A word of clarification. The ProntoPro is the color version of the popular Philips Pronto remote. It also has a larger memory and additional hard buttons. My wife bought it for approx. $650 new, so it's well within your price range.
The ProntoPro does
not require you to go through a big project acquiring discrete codes for all your equipment. Out of the box, it comes with a truly extensive library of manufacturers' codes preprogrammed in. In the event that you need additional codes for special functions and/or unusual hardware, the previously-mentioned website
Remote Central has a tremendous library of user-submitted codes. Not a big deal at all.
In fact, IMHO the only time when programming the ProntoPro requires any effort at all is if you choose to use one of the third-party add-ins such as ProntoGen, which indexes and databases all of the CDs you may have in multiple jukeboxes on your remote. That certainly
can take some time and effort. But for ordinary usage, it's a piece of cake for anyone with computer experience.
Mind you, I don't think I'd buy one for my father-in-law or my grandmother. But I'm assuming a certain level of competence of the readers of this forum.
