Remote or Air Mouse?

[homepc]

I have a computer dedicated to xLobby, and it is hooked up to a projector. So when I'm using xLobby, I'm sitting on the sofa. Its very difficult to use a conventional mouse this way. I have programmed a remote and it works fine. It's a littl slow though. Is there any way to speedup the navigation of the remote? Or, should I switch to an air mouse? Any use one of these?

Thanks
Ray

[Paulio51]

I've been using the Gyration for about three months now and it works pretty good. It takes awhile to get used to moving the cursor around in the air. It will track on pretty much anything, though, and I can navigate in the air from a good 12- 15 ft away. I am constantly amazed at what it can do, although the wife still refuses to use it (my 3 yr old is getting pretty good at it, too good actually). The keyboard is really small and sits on a small shelf under the coffee table (3 yr old hasn't found it yet, but my 1 yr old has and is always messing things up pounding on it).

Hope this helps.

Paulio51

[S Pittaway]

another Gyration user here...


i find the keyboard pretty bad (it misses key strokes if i dont type very slowly).

the mouse is very good tho, you look like a spaz waving it arround in the air but it works well enuff, it also functions ok as a normal optical mouse, but the senser is in the wrong place so you have to be carefull what you use it on (they had to move it to far forward to make space for the 'under' finger buttons)

[jryan1776]

I'm currently using a Harmony 880 for my HTPC and all my other components and would highly recommend it to anyone (though I preferred the Harmony 676 key layout, but the print on the buttons wore off too fast).

Setting up a HTPC device using the Harmony software was not as straight forward since there was no generic HTPC set of remote codes, so I ended up using a Hitachi television for my HTPC device (since I don't own any Hitachi equipment). This has worked out very nicely. Once I setup the remote in XLobby it has worked flawlessly. We use the same remote for SageTV and Girder as well... The best part is that we use the same remote for everything even the components that do not interface with the HTPC.

I also have a gyration air mouse and keyboard that I defer back to for manual tasks like adding dvd's to dvd profiler or copying movies (most of the time though I use VLC Ultra to remote log into the HTPC and navigate it from the laptop). The air mouse is really cool and quick once you get the hang of it. All in all though, being able to use one remote to control HTPC, TV, Mega DVD changer, 5 disc changer, cable box, receiver, vcr, Hauppauge (SageTV), Audio distribution as well as automatically managing inputs between the TV and receiver brings a very high WAF...