Noviiremote, Omniremote, Pronto Lite comparison

[Anita]

I played with all three of those yesterday on my T665C and really like the NoviiRemote interface.

However, of the three, it gives me unacceptable IR range, particularly on my DVD player (the one device Clie RMC can't control). Pronto Lite is the best - almost as good as the Clie RMC.

Omniremote is close to Pronto Lite in distance. Has anyone else (particularly with T665C) compared the three and come up with the same thing? I'd really like to know if there's some sort of tweak that gives Noviiremote more range.

Anita

[n2ifp]

There is a group on Yahoo that might be of help.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RMCEnhancer

On some of the Clies there is two IR emitters, one strong, one weak. My understanding was the lack of Sony API's for the stronger IR emitter.

[Anita]

Thanks, I'm aware of that group - but it's really focused on changing the sony Clie RMC program and what I'm wondering about is the third-party Noviiremote program, which allows training the remote.

I just don't understand why it gives me such a short range while the other two third-party remote training programs and Clie RMC give me a good range.

Anita

[Battloid]

I has also expereinced this with Novii Remote on my NR70V. It is almost as if the trial version is "low powered" though I can't find any such crippling mentioned in the documentation. I'm not prepared to buy it just to see if the registered version works at similar ranged to Pronto Lite etc. As it is for some devices when I use Novii Remote I have to be no more than a couple of feet away, so it obviously no good as it is when other apps work fine from across the room.

[Anita]

I can't believe they would deliberately underpower a trial version. That would be a not-bright marketing move since the whole purpose of the trial is to see if the thing works with a specific handheld and specific devices. . . .

I e-mailed them about it but no response. It did seem a bit odd that it would be so much worse than the others on a T665c, which is KNOWN to have a good IR range.

Anita

[rob_squared]

I talked to an OmniRemote rep, and they plan to support the high-power IR in future releases. They have already supported OS5 clies by using the weaker IR.

[swagner]

I wonder if the shorter range is only on clie's with the enhanced IR. On my SJ/20 and SJ/22 the range seems as good or better than Omniremote and I found it a slicker interface and infinitely easier to program. I used Omniremote for a long time and have switched to Noviremote now. I have nver tried Pronto. Any advantages there?

[Anita]

Well, there is a disadvantage to Pronto Lite -- it seems to require that beam receive be "on" to work, period. Otherwise you get a message that the IR port is busy and the program closes. I can understand that for programming the thing in the first place, but after that, it's not necessary. I keep beam receive "off" based on posts here that it conserves energy.

Pronto Lite works well, has a much more attractive, dummy-friendly interface than Omniremote and is a lot easier (for me) to tackle as a result. The templates are fixed and there are no options for adding or renaming buttons, as is Noviiremote, but there aren't as many buttons in the templates.

Bottom line personally is I'm just not going to buy anything right now. I FAR prefer the Noviiremote interface and I'd rather just wait to see if they post an update that works with my T665 and do without meanwhile.

Anita

[MonkeyK]

Do any/all of these allow me to have actions for more than one device on a screen?

It would be nice to be able to have on the same screen:
1)DVD player controls
2)Volume controls for my reciever
3)Mute for my TV
4)change channel for my VCR

When I looked at the Sony remote commander, I could only set up one device per screen, so in order to affect more than one device, I would have to select the command, then choose the next device, ...