Logitech DiNovo Media Desktop user reviews

2.5 stars

"looks like a high end sports car drives like a junker" on April 15, 2005 by tony yayo

Pros: BLIING - this thing gets the ladies hot and makes friends say they want one.

Cons: logitech software is not ready for the real world

Summary: I was using SetPoint 2.22 but had to uninstall. The software is buggy and often times fails in finding devices. I always seemed to loose connection with my media pad. I also had to wait a long time for the devices that were discovered to work. That was a big problem. I uninstalled all the logitech software and let Windows XP discover the devices. This works much better! Now, the devices are discovered faster and run better. The downside is there is no support for media functions ( vol, mute, media play...) Logitech please work on your software. I paid big bucks and wanted a fully featured product that works 100% of the time. I am left with hardware only.

2.0 stars

"Not for Gamers!" on January 12, 2005

Pros: Sleek Look, i love the laptop feel keyboard Great for everyday Users

Cons: Horrible for Gaming.. Mouse lags, easy to miss keys.... im taking my set back tomorrow to comp USA... to get the non bluetooth MX700 set

1.5 stars

"Depends on what you're looking for" on February 11, 2007 by YesBut

Pros: Looks great on the desk, uses minimum space, good key feel

Cons: Non-functional for key-board oriented users, poor ergonomic layout

Summary: If you're looking for a fully functional keyboard, beware. If you're looking for a keyboard that looks good and works well for "light typing" such as e-mail and web browsing this is probably the keyboard for you.

My major objection is that this keyboard does not have a Num Lock key and does not support the use of the numeric 10-key pad in conjuction with the ALT key to enter ASCII character codes. This will probably seem like a quibble, but as a developer and technical writer it is a fatal flaw. This is documented nowhere in the technical specifications, but is commented upon in the Logitech user forum. The "workaround" is to use the Windows character map whenever you need accented letters (èôü) or special symbols (¿¶§). What this means is that the numeric keypad (a.k.a. media something-or-other) isn't really a numeric keypad in the same way that it is on a standard 101-key keyboard.

A second, and almost equally important flaw, is that the keyboard layout is extremelty idiosyncratic. The space bar is incredibly long, which means that to press the left ALT key you have deeply bend your left thumb to the point that in 30 minutes I started to feel an impending case of tendonitis. In addition, the F keys are all shifted over one space from their usual position, so that the F1 key is constantly being pressed when reaching for the F2 key. No doubt, that problem would diminish with use. (Consistent with many new keyboards, the F keys all have other functions printed on their horizontal surface with the F1 - F12 printed on the vertical surface in blue.) On a positive note, the feel of the keyboard was great and it was very quiet.

Set-up was a adventure in faith-based software installation. After trying this and trying that, I was finally able to install the BlueTooth hub and WinXP Pro recognized the keyboard, mouse, and media pad devices. It was far from clear that Logitech actually tested the installation procedure on an adequate sample of machines. This has been reported in other posts as well.

Software installation was fairly straightforward, but I'm not convinced Logitech did much compatibility testing with even standard Win applications.

Documentation included in the box is practically non-existent, and the Logitech website only provides the "how to set up" sheet even if it describes it as the product "manual". Figuring out what each setting is is really matter of guesswork and trial-and-error, which isn't all bad as that's the way a lot of people (me included) figure out how new software & hardware works.

At the end of the weekend, I concluded that this was not the keyboard for me, uninstalled the entire thing, and returned it to the store for a refund. Unfortunately, I could not persuade my system that the BT hub that shipped was really uninstalled and had to "restore" my system back to a restore point prior to the installation of the diNovo. Things are still not quite back to normal and so there's a de novo OS re-install in my future.

5.0 stars

"MEDIA JUNKIES JUST BUY THIS THING" on January 3, 2005

Pros: After suffering with a MS Wireless Desktop Elite Keyboard and Mouse with a six foot range (if that) to control my media center pc for my Plasma, let me just tell you what a joy the DI NEVO is. What freedom!!! We all know its pricey but what quality and pe

Cons: 50 MB update.