Pronto Neo or Marantz RC3200?

flangemonkey

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I'm on the lookout for a new all-in-one remote. Got a £30 touchscreen jobby which I've had for a year or so that I got from Maplin...it has no hard buttons at all, a limited number of functions per button since the labels are non-editable, plus the fact that it seems incapable of learning any Sky+ codes correctly which when combined, makes me want to move on to another more expensive, more customisable model...

Been looking at a variety of handsets on remotecentral.com. I'm after a remote that has at minimum a hard 5-way pad/joystick type affair (since every one of my components has at least one of these on their original remotes) other hard buttons like vol. etc. is a bonus...I would also ideally like a fully-customisable screen that is capable of handling "favourite channel" macros to save me remembering all the three digit numbers for Sky channels (not to mention the ability to add proper channel logos etc.)

I think that it's now a toss-up between the Pronto Neo and the Marantz RC3200. The other larger screen Pronto doesn't seem to have the 5-way pad in the most optimal position for one-handed operation, and looks slightly over-complicated to configure...the Neo variant looks simpler and less daunting, plus has more hard buttons which is a definite bonus, and I definitely would like more hard buttons than the regular Pronto...

Both the Neo and the Marantz are obviously more or less identical "under the hood" (with the Marantz having 2 more hard buttons than the Philips) and can both have totally-customisable screens.

So what I'm really after knowing is are they to all intents and purposes identical (apart from the Marantz's extra 2 hard buttons)?

Do they have identical capabilities apart from this? Do they perform more or less the same, including their learning ability (which is very important, since some of my equipment will almost certainly not have codes already in the built-in database)

Cheers.
 
I think effectively they are the same, but having owned a Neo for the last three years I find it difficult to recommend one! In day-today operation the Neo is fine and works well apart from at lest one software crash a month, needing a battery out reset.

The problems in the Neo’s firmware have never been fixed, not only with the random crashing but getting it to learn new IR codes is hit and miss to say the least and a lot of the time a miss, and the list goes on.

Head over to www.remotecentral.com for more reviews.
 
not wanting to sound like i`m slagging off the prontoneo because i am VERY happy with it. BUT like tides2002 says it does crash and it is hard work to set up,
i spent about 4 solid days on mine to get it just right
another problem is that sometimes when you send the file from the pc the learned codes dont work

but on the whole it is a very versitile remote that youll spend the rest of your life tweeking and playing with:D
 
I have a NEO and is true that the SW isn't a dream, but after some reasearch, I found some tools that can help.
Now I can control all my stuff, just by learnig function.
Some times I had to repeat the command thousand time, but it ends ok.
 
The marantz 3200 is and easy choice. The software is far superior. I have the neo and I've download the 3200 software to enter discreet codes. With neohacker was able to obtain the codes and enter the codes into the neo. Save yourself the trouble and get the marantz unless you are saving a great deal of money buying the neo.
 

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