NevoSL Remote Control by Universal Electronics Inc.
Our most recent venture into the world of Universal Remote controls is the NevoSL from UEI. All in all, it's a great device, but you'll pay quite a bit for it.
The remote is very sleek with a color touch screen at the top and the standard hard buttons on the bottom. It is easy to hold and should be just as easy for a left handed person as a right handed one. The touch screen works well with your fingers, but if you have trouble the included stylus works perfectly. Unlike some other remotes, that shall remain nameless, the Nevo has a place on the remote to hold the stylus, so you'll never lose it. It also includes a charging base, so you always know where to find the remote, and never have to worry about batteries.
One unique feature of the remote is its built in WiFi functionality. It allows you to control any Universal Plug and Play media devices and stream content to them from your PC. You can play different content on various devices, or synchronize the same content across all devices. The UPnP devices can be either a computer in each room, or you could use something like the Philips Streamium series, the Roku SoundBridge or the Netgear MP101. But not the Squeezebox, since it doesn't support UPnP. Bummer. When the Nevo is used in this mode, you'll even get album art and playlist info. It's very Sonos-esque, but not quite as sexy.
Another use for the WiFi feature gets you RF style control of your equipment. You can connect NevoLink adapters to your network and use them to send IR commands to your devices. They get an IP address and the Nevo sends them commands. They blast our the IR needed to control your devices. With this you can control equipment behind a cabinet, or in another room. These little guys cost $200 each.
Talking turkey, the Nevo itself will set you back around $800 US. That includes a remote that does absolutely nothing. Custom programming may run between $300 and $500, giving you a grand total of $1100 to $1300 US. Certainly not cheap. Here's the reason. This remote can do practically anything and almost everything. You should be able to get your dealer to make it function exactly like the remote of your wildest dreams. Need a start screen with Grandma's picture on it, so she knows what to press to get the remote to control the TV for her. Then want Grandma's remote to have extra large buttons and help her get to the channels she likes, so she'll never miss an episode of Matlock? No problem. How about a kid's only interface, or the babysitter interface. No problem there either. This remote will do it all.
It's a great remote, and if you're in the market for some custom work, but don't want to pay several thousand dollars for a custom touch panel, definitely look into the Nevo. If you're on a budget, stick to the Harmony 880.
When we reviewed the
Mac Mini
back in in March we came to the conclusion that the only thing it
lacked in order to call it a full fledged Media Center was a tuner.
Today we review two devices that bring and ATSC tuner to the Mac. The
El Gato EyeTV 500 and the
Miglia MiniTV HD
(there is a Digital Broadcast version of the MiniTV for Europe that
does not support HD). The Mini HD is about the size of an iPod and uses
USB 2 to connect to the Mac and goes for $250 US. The EyeTV 500 uses
firewire to connect to the Mac and goes for $350. The EyeTV is bigger
than the mini. Both are bus powered but the EyeTV 500 also has an AC
input for a power adapter that is not included.
These devices will only record OTA digital or Clear QAM content. There
are no video or audio inputs to this device. If you are interested in
that kind of equipment look into the EyeTV 200.
Both devices use
El Gato's EyeTV 2
software (Universal Binary) for managing recorded content. This is
where this product combination really shines. The hardware does a good
job or tuning into and capturing the video but EyeTV software is what
is needed to turn the Mac into a DVR. The good news is if you have and
older EyeTV device you can buy the software online and upgrade your
system.
Setup is quite easy. You connect the hardware to the Mac and
start the EyeTV application. The software walks you through the steps
which include scanning the airwaves for your digital channels. The
MiniTV comes with an internal antenna that unless you live near the
transmitters is useless. So you will need your own antenna connection.
The software organizes your recorded content into a well
designed playlist. From here you can get information about the program
and select it for playback. There is also an integrated program guide
that requires an Internet connection to keep up to date. The guide will
provide information about upcoming shows and allow for one button
recording. One of the coolest features we found with the software is
the ability to remote schedule programs from the internet. You log into
TVTitan.com and select a show from your channel list. The EyeTV
software periodically logs into TVTitan and picks up any changes you
make over the internet.
After your program has been recorded you have the ability to edit, export, and burn copies to DVD with
Roxio's Toast.
El Gato has done a great job of integrating Toast into their software.
Another great feature is the iPod button. With the click of one button
you can export your recording to iTunes so that it can be synced with
your iPod. EyeTV 2 supports mpeg 1/2/4, AVI, Quicktime, and digital
video just to name a few formats. It also supports Dolby Digital. There
was an issue with getting Dolby Digital out of the Mac Mini. We sent El
Gato an email about the issue and they provided us a beta version where
the issue had been resolved. We don't think that software has been
released yet but look for it soon.
The performance was good but you do need a powerful Mac. After
seeing how this runs on our dual core with 1GB of RAM we are skeptical of
how good it will work on a solo even with more RAM. Recordings can use
up your hard drive quite quickly. A one hour recording can take as much
as 5GB of hard drive space. The higher the data rate the more space a
recording will take. There is an option to see what the data rate of
the station is right on screen so you can determine if your recording
will use a lot of space. Its clear that CBS (at least in Los Angeles)
has the highest data rate averaging about 17 Mbs. ABC goes as low as 7
Mbs. The picture looks as good as our HD Cable Box or DirecTV Tivo. One
issue we came across was that once in a while some recordings show a
lot of stutter during motion scenes. Other times everything plays
smoothly. This is regardless of the bit rate that the recording is
made. This was true regardless whether the MiniTV HD or EyeTV was used.
Is this an issue with the Mac Mini? Let us know if you have one of
these devices on a more powerful system and if you see the same
problems.
What we liked:
DVR Software
One button export to iPod
Toast integration for burning DVDs
Editing - removing commercials
Remote Scheduling of programs
What we didn't like:
Hefty Processor requirements - you'll want to use a core duo with at least 1GB or RAM
