Pronto fat finger problem

[Kahless]

Carolone :- a woman in to AV this is soo cool, my wife just doesn't seem interested http://www.wvip.co.uk/ubb/smile.gif

Caroline do you find any discrimination from sales assistants because your a woman?

Regards

Robert

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Out of my mind!

Back in 5 mins.

[Caroline]

Are you joking, Robert? I’m the home cinema fan in this house, as my husband is more into computers. It’s a good arrangement and we split the cost right down the middle. We mainly use specialist retailers for the simple reason they know what they are talking about. But when we go into Curry’s or any of the other High Street/retail park shops, the assistant will immediately assume I haven’t got a clue. When we went to buy a Tosh telly, the male sales assistant, directed all his replies to my husband, even if it was me who asked the question. Another time, when I went in on my own, a different sales assistant (male again, although the women are just as bad) talked to me as if I was a seven-year-old. He actually said that if I was watching a widescreen broadcast I should set the screen to the widescreen setting. I pointed out that this would only be the case if it was an anormorphic broadcast or if I was watching a DVD, otherwise everyone would look fat. Yep, you guessed it, he didn’t know what anormorphic meant and when I explained, he told me he didn’t think they had developed that technology yet!
We are lucky enough to have a local home cinema specialist called Blinkhorns whose sales people gave me respect from the moment I walked through their door.
I think there are probably more women into home cinema than this forum would have us believe. They are just smarter than I am. By pretending not to be interested, they don’t have to stump up half the cash for the equipment. Maybe I am dumb after all.

http://www.wvip.co.uk/ubb/cool.gif Caroline

[Caroline]

Having successfully designed our Pronto screens based on Alan Westhead’s excellent SNTG configuration on the www.remotecentral.com (http://www.remotecentral.com) site, hubby found that his fat fingers were just not up to the job. The answer? – a PDA stylus. We bought a pack of five so we could have one each and to allow for losing them down the side of the sofa.. and they work a treat. However, it took us ages to actually find a shop that stoocked them and sales assistants that actually know, or even care, what the customer wants. Sales assistants tend to say “if we have got them in stock they will be on display”. On one occasion after getting this reply I asked the assistant in Curry’s if she actually knew what a PDA stylus was. She said: “No, I don’t know what you’re talking about but if we have them they’ll be on display,” and then stomped off. Arrghh!! If anyone wants to know where to get a stylus pack, try John Lewis stores. I find their staff know their stuff and actually try to help the customer.

It’s been one of those lifetimes
Caroline

[StuartBooth]

Ahhh, top tip about the stylus packs. I might try them out if I can find some in JL as you suggest. My only fear is finding a convenient stylus.

In the end I find I get best success with my Pronto via using my nails to press the buttons. I prefer lots of buttons on a screen than a small number of large buttons.

The only problem with this strategy came recently when I cut my nails. It suddenly made it damn hard to activate the button in my normal style! Luckily they're growing back and the 'problem' has vanished.


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Stuart Booth
Somewhere in Buckinghamshire, England, UK

[Alan Westy]

Caroline,

Glad you found my ccf useful, I myself have moved on to a more activity based ccf while still using the same look and feel, if you would like a copy just drop me an email

[charles]

Caroline,
I have found my fingers too big to push the buttons...have you experienced this?

[Ars longa, vita brevis]

dont have pronto, but am blighted with my pa's fat and stubby fingers(my palms are much longer, about one and a halff times the length of my fingers), hence the reason i hit aboot three keys when typing.

know where to get fat fingered keyboards from?

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Assumption is the mother of all errors

member formerly known as hank hill, the Jesus H
but he got bored of that so changed to some latin sh*t
'which is nice'

[Desmo]

I've just been looking into info on the Pronto. Is it worth getting?
I've seen the new model but a look at the differences between this and the old one look minimal compared to the £100 odd price difference.

The cheapest I've seen for the old model is £175. Is this about right?

Any comments appreciated. http://www.wvip.co.uk/ubb/smile.gif

[StuartBooth]

It's a brilliant gadget, really fantastic and I totally recommend it.

When you first get all your kit programmed into it, it's very handy having everything controlled by the one remote. But when you start using more complicated macros, the unit really comes into its own.

My favourites in my setup are:
1. Activating all the right equipment to watch a DVD or ONdigital, and putting everything into the best mode.
2. Selecting items in the picture setup menu of my TV (Menu, wait, Down, OK, wait, Down * 5, etc)
3. Toggling my amp between externally front-channel power-amped mode or internally power-amped front channel mode (a sequence of steps too long and boring to try and list here).

Not only that, but there's a thrill to seeing a new panel design or macro working its magic.

4 months on my from getting mine I'm still fine tuning it.


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Stuart Booth
Somewhere in Buckinghamshire, England, UK

[Caroline]

Desmo,
It's worth pointing out that it doesn't take four months to get a Pronto controlling all your equipment – that can be done in a couple of hours or so. But once you get into ProntoEdit and start customising your screens, you'll start to see the real benefits of owning a Pronto. By setting up macros you can have it turn on all your equipment, play your DVD and jump to the appropriate screen (on the Pronto) for your DVD player – and all at the touch of one button. It can become addictive. Just when you think you can't improve on it, you'll spot a kicking graphic or a brilliant idea from another user that will make it just that little bit better.

There are several sites covering the Pronto. But by far the best is www.remotecentral.com (http://www.remotecentral.com)

There you will find everything you will ever need to know about the Pronto.

Have fun Caroline http://www.wvip.co.uk/ubb/wink.gif

[Desmo]

Cheers for the help guys, and girl http://www.wvip.co.uk/ubb/wink.gif

Checked out the site and some of the menu systems people have designed look superb.

Should be receiving my Pronto in the next 2 days http://www.wvip.co.uk/ubb/smile.gif

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The only problem with common sense is it's not very common.

[StuartBooth]

Caroline is right, programming it is as easy as downloading a CCF and recording some IR commands into the buttons, definitely not 4 months of work!!

It's the tweaking and modifying that's taken up the rest of my time. I keep finding shortcuts I want adding, or things that aren't as smooth to use as they could be (I have an eject button where I keep wanting to have a FF button for my VCR).

Ideally I'd like a fully programmable remote into which I can record state information, such that knowing it's done X, box Y is in this state, therefore to turn it to state Z it must perform A, B and C... But now we're talking a programming language rather than very simplistic macros.

Having said that, these very same simplistic macros can be hooked together to form some that is very powerful.

I originally saw the device in an advert, liked the idea of a touch screen, looked at RemoteCentral next and the moment I saw the custom panels I just *knew* that this was the ideal remote.


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Stuart Booth
Somewhere in Buckinghamshire, England, UK

[Black 5]

Stuart,

Have you discovered the mysterious world of discrete codes yet, since they will often give you the results you are describing?