Using Pronto Codes

Philips Pronto is an expensive upscale universal remote that can be programmed via PC. Remote Central,
http://www.remotecentral.com/ has a large collection of Philips Pronto files submitted by Pronto users. Pronto sites are a
very good place to search for signal information.

You’ll find Pronto information in 4 forms, short form hex, long form hex, CCF files, and PCF files. John fine has written,
DecodeIR.DLL, IRTool.EXE, DecodeCCF to translate Pronto codes into JP1 terms. Depending on the form you are working
with you’ll need to download the following tools.

The Tools
DecodeIR.DLL
Location: Forum Index -> File Section -> Jp1 File Section -> Tools -> Main

IRTool.exe (requires DecodeIR.DLL)

Location: Forum Index -> File Section -> JP1 File Section -> Tools -> Programs

DecodeCCF.exe (requires DecodeIR.DLL)

Location: Forum Index -> File Section -> JP1 File Section -> Tools -> Programs

ProntoEdit NG.exe
Location: http://www.remotecentral.com/
Long Form Hex – Raw Code
Tools: DecodeIR.DLL, IRTool.exe

The first 4 digits of the Pronto code indicate the form it is stored in. Most types of signals don’t have a short form, so
they will be in the raw code format.

0000 - raw oscillated code

0100 - raw unmodulated code

Down Arrow:
0000 0070 0000 0032 0080 0040 0010 0010 0010 0030 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010
0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0030 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010
0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0030 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010
0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0030 0010 0010 0010 0030 0010 0010
0010 0010 0010 0030 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0030 0010 0010 0010 0030 0010 0010 0010 0010 0010 0030
0010 0030 0010 0aa6

Most protocols have no short form, so you would find only the
long form and IRTool will decode most of them.

Open IRTool

Paste your Pronto hex code in the Hex Codes box.

Press the [Decode Hex] button.

And a popup with the DecodeIR DLL Results will appear.

If you don’t get this “DecodeIR DLL Results” popup you

did not install IRTool in the same directory as
DecodeIR. This seems to be a common problem among new
users.
Short Form – Pronto standard formats

Tools: N/a

If pronto hex begins with anything other than 0000 or 0100 it’s a short form.

If you need to decode of a Short form, post your code in the Protocol Decode forum, so an expert can assist you.

While there are a few of jp1 experts that know the standard Pronto format inside and out, knowledge of the off-beat formats
is somewhat limited. There aren't any tools at the JP1 site that translate the non-raw formats for you.

For Pronto Codes that have short forms, each has different rules and the descriptions..

Short form
5000 - Philips RC5
5001 - Philips RC5x
6000 - Philips RC6 Mode 0
7000 - predefined code of variable length
8000 - index to UDB
900x - various versions of the NEC protocol.

Power Off: 900A 006D 0000 0001 874E 39C6

The 900A code in the example is a Nec1

If you want to learn how to do this, check out this document.

http://www.hifi-remote.com/infrared/prontoirformats.pdf
CCF file
Tools: DecodeCCF.exe, DecodeIR.DLL

CCF files are a common Pronto file type. John Fine has a program called DecodeCCF that will put this file into readable form.
DecodeCCF works with DecodeIR.DLL. If you drag a CCF onto the DecodeCCF Icon, it will produce a Tab delimited .txt file of
the same name. If you open this txt file in a spreadsheet program or a text editor you’ll be able to read the information you
need to enter in KeyMaster or RemoteMaster. When its part of a complete system, like this one is, you’ll need to scroll until
you find what seems to be your device.

If the Protocol column says something like “Gap-578-1682-32”, instead of a Protocol name, you’ll want to run DecodeCCF with
an option to display the raw timing data.

The command line syntax to force the timings is:

DecodeCCF [number of word of raw hex to display] [display raw timings] ccf_file
example:
DecodeCCF 24 x foo.ccf

The first argument when there is more than one, is the number of words of
raw Pronto hex to display when no decode is found.

The second argument when there are more than two, indicates (by just being
there) that you want timing detail displayed on all signals.

The last argument is the ccf file name.

PCF file
Tools: ProntoEdit NG, DecodeIR.DLL, IRTool.exe

1) Start ProtoEditNG

2) Open the PCF Ffile

File - > Open Configuration
Navigate to your PCF file
3) Highlight the Device you are looking for in the left hand panel of the screen
4) In the right hand panel of the screen click on the button you want to investigate
This will open a Buttons Property Sheet
5) On the Actions tab double click on the Learned IR code
This will open an Add IR Code window
6) Copy all the data from the IR Code window
.

7) Switch to IRTool
8) Paste it into IrTool ‘s
9) Click on the [Decode Hex] button and look at the pop up decode dialog.

10) Write down the protocol name, the device number, and if there is one the subdevice number from a string that looks
roughly like protocol:device.subdevice:obc

For all further signals of the same device usually protocol, device and subdevice stay the same, but if they vary you must note
that.

11) In an excel sheet or in the functions sheet in the RemoteMaster program put the function name (from the name or icon of
the button you navigated to) in one column and the obc in another.

12) Repeat for all buttons of that device.

If the Pronto hex strings don't give reasonable decodes, you should create a spreadsheet of that includes every function and
its pronto hex, and post it to the diagnosis area. Extracting information from a PCF file is tedious, and you should not expect
the expert to do this for you.