With 2001 nearly over, I'd like to take the time now to thank everyone who has supported Remote Central over the past year. With difficult times threatening the existence of so many Internet sites, Remote Central could not have survived without such a great audience. I'd like to thank our advertisers, those of you who donated to the "BDT" fund, everyone who submitted files, all of the forum regulars and, in particular, Mike at Visi.com for ensuring that RemoteCentral.com is always up and available on the Internet (I couldn't ask for a better host). Let's hope that 2002 is a great year!

Pronto file area update!
Over the years, one of the most popular sections here at Remote Central has been the file archive. Although it supports several different remote controls, the largest section by far is for the Philips Pronto and all remotes based on that platform. With over 500 complete system layouts, 3,800 individual component setups, 2,800 television station icons and dozens of documents, utilities and other interesting goodies, even if you don't own a Pronto you might want to check it all out.

Remember, this is a user-supported archive: without your file uploads it couldn't exist!

Black & White Pronto CCFs...
Anyone with a Philips Pronto TS-1000, TSU-2000, RU890 or RU940, a Marantz RC5000 or RC5000i, a Yamaha RAV-2000 or an Onkyo CHAD will want to take a look at these configurations. New or updated system files are available from:

Andy Merrill Barýþ Uz Brett Vrancken Bruce Hartley David Anderson David Ward David Williams Ed Sanders Eduardo Maroja Emilio Romero Evert Nieuwlaar Gary Darbyshire Jim Hughes Martin Wasson Michael Zann

Paul Graber Pete Hillyer Pete Marshall Pete Miller Phil Baker Ricardo Pinto Richard Chapple Ron Shillington TJ Nietfeld Tomer Litvin Tony Prince Vik Rubenfeld William Sanchez Yves Geltmeyer

File Highlights
Looking for a simple, easy-on-the-eyes remote? Then check out Jim Hughes' layout. With only a few, well arranged buttons on each screen, this is one setup that's really easy to comprehend.	Perhaps the exact opposite of "simple", Phil Baker's design is decidedly busy. Working under the inspiration that "more is better", Phil's taken busy - yet organized - to a whole new level!
Being "square" just may not be a bad thing with Andy Merrill's latest design, self-titled "very squarey". Groovy!	David Ward's new CCF file has a different look - that of a MX-1000. Indeed, he's converted the buttons from my MX-1000 to the Pronto!

Color ProntoPro CCFs...
The last few weeks has seen an explosion in the number of ProntoPro CCF files - now with a total of 33! As the only remote control under $1000 capable of vibrant, colorful layouts, it's easy to see why so many creative minds are heading to Philips' premiere remote. New or updated files are available from:

Andrew Jewell Anthony Philippoussis Anthony Sutton Brett DiMichele Claudio Santulli Craig Hart Dave Lewis

Dean Rossman Eduardo Maroja Greg Brezinski Neil Natic Robert Johnson Roger [nolastname] Victor Fingar

File Highlights
Now here's a great 3D layout: Andrew Jewell's new ProntoPro configuration is an original concept design that operates as well as it looks.	Large and easy-to-read is the theme for Brett DiMichele's CCF, which is loosely based on RCA learning remotes. Don't pass up a gander at this CCF.	Jose Blanco's CCF layout leans heavily towards colorful space-themed photo backgrounds, but also includes original button designs.

Update to my color ProntoPro file...
After the release of my color ProntoPro CCF file on the 17th, I received a number of requests for a black and white version. Unfortunately, my file was designed with color in mind - unlike my original black and white layout, which was optimized for the Pronto's limited screen.

However, it seems folks aren't concerned about that and still tried to modify it - however, since ProntoProEdit does such a poor job of converting color images down to black and white, it was impossible to produce acceptable results. Since I didn't want to re-create over 400 individual bitmaps, I came up with an automated way to convert the color design to black and white, utilizing a real bitmap editing program for proper image conversion. The results look much better than what ProntoProEdit can produce but, since this is still an automated conversion of something not designed to be viewed with just 4 often indistinguishable shades of gray, it's a bit grainy.

You'll find the new black and white system layout, along with a converted gallery file, packaged with my color CCF download. The color file has also been updated with a few bug fixes and two new devices - bringing the total up to 17. It's also interesting to note that the black and white converted file, which is as complete as the color version except for the "Galaxy" game, can actually squeeze onto the original 1mb Pronto. Just goes to show how much space there really is!

Television station logos...
Since very few uploaders include thumbnails or a text listing of all files in their station icon archives, it's been several months since I last updated that section. However, this past week I finally got caught up with everyone's uploads, which feature a boatload of useful color icons for ProntoPro or RC9200 owners.

New submissions include 324 color DSS logos from Brent Buchner, 171 color Sky Digital logos from Craig Barnes, 60 B&W western Canadian logos from Dave Warfield, 197 color DSS logos from Kabster, 42 B&W Canal Digital logos from Jonas Nywall and 80 color Canadian logos from Richard Campbell. Finally for the mother load, Steve Wilson has sent in a file with 731 color logos, all framed and converted to 256 colors. If you're keeping track, that's 1,605 new logos, bringing the total on this site up to 2,875! Remember, there's three pages of collections in there!

New utilities...
Trying to make the most out of your remote? Then check out these two new Pronto-related utilities. First is Pronto Transfer, a program that allows Mac OS X owners to easily transfer files to and from their remotes. It also claims to "import and export XML and TIFF files so you can edit and customize your remote's look and functionality", though I have no way to test that.

Finally, there's the new ProntoGen, a utility designed to work with Sony 200-400 disc CD changers. It'll generate databases complete with artist, title and track information. It can even automatically generate those listings via the Internet-based CCB2 Disc Recognition Service.

As always, I would also like to thank everyone who has taken the time to upload unique component CCF files - these are just as important as system files, since so many people look to replace lost or broken remotes with the Pronto. You can always view the latest component uploads here, or the top downloads here.

Marantz RCEdit
Finally for today, Marantz has released a second version of RCEdit, v1.0.14. Although it is now called Touch Screen Setup, very little has in fact changed. There's a few bug fixes, and the download is now several megabytes smaller. One odd change is that it copies a "factory original", read-only copy of the pronto.ini file into your Windows directory, despite the fact that it doesn't even use it. Although this won't affect most users, anyone who has older installations of ProntoEdit or RC5000 Setup will find any custom modifications made to the pronto.ini file suddenly reset and, since the file is now read-only, won't be able to change it back.

So, I've developed a new version of Pronto.ini Workshop which automatically corrects the read-only issue and also supports other customization of the new RCEdit release. You can download "Touch Screen Setup" from here, or my utility from here.