Field Trial

I bought an Emprex 2.4GHz MCE remote on Amazon, only about £15. It has a good layout with the WMC green button and specific buttons for EPG, Music, Recorded TV, Live TV, Photos etc. I chose 2.4GHz because I want to put the HTPC in a cupboard and wireless remote should work OK unlike the IR variety which will need to have a USB extender cable so the remote can see the IR sensor. Good idea in theory but not in practice - From a distance of around 5 metres  and  the sensor installed directly in the USB port, the remote proved unusable. You would press a remote button - no action, so press again or press something else - still no action. Wave the remote in frustration, the connection comes good and all your instructions are carried out in one go. So I installed the 2.4Ghz sensor in a USB extender cable and all was resolved.

I also purchased a case from a Milton Keynes company called XCase. Its pretty basic, shiny black, full ATX MoBo size, takes full size PSU, single DVD drive and 2 sata drives, so pretty chunky. Cheap, tho' around £35, and it came with a free MCE remote. You wait for a remote, then they all come along at once! This one is an IR remote.

The Emrex is on the left and the free IR remote on the right. They both work Ok once you get used to the layouts, the Emprex is better to use but the IR version also has mouse function whic is great when you come to use IPlayer and Catch Up TV as you have to use a separate wireless mouse with the Emrex. Lets see which turns out to be best.

I installed the system in the living room, albeit with its old PC case and turned over the system to DB for field trial. Its been in use for about a month now and DM reports that she can work it fine for all the WMC functions, just like Sky only cheaper. The live TV, recording TV, DVD and recorded Movies, music and photos all go great. The feature where the system picks your photos at random as a screen saver while you play music is very absorbing. We had friends around the other day and it seemed to pick a lot of pictures including them which intrigued them. I told them that WMC includes a mind meld WiFi feature and it knew they were there!

The next stage is back to the mancave to to build into the new case, rationalise all the home movie clips, research a sound system, 2.1, 3.1 etc etc, get rid of all the old separate DVD, music and PVR cluttering up the living room and install back in the living room. I need to resolve how best to work with catch up and other streaming TV. The dream of integrated EPG not there yet.