new product coming soon: Firefly

[Eric3a]

Nah 802.11b is last's year tech. Move to 802.11 a or g at least.

A 802.11 remote: Watch the screen freeze on "your remote is shutting down please wait..." while it depletes it's batteries.

"It's now safe to turn your remote off" Eric

[auggie]

Originally posted by heath
And again a remote without the "Red, Green, Yellow and Blue" buttons that are often used in Europe.

What are those colored buttons for Heath? What are they normally used for?

Thanks,
Auggie

[rakeshagrawal]

I believe they are used for teletext in the European market...

I asked google "what is teletext":

http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...at+is+teletext

And it replied:

Teletext - A Teletext is a one-way information retrieval service. A fixed number of information pages are repetitively broadcast on unused portions of a TV channel bandwidth. A decoder at the TV set is used to select and display pages.

(isn't google great?)

[auggie]

couldn't live without Google!

[Brett]

Originally posted by Eric3a
Watch the screen freeze on "your remote is shutting down please wait..." while it depletes it's batteries.

You know you joke about that but.......I made the mistake of purchasing a sony remote a year ago (not the complete lcd one, but it had a lcd near the top (like 1.5"x2") and the rest of it was a regular remote, well regardless it frooze on me to the point that removing the batteries did not "reboot" the dang thing

I am much happier now,
-Brett

[ryanstrive]

made the mistake of purchasing a sony remote a year ago (not the complete lcd one, but it had a lcd near the top (like 1.5"x2") and the rest of it was a regular remote

I feel your pain! After I accidentally tossed my CrispSolutions remote in the foot massager that my wife left out in the living room (sploosh!), I ended up inheriting the very same Sony remote you speak of.

My Dad bought a Harmony Remote, so tossed the Sony my way this past Christmas. What a piece of garbage. I saw it at best buy still being sold for over $100 CDN. I had to dremel out the moulding around the 4-way directional control just so that the button click would register consistantly!

If only the Harmony wasn't so expensive!

[justme]

If only the Harmony wasn't so expensive!

Yeah but it's so nice.I just hope their new PVR style remote(688) is just as good. I've seen some pictures of it and the layout is much more PVR friendly than the 659. It has the transport buttons in the middle of the remote as compared to the way the 659 has them way at the bottom. I fail to understand why remote manufacturers can't get it thru their heads that the FF/RW,Play, Pause, etc keys are more often used than the numeric keys in a PVR setting. This is one nice thing about the FireFly and shows that SS thought out the fact that this is a PVR remote. If only SS had realized that IR capablity is a must for any remote that will be used in a PVR setting. As far as good(IMO) infrared capable remotes go...I only know of two remotes(currenly shipping) that have transport controls above the numeric, the MX500-Up and the new Harmony 688.

The bummer with the 688 is that Harmony went all futuristic and tried to make it look really stylish at the cost of some natural button layout. Still all the pics I've seen so far are of preproduction models, so maybe they will fix the buttons by making them stand up off the surface more. Also the placement of the volume is wierd on the 688's current design. They put a page up/down where the volume controls would normally go. Hopefully they will change this, but even if they don't you can just remap it. But I just wish they had taken the great design of the 659 and moved the transport keys above the numeric. If they then just added two additional transport keys so that you had both FF/RW and skip forward/back it would have been the perfect remote. Oh well for all my complaints about the 688, it's looks to be the best PVR remote since the MX500.

For those who have no idea what I was even rambling about here's a pic of the new 688. This isn't the best 688 picture since it makes it look like the LCD buttons are merged but their not, but then this remote was just previewed at CES. So hopefully better pics will come soon. And here's a pic of the still great 659. Also here's a pic of the MX500. All three of these links are from remotecentral.com, which has great reviews on the last two(659,MX500) and a good discusion of the first(688).

In the end the firefly has a reasonable layout but I'd go with either a Harmony or MX500. If price is an issue and/or you want both RF and IR go with one of the many X10 style remotes. I personally would suggest this one as it comes with a nice software package that is easier than girder, but it's still fully compatible with girder.

[draiko4]

they should make a firefly RF reciever that plugs into the Hauppauge PVR250/350... no harware setup necessary!

[tjb4328]

Bob has ben using this remote with Beyond TV 4.7 since Christmas. I Bought Beyond Media with the Firefly RC remote, LOVE it!From the bits and pieces I've read, this remote is way more than programable! And, if you are willing to spend the money on Girder (in 2 weeks, wait for updates) this remote will change your mood lighting, and hopefully, with my programming guru, will be able to change specific X10 lights to music videos. All encodeded in mp4 tags with specific codes that you can program. Ya, the man's an anal genuis, glad he's my friend!