This way, when start setting up your macros and menus and so forth, you can simply use Aliases to these devices instead of duplicating the codes and wasting memory. Moreover, you'll be teaching yourself the basics of ProntoEdit as you create these virtual versions of your existing remotes.

Next, take a look at what you actually DO with your home theater. Don't base your CCF on what components you have or what buttons are on your remotes: base it on what you want to DO. The reason so many home theaters are impossible for wives and friends to use is that the pile of existing remotes only refelcts the functions of the various devices, not the capabilities of them.

For example, you probably watch tapes on your VCR sometimes. So, create a macro that automatically turns on the TV, the VCR, and your AV Receiver, then selects all the proper inputs and modes for each, and finally displays the basic set of VCR controls (commonly called the "transport"). Name this button something easy, like "Watch a VHS Tape."

Good interface design has nothing to do with the capabilities of the hardware or software. It's all about making it easy to get to the end results that people want. Nobody but us AV-Heads cares about things like the crossover setting for your subwoofer. So hide these superfluous controls from the user. Regardless of how great your setup is, it's just annoying to others if they can't figure out how to use it on their own.

Finally, once you have a working CCF that makes it easy to get to all the things your system can do, THEN create (or borrow) some graphics and make your CCF look nice. For a remote, the Pronto can do some amazing things with graphics, but don't focus on the pretty face first and worry about making it useful later. Besides, every few days someone posts some new CCF with even better graphics than before, so the longer you wait to do your graphics, the more great choices you'll have to borrow from.

I hope this long-winded post wasn't more than you (or anyone else) wanted to read. That's my view on how it's done, not the be-all-end-all definition of Pronto programming. I hope it helps.