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3.5 stars
"Very good for a Media PC on the Cheap"
Pros: Remote and Software worked well
Cons: Keyboard and mouse could have been better
Summary: The Logitech S510 Media Remote is a great way to save some money building a media type PC on the cheap. The Medialife software that came in the box is surprisingly useful considering it?s bundled with hardware.
Keyboard: The keyboard is not great, but useful. The large area from the bottom of the keys to the front edge of the keyboard seems excessive, and the angle when lying flat is well, flat, very flat. I prefer a flat keyboard and whoa! They almost went too far!
Compared to older wireless keyboards from Logitech its much sturdier and has a good amount of the extra?s, like volume controls, play, stop, pause and the like. For a media PC keyboard that will never compose a full review, but surf the web on the couch, it?s just what the doctor ordered.
Mouse: Not quite as comfortable to use as my other Logitech mouse, but id give it an overall thumbs up. As always I like the thumbwheel, but no side buttons. I would/could use this mouse on my desktop without missing my current mouse. I use it straight on the couch, or couch pad without a problem.
Media Remote: The first unit I had the thumbwheel did not work. When I got back from the store the second one worked just fine. The remote without the included software is not of much use. It does work with Windows Media Player 9 with limited functionality and the box tells me it works with itunes, whatever that is, and winamp. But I suspect it will be with similar results.
It is certainly not the Microsoft remote, but inside the Logitech software it comes to life. This is where the remote becomes useful, and the thumbwheel which I love on the mouse is front and center. The remote is comfortable to use and works fairly well. With this remote and the software you can pretty much do what I wanted to do, watch movies without using a keyboard and mouse.
One thing about the button layout is I keep hitting the ?Next? jump instead of fast forward. As the software will not let you skip ahead through a flick, it loads the next video in the directory. If your ½ way through a movie there is no way to get back to where you left off.
Range: The range on all this stuff is around 10 feet. I happen to be very close to my PC therefore I have not suffered any range problems. I did a quick test just for giggles, I went into the very next room +/- 15 feet and the letters I hit on the keyboard showed up, but there was a very noticeable delay. When the dog stood in the doorway, it was ruff. The enter key would not work. Id stay as close to 10 feet as I could. The box says 16, and through the walls ain?t gunna happen.
Medialife Software: For what it?s built for, it does pretty good. I am not impressed with the software so much as I am impressed it basically delivered on what it said it would do. Just about the only thing you can set is the aspect ratio, 4:3 or 16:9. I cannot stress enough the lack of settings, no default directory or favorites. It does show you the last video?s played and has a clean appearance.
While playing movies however a big let down was that unless the media meets certain requirements it will not fast forward more than 2x and you cannot jump or skip through the movie. You start at the beginning every time and you can?t nor is there any kind of ?slider bar? to get to any particular spot in the movie.
You can use the Windows Media Player 9 and jump around, but it?s back to the mouse. One night I hit the thumb wheel on the remote and it jumped like 3 or 5 minutes and all. Cool, but I haven?t got it to work since and that was in WMP 9 and not inside the Logitech software, go figure.
I have played many different formats including Divx and several Mpeg-2 no problems. I did have some problems playing a few files but just a couple 2 or 3 Something somewhere did say you have to have the Codec loaded in order for those formats to work!
I played with the music thing briefly, and again, no settings, so no default directories, you have to scan through the folders on your hard drive. Most files played just fine. I did have a fair amount (20%) of music files that would not play. Didn?t quite understand that one. Maybe it?s that Codec thing or I need something somewhere I didn?t have on this machine.
If you have pictures in the spot the software is looking for them I hear tell it?ll rotate through them as it?s playing music, or maybe the other way around, but there is NO documentation so I blew it off as I don?t often do music or pictures.
I still haven?t even gone into the picture menu, so I dunno what your going to find. Id wager like everything else, it?ll work, nothing more.
Documentation: Documentation is a joke, in fact it?s a bad joke. Nothing is offered online and the help inside Medialife is worthless. If the thing did not pretty much fall into place id have to get Logitech on the phone, and when the Thumbwheel on the first unit went bad I did, but I ended up in a call pool with a who knows how long of a wait, back to the store I went!
My best advice with this product if you have a question or run into a problem, ?Use the force? if that doesn?t work buy it from a seller that will refund your money and take it back. Maybe if they get enough returns the good folks at Logitech will hire programmers and engineers who can write.
That all having been said maybe I can do some of the things id like but I have no way to know what they are, or how to set them up.
Overall: I was more impressed with the software and usefulness of the remote than the keyboard and mouse. All the components included were average or better and I thought the little USB interface was pretty slick.
I bought this instead of coughing up over 200 bucks for the Microsoft solution, which legends have said is a far better and more complete answer to a media PC. I gave 69 scoots at PC Club, threw it on a spare PC and wheeled the thing next to the tube badda bing! Im sure the new wireless multimedia thing from Dlink would not have the limits that I have with this, and im certain a Microsoft Media PC would be the bomb but you can?t touch this combo for 69 bucks! Well worth every undocumented dollar.
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