I can see the obvious differences in the design and memory requirements, but I want to know about the nitty gritty. I have a Pronto 2MB unit now and the thing that I felt was missing was a control joystick in hardware buttons. Then I saw the NEO. Now I am wondering if I should sell the Pronto to get the Neo, I am using about 180K of memory on my Pronto now, so I am not worried about the memory on the Neo, but I am concerned about the some of the other issues brought up here. I know some have been addressed and some haven't with new firmware and software. I am wondering what I would lose if I "downgraded" to the Neo. What do you experts feel?

Well, I'm not an expert, I've never owned a Pronto & this is my first 'learning' remote, but I will tell you what I think of it. I've always both desired and detested the Pronto. I love the 'cool' factor, but I hate the idea of being forced to look at a screen for EVERY A/V function I wish to perform. Sometimes, laying on the couch in a dark room with the remote in your hand is important. Feel and sightless operation are important. And with a TiVo, I needed more than channel & volume up/down.

To me, the Neo is moving more in the right direction than even the Pronto Pro. I don't much care for a color screen (RF would be nice). Sure the resolution is much worse than a Pronto's resolution (personally, the simpler the better in my mind). Get used to just plain buttons and no more than a dozen or so buttons per page (and trust me, you'll probably want less than that to avoid false pushes). But the form factor is a dramatic improvement. The four-way switch is great. Plus, it still has a major cool factor among your friends.

What I dislike:
No RF
Still a few hard buttons short (2 more would be great)
No 'in unit' recharging for batteries (you have to recharge them externally)
Programming limitations (that'll hopefully be fixed)
- Example: the main menu (device menu) doesn't allow for custom actions to be assigned to the device buttons as this menu is dynamically created.

What I like:
Form factor (buttons, buttons, buttons)
Looks cool
Good price (I wouldn't pay more than 250 for a remote - and yes, I know I can get a low end Pronto for that on EBay)

What I can live with but others many not like:
lower resolution
lack of ability to create 'flashy' pages

My goals for A/V control:
A remote like the Neo with RF and recharging cradle for simple day to day operations.
A wireless tablet PC for complicated operations. Dynamic menu capabilities, large color screen. Why buy a Pronto Pro? Get a tablet PC and get web access as well.

So far, 1 week in, I really like it. I had some bad times, but I muddled through those. I might have more fun with a Pronto, but this feels like a more practical solution.

These are just my opinions. Hope they help.

Trynyty

I agree completely about the buttons. Not to stray off this tread, but I feel the two extra buttons we need are there. If the outer two buttons under the screen could be programmed then they could be used to control TiVo/VCR/CD/TAPE/DVD, and the cursor pad would be free for alot of other stuff. I know that the left one is the mode button. I sure something else could be done.

About the mode button (OK, I'm really straying off :-).
I could live with it that it would still do mode after the current timeout (pressing continously), but I'd like that it would do another action that I could assign myself after a (normal) short press.
What do you think? Maybe someone can push Philips to provide this in NEOedit?

Check out the "hard button potential" thread. I didn't get a very good reponse the first time around.

I think I am going to keep my eye out for a RC5200 from Marentz. It looks like the way to go. All the Pronto Function with the hard buttons on the Neo. I can wait a little for it to come down in price a little though as I already have a Pronto.