Creative Labs PC Multimedia Remote Control

Home PCs can become a main entertainment center if not a second for any household. There are few products on the market that allow you to control your PC from a remote and even fewer are compatible with other programs. Today, we take a look at an inexpensive offering from Tek Gems. This multimedia remote control does its job and worked quite well.

The Package

The package included the remote, battery, serial connection receiver and an install disk. The install disk was a burned, but it worked just fine. I did like how the install disk opened an HTML instruction page, with a link to the install package, when inserting the CD in the drive.

Features

• Region free for all supported decoders and players with any DVD drive, even region protected ones. You will never have to worry about changing the region code or upgrading the firmware of your DVD drive, which can be difficult and dangerous!
  
• Disabling MacroVision and changing video mode on TV output. Connect your DVD player to your VCR without the usual image distortion.
  
• Disabling User Prohibition, or in other words enabling of Prohibited User Operations. All buttons and menus will be enabled in your player, which will allow you to:
  
• Skip or fast-forward FBI warnings and other intro's.
  
• Change soundtracks on the fly.
  
• Disabling of forced subtitles. Even when User Prohibition is disabled, subtitles may still appear on screen. However, Remote Selector can remove any subtitle (!), as long as it has not been hardcoded in the image.
  
• Control DVD player software by keyboard, joystick or remote control.
  
• Display player info like title, chapter and time on LCD display and Closed Caption.

The size of the remote was very small. It was the exact size of a credit card, although much thicker. It reminded me of my car stereo remote, while it has many more functions. The mouse emulation function was a nice touch, although not ideal, it did allow me to move the mouse on screen. If you have a screen resolution higher than 1024X768 you might as well go over to the pc and do what you needed. Movement was painstakingly slow and awkward, and double click is virtually impossible, but hey, it works!


Here you can see all the functions of the remote. The layout was straight forward and comes pre-configured with predefined buttons for each supported player/decoder card. Since all players are programmed different, most buttons will work the same. After pressing the Shift button, the remote will enter "Shift Mode" for the next button pressed. Once that button is pressed, then the remote reverts back to normal mode.


The receiver was also fairly small with a 6 foot serial cable internally connected. I wish it was a USB device, but it worked fine after I re-enabled my serial port.

Software Installation

As I mentioned earlier, when the install CD is inserted, an HTML help page is auto-played. This install guide contains a link to the installation package included on the CD.


The install was easy and it puts the Remote Selector software in the Startup Folder and when it runs minimized in the system tray as shown above.


The default settings auto detects the hardware and software installed on your computer. I had PowerDVD installed and the software picked it up immediately. I was impressed with the different software programs supported.


Since I had Windows Media Player and WinAmp too, I opened the Remote Selector Software and changed the program to WinAmp and began playing my tunes. I also used Windows Media Player. As stated earlier, it is much easier to have your play lists loaded, so you don’t have to use the mouse function.


The list of supported Decoder cards is shown above; although I did not use any of these it is nice to have the support for them.


Here is the real meat of the program. Before using the Remote Control, the COM port must be configured. As shown here in the bottom right corner, you need to choose the correct port for your receiver. It will usually be COM1 or COM2. When I first installed, I selected the wrong COM port. All I had to do was to select the correct one and it started working immediately. This is where you can make changes to functions of your remote. To assign a function to a remote button (or reassign a function), click on the function that you wish to change, then click on the "Assign Key" button. Choose the “Main” or “Alt” or “Mouse” keyset and then click on the button on the remote control unit that you want to control that function. There is also an option to use your keyboard as a remote. For those who have wireless keyboards, this option would be great! Here is how it works:

The keyboard will function as a remote device when:

• 'Enable keyboard commands' option on the Remote tabsheet is enabled and
  
• the selected player is running
  

When the keyboard is functioning as remote device it doesn't matter which program has the input focus at that moment, all keyboard strokes are redirected to Remote Selector. This also means that other programs, for instance NotePad, won't receive keyboard input and you can't use them at that moment.

The keyboard will return to function as normal after:

• The selected player is closed, or
  
• Remote Selector is closed, or
  
• The 'Enable keyboard commands' option on the Remote tabsheet is disabled, or
  
• The 'Enable keyboard' option of the menu of the system tray icon is disabled.
  

Conclusion

The Remote Selector is a great product, easy to use and install and very inexpensive. I would recommend this product to anyone who uses their pc as an entertainment center, and does not have a remote that will function the same way. You seriously can’t go wrong with such a flexible product.

Thanks go to Tek Gems for donating this product for review, they also have other intersting and unique gadgets for sale on their site.

Pros:

Easy install

Programmable remote

Remote keyboard function

Multiple hardware/software support

Cons:

Serial connection (instead of USB)

Limited mouse function

Added: October 10th 2003
Reviewer: KingKash
Score:
Hits: 11832
Language: english