Do you use a Media Centre remote?

[brentp]

What remote control do you use?

I wondering do should I buy a proper media centre remote.

tough I have played fully with my remote which will do the job

I have a Imon remote
http://www.soundgraph.com/wwwroot_iMON/index_e.html
which supports media centre
This remote connects into the power supply and lets you turn the PC off and on from your lounge this I thought made a media centre a true appliance.
It also lets you set up the buttons to do what you want.

I also have the remote which came with the Dvico remote.

[Mike]

I bought MCE 2005 with the MS remote (see here) included for $233.00 from Umart in Sydney.

I have to say it's outstanding!* Great feel - very responsive - good layout - couldn't be happier

[funkay]

do you loose alot of functionality and features if you use a wireless keyboard and mouse instead of the media center remote?
(ie: like rewinding and fastforwarding)
Also an article on this site, says u can get it for under 100 bux?
where?

Thanks

[Mike]

I use both the remote control and kb/mouse but for different purposes.

When I'm in the Media Centre interface it's all remote control, when I drop out of the interface into windows - it has to be a keyboard and mouse (like any other windows OS) because the remote won't operate there (although the mouse will operate within MC but the menu is a little different).*

I guess I'd have to say that - yes - you'd lose quite a lot of functionality because of the ease of navigation with the remote - frankly I wouldn't even try to run my TV and home theatre using the mouse and keyboard.* Having said that, if you're using it as a desktop PC with Media Centre functionaility (as many do), the mouse and keyboard are fine because you'd be right next to the system instead of 6 - 10 feet away..

As for where'd-ya-get-it? - Umart in Sydney sell the following:

Media Center 2005 OEM (must buy minimum one peice of hardware) for $198
Media Center OEM including Remote Control System as seen here for $233.00
Remote Control System (standalone) for $60.50
they're all on this page

Clearly, if you want the windows remote system it's a lot cheaper to buy it as a bundle with the OS - but I'd stay away from the bundle which includes a TV Tuner since Umart don't provide any details about it.

[BenP]

I'm like Mike,

Happy as a Pig in sh%t with the Media Centre Remote, but I also use a bluetooth mouse and keyboard when swithing back to XP OS

Originally Posted by Mike

I use both the remote control and kb/mouse but for different purposes.

When I'm in the Media Centre interface it's all remote control, when I drop out of the interface into windows - it has to be a keyboard and mouse (like any other windows OS) because the remote won't operate there (although the mouse will operate within MC but the menu is a little different).*

I guess I'd have to say that - yes - you'd lose quite a lot of functionality because of the ease of navigation with the remote - frankly I wouldn't even try to run my TV and home theatre using the mouse and keyboard.* Having said that, if you're using it as a desktop PC with Media Centre functionaility (as many do), the mouse and keyboard are fine because you'd be right next to the system instead of 6 - 10 feet away..

As for where'd-ya-get-it? - Umart in Sydney sell the following:

Media Center 2005 OEM (must buy minimum one peice of hardware) for $198
Media Center OEM including Remote Control System as seen here for $233.00
Remote Control System (standalone) for $60.50
they're all on this page

Clearly, if you want the windows remote system it's a lot cheaper to buy it as a bundle with the OS - but I'd stay away from the bundle which includes a TV Tuner since Umart don't provide any details about it.

[funkay]

I recently found out that most "normal" televisions don't have high resolution, so when using windows xp pro, the screen will be too blurry to read anything.
I have a 68cm square tv, is that going to be blurry?

[Mike]

Yes the text will be a bit "fuzzy" but only when you're in the Windows interface.* When you're in Media Centre it's as clear as a bell.

For Windows I messed around with and tweaked a lot of settings; -* screen res., font size, clear type etc. and found a "workable" solution - not great but acceptable until I can afford to buy the right kind of screen.

[BenP]

Depending on the inputs on the 68cm you have you can get a dvi to component converter that may help with screen res, I have one on my 76cm Sony widescreen and it made a fair bit of difference, but as Mike suggests it's not anywhere near as clear as your computer monitor and the real solution is a HD plasma / LCD or projector for the loungeroom.

[zaph0d]

Originally Posted by BenP

Depending on the inputs on the 68cm you have you can get a dvi to component converter that may help with screen res, I have one on my 76cm Sony widescreen and it made a fair bit of difference, but as Mike suggests it's not anywhere near as clear as your computer monitor and the real solution is a HD plasma / LCD or projector for the loungeroom.

Where can you get this dvi converter?

Does it do progressive > interlaced? I've got a cheap 68cm tv. using svhs is all right, but i'd really like to use it's component in.

I've seen a couple of dvi>component(rgb) cables, but the only thing that i've seen so far that did dvi>component(yCbCr) was a US$300 box....

-zaph0d

[ExtremePC]

Seriously a video card that already has componant out would be a better and probably cheaper option. Abit does one called the ABIT Radeon RX600 PRO-HDTV. Yes it PCI-X but definately worth the upgrade to the rest of your systems.

Regards
Michael Jurisic
Extreme Personal Computers
0414 486 566