An update to my Pronto Professional contest entry with changes made to the buttons transparency so they work correctly. The buttons worked perfect in the emulator, but not on the actual remote as 100% transparent areas are ignored. This caused 90%+ of the buttons in Aura to not respond. All have been fixed and tested to work perfectly. If you have any questions, please let me know.

A simple XCF file for the Pronto TSU9800. This file also works for the TSU9600.

If you were previously using a remote like the Pronto TSU2000, which we were using before upgrading to the TSU9600, then you may have gotten used to going to individual devices that were actually the remotes for the equipment in your system. This system XCF file is based on running all devices with macros, but having a remote available for fine tuning all aspects of the device being used, as well as using buttons to get back and forth between devicess, like Cable and TV. All device remotes can also easily be accessed from a menu page of Devices on the Home Menu. There is an included Help File that explains the remote's use and functions to all users. Elements used were simply from the ProntoEdit Professional program and the "onlyoneremote.com" web site.

I completely overhauled my interface (previously XPronto SCUBA Edition) in an attempt to make the remote easier for my wife to use.

I've modeled my Home/Splash screen after the HTC Hero phone with a large digital clock and current weather conditions. You can go to the full 5-day forecast (located in a different activity) by pressing on the weather icon area.

The main activities page incorporates large icons to quickly and easily navigate to the device you wish to control. I have incorporated both device and state tracking. This allows you to navigate to settings (audio and video) or weather sections and quickly return to your current device. The device state tracking will keep track of witch inputs you are using for both the display and receiver. If you navigate to either the display input section of receiver input section, a blue light will be displayed on the input button for your current device.

The animation for the 'Making system adjustments' and 'Shutting the system down' sections turned out quite nicely. There is both a blue ball that travels from the remote icon to the screen as well as a fuzzy white pulse that travels along the progress bar as commands are being sent... (more)

Chromatic is an XCF designed for the Marantz RC9001 that takes a restrained approach to colour.

Chromatic is primarily an activity based XCF but has full remotes for all devices. If you want more colour if your life simply change the default iPhone 4 wallpaper on the system page to any of the supplied additional wallpapers (or one of your own), and Scott Grimes' translucent buttons will glow the way you want them. The XCF also includes all New Zealand TV and Radio logos including those for Sky TV and Freeview.

A retro, sci-fi-inspired interface featuring:

• Eye popping, colorful 3D graphics!
• A variety of button shapes and sizes.
• Multi-colored background to mix things up.
• Button templates to help maintain constant button placement.
• Intergraded channel logo buttons.
• Greeble and gizmos accents to help customize and make every page unique.
• Background accents to help define logical user spaces.
• All original Photoshop, Illustrator and Lightwave files available to customize even further.

GRAND PRIZE WINNER! The idea behind Prototypes is: how might a hard-buttoned remote control look if it were designed specifically for watching TV, DVD or PVR?

Change stations from an elegant chrome sphere placed on your couch table, control your DVD player via a device that is quite similar to today’s business phones, or switch your PVR with a PDA-like gadget. Or wouldn’t a keychain remote control for your receiver be pretty cool?

Prototypes features elegant near-photorealistic graphics, dynamic transitions, help screens for every device and intuitive navigation. If you don’t own a TSU9600 to test this on, please don’t only watch the graphics on the simulator, but take a peek at the full resolution graphics.

I hope you like this design – any feedback would be gladly appreciated!

The basic concept for this configuration is to mimic drop-down menus. Any device can be accessed and controlled from any page on the remote. This method is very straight forward and universally understood by anyone who used a computer making it very easy for friends, family, or children to pick up and use with little instruction.

As the rules suggested, I focused on graphics and navigation rather than making sure it had working codes and macros everywhere. All graphics were done with Photoshop and with a couple of master PSDs, adding or changing graphical elements is very easy. I attempted to place the most commonly used commands on hard buttons to avoid using the screen as much as possible.

I had planned on using recorded voice-overs instead of text for “HELP” prompts, but ecided to skip this for now as the simulator will not play them back. I also no longer think it’s necessary, as this configuration is “Drop-Down Simple”!

FIFTH RUNNER UP! Most small systems consist of only a few devices like a receiver, cable/sat box, DVD player, CD Changer and a video game system. There are included pages for lighting control, audio, and video adjustments as well. You can quickly program this template for your own system or for one of your customers and is self explanatory using activity buttons that are highlighted on each source page so you will always know where you are.

By placing the activity buttons on every page, this design takes advantage of systems that may not include an RF base. If you choose an activity and the IR command didn't get to the device, you can simply choose the activity a second time without having to back to the home page and select the button again. This design is very customer friendly and was intentionally designed to have less buttons on the source control pages by using the only the most commonly used commands for each device. There are additional sized buttons to copy and paste in case you need to include more functions or change a device page.

SECOND PLACE WINNER! The following file is based on my SCUBA-themed configuration that I use for my Marantz RC9500. However, all of the graphics have been completely redone to accommodate the Pronto TSU9600 graphics capabilities (when importing the PCF file into the Pronto Professional program all the graphics became very tiny). Because the remote uses a widescreen display, I decided to base the page navigation within each device on the XBOX 360 dashboard. You navigate the tabs (or also known as ‘blades’ for those familiar with the XBOX 360) by using the page up and down buttons located to the left of the screen. The ‘blades’ themselves are currently not active (i.e., cannot be directly accessed by pressing on them), but will become so at a later date when I have more time to complete the file.

I am an avid SCUBA diver and so the background pictures are themed after this. However, with not too much difficulty, the pictures can be changed to whatever you wish.

The Home page will allow you to: 1) power the entire system down, 2) access power for all devices in the system, 2) access to lighting control and drapes, 4) the remote setup page – for... (more)