click for bigger pic
The remote itself looks very neat, a total of 37 buttons giving you all the functions you need.
The 5 menu navigation controls are prominent near the top end of the remote, followed by 6 buttons for DVD features such as titles, sub-titles, menu, language selection, on-screen data, and camera angle. Below those are the familiar player controls (play/pause, stop, slow-motion, eject, rewind, fast forward, etc) as well as volume +/-, mute, L/R audio channel selection, TV/VGA selection, and a numeric keypad for interactive titles. At the very top left and right corners of the remote are an on/off button, and a program button, which launches and shuts down the player application.
When I first saw the on/off button, I thought 'hey, neat! I'll be able to shut down the PC remotely!', but unfortunately this is not the case.
It turns out that this button is not implemented within the current software. On further reading of the installation booklet, it appears that the very same remote is used for REALmagic's set-top boxes, on which the on/off button is used. Hopefully they will implement this button in a later release of the software , as it would have been nice to be able to shut the PC down using it. Interestingly, the advertising photo at Sigma Designs shows the top two buttons with different labels.
The picture on the left shows that Sigma had originally labeled the On/Off button as COMPUTER, and had labeled the PROGRAM button as PLAYER - the picture on the right is the actual end product.
Perhaps the only other function/button I would have liked to see on the remote would have been the Screen Capture button, but since that process usually involves having to key in a filename for the captured image, you would have to get out of the armchair anyway (unless you've also got one of those infrared keyboards...)
Physically, the remote is nice and light, a reasonable size (16cm x 5.5cm), and fits the hand fairly well. Just what the doctor ordered.
The infrared receiver also looks pretty cool, and is supplied with a very decent 1.4m of cable, which allows you to position it where it has an unobstructed view to the remote.
It is fitted with a 9-pin connector to plug into a COM port. If you only have a 25-pin COM port connector spare on your PC, you will have to additionally purchase a 9 to 25-pin adapter. As all recent mainboards are produced with two 9-pin ports, it is not usually a problem.