What’d You Use For A Remote Control?
This one came from reader barrychuck, who was curious about our remote control situation. Actually, barry recommended that we check out Ricavision’s much-hyped Vave 100 remote control based on Windows SideShow technology. However, emails to Ricavision went unanswered and, given a disconnected main phone line, we think it’s safe to say that the Vave died before a unit was ever even shipped. Too bad—looked like a cool product.
The Maui platform, as shipped from AMD, included a USB IR transceiver and a standard media center remote control with the same boring look as the units that’ve been around since 2005. Functional, but hardly flashy. Additionally, maintaining line of sight might be a problem for users with equipment tucked away in a rack.
On the same feedback page, heltoupee mentioned using an iPod Touch as a remote. So, I went out and bought a Touch in order to test the concept.
An App Store title called Mobile Air Mouse looked like the most promising solution for turning Apple’s audio/video player into a touch-screen remote. The software’s most notorious feature is tapping the accelerometer functionality built into both the iPhone and iPod Touch, letting you mimic a mouse in much the same way Gyration’s Air Mice have for years. More interesting to us, though, was that the software doubled as a track pad with four separate layouts: function keys, Web browser control, a standard keyboard, and a media-oriented layout. Right now the software works over WiFi, but we're hoping that it'll soon take advantage of the recently-enabled Bluetooth functionality on the Touch as well.
Why does the Air Mouse trump a standard media center remote? The touchpad functionality means you don’t need a mouse, and the built-in keyboard means you can do away with that peripheral, too.
Granted, a $200+ iPod Touch makes for an expensive remote control, as does a $200+ iPhone with a monthly plan. For the folks who already own one or the other, though, $6 for the software through the App Store is ridiculously inexpensive coming from a world of $250 Harmony remotes.
We originally ran into issues using Mobile Air Mouse with our HTPC, but the problems turned out to be related to the integration of PowerDVD 8 and Windows Media Center. Upgrading to PowerDVD 9 or using ArcSoft’s TotalMedia Theatre instead fixed those initial speed bumps. For use with video playback, Mobile Air Mouse works well. We had a bit more trouble with the software playing back music. While it behaved well in Windows Media Player proper, it didn’t want to follow directions in Windows Media Center. Not perfect, but certainly a step in the right direction.
One other downside to going this route is the lack of universality enabled by a device like the Harmony One. In other words, you’ll still need to turn on your TV, pick the right source, turn on your receiver, pick the right input, and turn on your PC. But as a replacement for the boring (and functionally-limited) Media Center Remote with which our Maui box shipped, the iPod is a suitable substitute. Kudos to heltoupee for the suggestion—this one turned out to be a real winner in the face of Ricavision’s dead Vave.
- Consumer Electronics,
- windows ,
- 7 ,
- htpc
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That set up looks really nice.
I wish someone would write a bit about cool gadgets and things to child proof you HTPC setup.
An electric fence to stop speakers being smeared with jam sandwiches – stuff like that. LCD screens being scratched and hit with logo.
I’ll have to wait a few more years before it can all go on display like that again.
Waxdart - Another good reason to buy Plasma over LCD, finger prints and jam are easily cleaned off of a plasma! I know from experience :-)
I think this article is very well-written and bang up-to-date.
Banana clips are one of the poorest audio interfaces available! It's not the end of the world not having them.
banana clips offer a cleaner connection and decent channel separation due to the form factor alone. My speaker cable is also a deal sight heavier than the reviewers and would never fit in there. If it did then there would be a large risk of crosstalk and shorting. So I think this amplifier is targeted at very low-end 5.1 setups with low output power. Looking at specifications of the card it also has very high THD figures, giving 0.1% THD where most receivers would be in the 0.0002-0.05 range. This indicates a poor signal path and underpowered output stage.
That's a cool idea for the remote and a good example of 'thinking outside the box'.
As far as games go I think you should be benchmarking more casual games when looking at HTPC's as I can't see myself sitting on couch playing Far Cry 2 with a keyboard and mouse for practicality reasons and I can't use a gamepad for FPS games. Personally I think you should be looking at games like Race Driver GRID, Audio Surf, Assassins Creed, and Fifa (or Madden if you American) as they suited for playing with a joypad and as such as suited for HTPC's.
BTW this article should be on the features section at the top of the site not tucked away near the bottom.
@ Belrik
The THD figures are nothing to do with an 'underpowered output stage' - it's because the unit is a Class D amplifier, as clearly stated in the article. Class D works by 'faking it' using very-high-frequency PWM. They sound better as the frequency goes up, but the efficiency goes down due to switching losses.
Secondly, banana clips are *hideous* connectors.
They are used in domestic audio because they are small and cheap.
Clamp connectors (like the one used in the Phoenix-type connector here) make considerably better contact with the wire.
If you want *proper* audio, then you shouldn't be using flat cable either, as it has practically no noise rejection at all. Professional audio uses coaxial cable.
Have a look at the connections made to the cabinets in an actual live performance, say of The Who or another *very large* gig.
You will not find banana clips - you'll almost always find Neutrik Speakons.
(To be fair, they are quite large. 20mm diameter knockout IIRC)
Hi all,
I was wondering where I could find the config of this HTPC used in the test.
Thanks in advance.
Ciao
I'd love to see a good operating system roundup for media center's. Personally I don't like windows media center. I've had too much problems with it in the past.
some possible software:
LinuxMCE
XBMC
MythTV
Freevo
SageTV
Plex
MediaPortal