Reviews - Gyration Media Center Remote: HTPC navigation done right?

[HEXUS]

Struggling to control your Media Center PC from the couch? Gyration's Universal Media Center Remote could be the solution for you.

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[slypie]

I bought this remote with a bundled keyboard and they are fantasic. Well worth the money.

[s_kinton]

For me, no remote would be worth a £60 price tag, no matter what it does - mind you, this does look very useful. It would have to come in around the ~£30 for me to consider it.

Thats just me though, I'm sure there are plenty of people out there ready to pay £60. Most likely those who part with silly money for something like Logitechs DiNovo keyboard

[Zhaoman]

There's still a desperate lack of good HTPC peripherals, I was thinking about getting the Logitech MX Air for my next build but this might be more suitable. It doesn't look as good as the Air though... As for keyboards, there's nothing out there apart from the diNovo Edge and £80 for a keyboard is a tough stretch. What are the chances of doing a MX Air and diNovo Edge review Hexus?

[slypie]

it is very expensive as I think I paid about £80 for the remote and keyboard but to be honest there simply wasn't anything else out there that did a better job than this.

[pow1983]

I must have missed something, I found the MS controller very easy to use and its glow in the dark keypad was cool.

[Funkstar]

I use a regular MS MediaCenter remote along with one of these on my bedroom HTPC
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=648250

They work well together. I don't use the PC for anything else other than MediaPortal, so the keyboard is only needed when something goes wrong, or I decide I need/want to update software or something.

This remote does look interesting though

[Blademrk]

What are the chances of doing a MX Air and diNovo Edge review Hexus?

I bought a Logitech DiNovo Edge keyboard from Scan back in June as a birthday present for myself. I really like it, there's a built in track pad on the side which also handles (Vertical and Horizontal) scrolling so no need for a mouse on a HTPC (unless you really want one). I found it to be a great (if a bit too expensive) keyboard.

Edit:
although I have had trouble getting Windows Vista (64) to recocgnise the drivers for both the Edge and a MX Revolution mouse whereas WinXP MCE had no such problems (dual boot setup).

[Parm]

The review has been updated with the following addition:

*Update* July 31st '08

Greg Smith, vice president of marketing at Gyration, has been in touch to offer a solution to the Gyration Media Remote's one major problem; the inability to enter alphabetic characters.

He advises that although the device is recognised by the OS as a Media Centre Remote, it doesn't automatically enable triple-tap functionality. Fortunately, Gyration has identified a solution and triple-tap can be enabled via a simple registry edit. Making it that little bit easier, Gyration offers a downloadable application to make the required changes for you.

Users can visit the US Gyration website, and download either the 32-bit or 64-bit Triple-Tap application. It's a tiny download, and once installed, triple-tap functionality is restored and the remote can enter alphabetic characters. We've tried it, and it works wonders.

It's a very simple fix, and one that makes the remote a complete Media Center solution. Though we'd like to see the Triple-Tap application bundled with the device itself, we're now happy to give this innovative remote a Recommended award.