What are you using to control your Home Theater / Media Room?

[randman]

It's been a dozen years or so since Philips got out of the Pronto remote business, but I'm still using my TSU9400 remote. All these years, I still haven't found as good a remote (at least one that doesn't require a dealer). GUI is totally customizable, and it can control devices via IR, RF, TCP, and RS-232. I especially find it useful that it can get the state of devices (for example, if the projector is already on, continue with macro and don't wait, query Oppo on how much time is left in the movie (other people may find it distracting if I were to bring up time remaining on the movie screen, so I can just look at the Pronto to see how much time is left on a movie), etc. There's lots of TCP and RS-232 commands that aren't available in IR, which I love. You can use discrete commands so there's no need to scroll around deep in the guts of a menu system to make quick changes. I'm still hoping that there will be a remote for end users as powerful as the Pronto, but sadly, nothing yet after all these years. I got some extra off eBay for spare.

I also have the Harmony. I was very impressed how easy it was to setup. But it's not as powerful and customizable as the Pronto. I wasn't very impressed with the default layouts of the GUIs.I thought they could've been optimized a little more. But very impressive that it's easy to get going. I used it mainly as backup and for something the kids can use without me worrying about them breaking my Pronto, but ultimately everyone in the house wants to use the Pronto. So, the harmony never gets used. I do appreciate how easy it was to get the Harmony working though. Only took one evening to get everything going (as opposed to the Pronto taking weeks. For Pronto users, it was more a labor of love to get the perfect configuration, as opposed to a configuration that just gives you what you want most of the time.

I also use a little voice control for simple tasks like:
Hey Siri, Pause family room apple tv.
Hey Siri, Play family room on apple tv. (to resume program)
Hey Siri, turn off family room apple tv
Hey Siri, who's in the doorbell?

Voice can probably be used for selecting shows too but baven't done it yet. But voice word for pause, play , turn on, turn of (expeciall8y wen using HDMI-CEC with TV).

[Paul Heroy]

Wow the Pronto is a blast from the past, I remember reading about it back in the day and how great and cool it was. I used to read Remote Central a lot around then.

In that early 2000s timeframe, before I got into the Harmony remotes, I had the Universal MX-500. It was a beast with tons of buttons and I loved it for a while. I don't remember the specific issue that made me look away from the Universal to the Harmony, though. 

[bmoney]

Loved the pronto!  

I had one of those huge Sony remotes too. I liked that one too

[Paul Heroy]

Loved the pronto! 

I had one of those huge Sony remotes too. I liked that one too

Holy crap, I forgot about that Sony but I one of those too, like a double wide with a flip up panel at the bottom. Actually had another more traditional Sony universal at one point too. LOL... there was a period where I "dated" several remotes before "marrying" Harmony!

Edit: Actually, the big remote I had was a JVC from a high end S-VHS deck.