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>>SPECIAL BONUS COLLECTION VOL. 5<< Power Guide to Home Electronics

Copyright © 2005 PC World Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. The trademark PC World is owned by International Data Group and used under license by PC World Communications, Inc. Printed in the United States. You must have permission before reproducing any material from PC World. Direct inquiries to [email protected]. Entertainment to Go Music, video, or both? We try slick new IPod rivals, the first Portable Media Centers, and other handhelds to see which pack the most fun into a portable package.

BY SAM JEMIELITY

it certainly feels like we’re living in an IPod world these days. Apple has done a lot to make portable audio players the must-own tech toy of the decade; but while we still admire the IPod, it’s not the only game in town. Competing audio players now display tons of different forms and innova- tive features. And there’s an entire new fron- tier opening: video. Snazzy handhelds based on ’s new Windows Portable Media Center operating system allow you to enjoy Jon LET’S PLAY: From top, IPod Stewart’s jokes on The Daily Show during your Mini, commute. We rate 20 audio and video play- Touch, and PMP-120. ers that are likely candidates for amusing yourself while you’re on the move.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOHN KUCZALA POWER GUIDE WWW.PCWORLD.COM 2 MEDIA HANDHELDS

I tested a stack of audio players for func- The attractive design of tionality, ease of use, audio quality, porta- most of these little PMC- bility, size, price, and style. Depending on based players is sure to the device, you can record from make them highly buzz- your favorite CDs, listen to FM radio, save worthy items this holiday your brilliant business ideas via voice season. But their price recording, and keep your vacation photos (about $500) and their un- handy. The Apple even hold your resolved rough edges— APPLE’S personal calendar and address book. which prevent watching 40GB IPod But it isn’t just about music anymore. video on the go from be- (left) and Rio’s Now, with the debut of Microsoft’s Por- ing as easy as listening 20GB Karma. table Media Center operating system, to music—probably will video fans can enjoy ultraportability, too. keep them from emerging as bona fide PLAY THAT FUNKY MUSIC The PMC OS powers a whole array of hits. PC World Senior Associate Editor interesting new handheld devices—from Richard Baguley looked at two PMC play- the music players that I tested fall Creative, IRiver, and other vendors— ers and at four video devices that don’t into three categories. Large-capacity play- sporting 3.5- to 4-inch color screens and use the Portable Media Center OS but ers come with 20 gigabytes or more of 20GB or larger hard drives that enable nevertheless seem able to play back tele- storage and can hold 5000 songs (each you to play your favorite TV shows, per- vision and music just fine. Check out song being a 128-kbps, 4-minute MP3 sonal videos, and selections from your “Focus on TV,” his roundup of these file, the standard throughout this review). music collection—anywhere. products, which begins on page 4. This is the category you should be

FEATURES COMPARISON Large and Midcapacity Audio Players

IF 20GB OR MORE OF MUSIC MAKES YOU SALIVATE, buy big. Will a unit that holds up to 1250 tunes do? Try a midcapacity player.

LARGE-CAPACITY Battery Weight (oz)/ Street Capacity dimensions Features/ Formats supported Comments life 1 PLAYER price (w x d x h) ease of use 6.2/ AAC, AIF, Apple Apple IPod 11112 Outstanding/ Quick Click Wheel navigation; doubles as portable hard drive; Best $399 40GB 12 2.4 x 0.7 x Lossless, Audible, 1 Outstanding BUY find.pcworld.com/44988 4.1 inches MP3, MP3 VBR, WAV intuitive menus; easy playlists; battery life could be better. 7.0/ Creative Zen Touch Outstanding/ User-friendly interface; on-the-go playlists; slightly touchy $250 20GB 24 4.1 x 0.9 x MP3, WMA 2 Very Good 11113 find.pcworld.com/44238 2.7 inches touchpad; unique “find” feature retrieves tracks easily. 5.5/ Rio Karma Outstanding/ MP3, FLAC, WMA, Line-out for home stereo output; unit adapts to lefties; sup- $300 20GB 15 3.0 x 1.1 x 3 Very Good Ogg 11113 find.pcworld.com/40943 2.7 inches ports many digital formats; lacks in-line recording capability. 5.9/ Philips HDD120/17 Very Good/ MP3 and voice encoding; “match genre” equalizer; MP3 $350 20GB 10 2.5 x 0.8 x MP3, WMA 4 Good 11123 find.pcworld.com/44990 4.2 inches encoding; slow navigation menu; screen is somewhat dark. 4.8/ JetAudio IAudio M3 Very Good/ MP3, Ogg Vorbis, Ultraslim shape; MP3 and voice recording; FM radio; awkward $349 20GB 14 2.4 x 0.6 x 5 Good WMA 11123 find.pcworld.com/44992 4.1 inches wired remote-control buttons; no LCD screen on the main unit. MIDCAPACITY PLAYER 3.2/ Rio Carbon 11112 Very Good/ Ultracompact; large capacity; user-friendly controls; bright Best $249 5GB 20 2.5 x 0.6 x MP3, WMA, Audible 1 Outstanding BUY find.pcworld.com/43870 3.3 inches LCD display; long battery life; can’t make playlists on the go. 3.6/ AAC, AIF, Apple IPod Mini Very Good/ Easy Click Wheel navigation; simultaneous browsing/playback; $249 4GB 8 2.0 x 0.5 x Lossless, Audible, 2 Outstanding 11113 find.pcworld.com/44994 3.6 inches MP3, MP3 VBR, WAV well-designed ITunes interface; battery life could be better. 2.7/ Rio Nitrus Good/ Easy-to-use menus; ultracompact; bright LCD display; touchy $160 1.5GB 16 2.4 x 0.6 x MP3, WMA 3 Very Good 11123 find.pcworld.com/38456 3.0 inches joystick; can't play back during browsing; great battery life. 12.7/ Sony MZ-NHF800 1GB Good/ Removable minidisc storage; AM/FM tuner; flywheel naviga- $220 25 3.2 x 1.1 x ATRAC3plus2 4 minidisc Good 11133 find.pcworld.com/44996 3.2 inches tion; wired remote; sluggish software and file loading.

FOOTNOTES: 1 Maximum battery life promised by manufacturer, in hours. 2 Use Sony software to convert MP3 format to ATRAC3plus. PHOTOGRAPH: JOHN KUCZALA PHOTOGRAPH:

POWER GUIDE WWW.PCWORLD.COM 3 MEDIA HANDHELDS

PORTABLE VIDEO PLAYERS

scrutinizing if you want to have all or But how often do you listen to your most of your music with you at any time. entire music collection? If all you need is For continually updated reviews, go to your 20 favorite CDs, you can save up to FOCUS find.pcworld.com/47762. $200 and tote less weight by using a mid- If you’d be satisfied to carry a skimpier capacity player. Both the Apple IPod Mini collection of several hundred albums with and Rio Carbon can hold 1000 or more ON TV you constantly, investigate the midcapac- songs. You’ll appreciate having a smaller ity players. These have between 1GB and unit, especially if you carry it every day. Want to take video with you? 5GB of hard-drive space and hold up to But large-capacity players aren’t neces- Portable media players let you 1250 songs. Just want access to a few sarily bulky. Even the player I tested that enjoy both video and audio. hours of tunes while you jog or commute? had the largest hard drive—the Neuros II, Grab a gum-pack–size flash-memory with its 80GB “backpack” clip-on hard VIDEO-CENTRIC devices that sport player with 128MB to 512MB of storage drive attached—is physically smaller than large color screens and big hard drives and load up to 120 of your favorite MP3s. the average portable CD player. have arrived; some of the very latest are One thing that every buyer of a new based on Microsoft’s new Windows APPLES AND OTHERS player—whether it be audio or video— Portable Media Center operating sys- should consider is its compatibility with indeed, capacity-to-size ratio is one tem. The PMC OS interface is the same Microsoft’s new Windows Media Digital big reason why I chose the Apple IPod as one that a Windows XP Media Center Rights Management 10 technology. Win- the PC World Best Buy among large- Edition PC uses. This simplifies mat- dows Media DRM 10 is designed to allow capacity players. The $399 IPod that I test- ters—particularly if you already own downloads from subscription-based ser- ed packs a whopping 40GB into a case such a computer—since they’re de- vices to move securely to portable players, smaller than those of several rivals that signed to work in tandem. The players which makes these services much more have half its capacity, like the Philips rely on Microsoft’s Windows Media Play- flexible and attractive than before. Micro- HDD120/17 and the Rio Karma. er 10 software to sync the devices with soft has launched a new “Plays For Sure” No player is more user-friendly. The digital media stored on the Media Cen- campaign designed to make it easy to tell IPod’s menu selections are intuitive, and ter PCs. Here, in descending order of whether the player and service you want its touch-sensitive Click Wheel makes how much we liked them, is PC World’s to use will work well together. Informa- navigation a breeze. The ITunes software take on six video players—two PMC- tion on “Plays For Sure” is available at and ITunes online music store are easy to based and four that use a variety of find.pcworld.com/44846. If this technolo- understand and use. On the player itself, non-Windows operating systems. gy catches on, it could mean a whole new you make a few quick clicks, and you have world of legal digital content. a playlist of your favorite songs. Creating playlists is equally easy on the Karma, but somewhat less so on the Creative Zen Touch. Other large-capacity players I test- Players That ed made the task a lot more difficult. The slightly bulkier 20GB Zen Touch Loom Large also wowed me with its multiple playlist first, a look at the big guns in music formats, FM recording, and blue-lit back- players: those with hard drives. This cate- screen. The $250 Zen’s one-thumb navi- gory includes both large-capacity (20GB to gation system is relatively simple to use, IRiver PMP-120 80GB) and midcapacity (1GB to 5GB) although I suggest that you set its hyper- Price: $500 models. Even though they’re based on sensitive keypad to “low.” Preproduction unit, not rated similar technology, the two types suit sig- If you are a lefty, look into the 20GB Rio THE IRIVER PMP-120 has the best nificantly different lifestyles. Do you see Karma, which gives you the option of design of the models we tested. Its side yourself adding several new CDs to your switching to intuitive southpaw manipu- grips fit naturally in the hands, and skip- player each week? If so, go with a large- lation. You can navigate with either a joy- ping over recorded TV ads is easy. The capacity player. Even serious music collec- stick (which I found somewhat uncom- 3.5-inch screen is bright and the unit’s tors will take some time to max out 20GB fortable to use) or a wheel that functions battery is removable. On the downside, or more of storage: The 5000-song capac- like a scroll wheel on a computer mouse. we heard a slight but annoying noise ity of a 20GB player translates into 500 It has a large, bright screen and simple during hard-drive accesses, noticed

ten-song albums. on-the-fly playlist creation. This $300 jerkiness in some videos, and could RICK RIZNER PHOTOGRAPH:

4 WWW.PCWORLD.COM POWER GUIDE MEDIA HANDHELDS

VIDEO PLAYERS CONTINUED...

player is chunky compared to our top barely hear the built-in speaker over two, but it does have the appealing ambient noise while in a car on the free- Rio DJ feature, which enables the unit way. Nevertheless, the PMP-120, which to select songs according to a few sim- runs the Windows PMC OS, was our ple rules and play them back for as favorite of these six video players. long as you like. Across the board, transferring music to these players was simple. With Ap- ple’s ITunes, transferring songs (or one of 5000 audiobooks available for purchase at the music store) to the 40GB IPod is an easy drag-and-drop operation. The Rio Karma, Creative Zen Touch, and other non-Apple players I looked at play back standard Creative Zen Portable MP3, WMA, and WAV files; with MIDSIZE: Media Center them, using Rio’s 5GB Carbon. Price: $499 to load songs is often easiest. 11113 Philips’s HDD120/17 is an elegant- and the Best Buy in the middle category, THIS WINDOWS PMC player has the looking black-and-chrome unit with sev- is the 5GB Rio Carbon, which can hold largest screen of the devices we looked eral handy functions lacking on the IPod, 1250 tunes. When the first IPod arrived at, but it’s also the biggest (at about 6 Karma, and Zen Touch. Unlike the top on the scene, conventional wisdom main- by 3.2 by 1.1 inches) and the heaviest (at two large-capacity players, the Philips can tained that it was better than anything 12 ounces). The Zen’s 3.8-inch screen encode (MP3-speak for record) voice or else and hence justified its higher price, looks great, and I could see it in all light- music without involving a PC. This is a while the competition was cheaper and ing but the brightest direct sunlight. My great feature, but it doesn’t overcome my had fewer features. With the $249 Car- test videos played back with only very sense that the player lags behind the IPod bon, Rio decided to go head-to-head with occasional jerkiness. But this device is a and the Zen Touch in ease of use. Apple’s Mini on merit, price be damned. little bit awkward to hold, and could Though both cost the same, the metallic- cause discomfort in your hands when gray Carbon, smaller and thinner than a you’re watching longer shows. typical cellular flip phone, packs a 5GB Is Midsize a hard drive. That translates into 25 percent more space than the Mini has. Compromise? The wedge-shaped Carbon fits comfort- then again, not everybody feels the ably in your palm, has excellent sound need to access 5000 songs at the touch of quality, provides a bright LCD screen, and a button. Midcapacity audio players, with is easy to manipulate one-handed. Some 1GB to 5GB hard drives, tend to be more users have reported that their Rio Carbons compact than their big-gig siblings—it’s produce static when connected to head- approximately the same size difference as phones with a metal jack. Buying new head- the one between a deck of cards and a phones with a plastic connection or apply- Apex MP-2000 business card holder. From my evaluation ing some electrical tape to the area around Price: $399 of the 40GB IPod, it should be obvious the metal jack should fix the problem. 11123 that I loved the $249 IPod Mini as well. If you want to search for your next song THE APEX MP-2000 IS, at 0.8 inches Despite its waifish 3.6-ounce weight, the while the current one is playing, you’ll thick and 8.5 ounces, among the thin- Mini offers a spacious 4GB of storage need a player that can multitask—and not nest and lightest players I tested, and it and the same Click Wheel I liked on the all do. Both the Mini and the Carbon, how- fits well in the hand. However, it lacks regular-size IPod. And no other player ever, permit you to browse down to a song video-conversion software, so you’ll can top the Mini in sheer style, with its within an album or under an artist name need to use a program like Dr. Divx anodized-aluminum case, slim profile, without interrupting playback. (www.drdivx.com). The MP-2000’s 3.5- and eye-catching color options. Though you have to buy an adapter to inch screen displays strong, deep col-

Nevertheless, the new apple of my eye add voice-recording capabilities to ors, but an obvious grid pattern overly- (RIGHT): RICK RIZNER PHOTOGRAPHS (LEFT): JOHN KUCZALA; PHOTOGRAPH

5 WWW.PCWORLD.COM POWER GUIDE 6 able attheITunesonlinemusicstore,too. audible.com audiobooks atitsownWebsite( Audible sellsahugeselectionofdigital do, socheckforthisbeforeyoubuy). book format(notalldigitalaudioplayers they supporttheAudibledigitalaudio- ed areallAudibleReady,meaningthat both IPods,andtheCreativeplayersItest- a playerforthesameprice?TheCarbon, autobiography aroundordownloaditinto you rathercarryBillClinton’s900-page is forplaying largeenoughstoragecapacity that havea creasingly popularuseofaudioplayers when comparingaudioplayers:Onein- here’s afinalfactor make itthemasterofthisclass. space andsignificantlybetterbatterylife Mini. Still,theCarbon’sextrastorage attractive andeasy-to-usefeatureofthe you can’tmakeplaylistsonthego,an disappointment withtheCarbonisthat Apple promisesfortheMini.Myonlyreal tery lifedramaticallytopsthe8hours er). AndRio’sestimateof20hoursbat- MP3s fromanexternalmikeorCDplay- doesn’t havealine-injackforencoding recorder outofthebox(regrettably,it the Mini,Carbonworksasavoice WWW.PCWORLD.COM MEDIA HANDHELDS ), andagreatmanyareavail- audiobooks. Afterall,would BOOK IT POWER GUIDE Samsung YP-T5V, JetAudio LS RNY From left, FLASH FRENZY: IAudio 4, IRiver IFP-790. to consider www. In aFlash these tinythings.Ihadlittletroubleget- reason, easeoftransferiscrucialwith batch afterafewtripstothegym.Forthat songs when,say,youtireoftheexisting do, you’llneedtoswapinanewgroupof er capacitythanhard-drive–baseddevices commuting orworkingoutlessboring. ing—having multipleoptionsmakes than music,FMradio,andvoicerecord- tional featureslikestorageforfilesother compact size,you’llcommonlyfindaddi- the pickingsarehardlyslim.Despitetheir comes tofindingonethatfitsyourneeds, Flash playersmaybesmall,butwhenit able modelsuchastheRioForgeSport). memory) to240songs(ona1GBexpand- from 30songs(onaunitwith128MBof I testedinthiscategoryholdanywhere at theexpenseofstoragecapacity.Players ounces atmost,buttheygainportability Atkins fanaticsshedpounds. shed morebulkfromtheseproductsthan flash memory,whichallowsdesignersto an ultracompactaudioplayerbasedon the sizeofyourthumb?Ifso,you’llenjoy ing toyourfavorite100songsonaplayer like theidea Since theseplayershaveamuchsmall- These diminutiveunitsweighonlyafew display sealthedeal. coding, andan easy-to-read such asMP3andvoiceen- ed sportsarmband.Features tive lifestyle,withaninclud- ory, andit’sgearedtotheac- boasts 256MBofflashmem- substantial. TheIFP-790 and—most important—very player that’sstylish,sporty, 790, atubular,cherry-red gory isthe$160IRiverIFP- with Samsung’ssoftware). T5V aftergettingfrustrated er toworkwiththeYeppYP- to useWindowsMediaPlay- on thechart(thoughIopted five playersthatearnedspots ting upandrunningwithall The BestBuyinthiscate- of joggingwhilelisten- VIDEO PLAYERS CONTINUED... Price: $399 Archos Gmini400n Microsoft’s operating system. poor. The MP-2000 does notuse no helpmenuandthemanualisrather screen menusare adequate, butthere’s ing theimagemakes itlookgrainy. On- can’t use thedevice while recording. without having to use aPC,butyou VCR. This means you can record TV such asacable box, whileit serves asa also lets you control anotherdevice, media player—it records video, too. It ismore thanjust a THE 20GB AV420 11123 Price: $550 Recorder AV420 Archos Pocket Video inch LCD screen became wearisome. tended television viewing onits 2.2- and SDCard slots. But Ifound thatex- is anadapter thataddsMemoryStick control withanFMradio isavailable, as back upyour digital camera. Aremote ry card files to its hard drive, so you can CompactFlash slot. Itcan copy memo- the ability to record MP3audio, anda pocket, yet ithasa20GB hard drive, device, issmallenoughto fitinto ashirt anothernon–PMCOS THE GMINI400N, 11123

PHOTOGRAPH (LEFT): JOHN KUCZALA; PHOTOGRAPHS (RIGHT): RICK RIZNER MEDIA HANDHELDS

VIDEO PLAYERS CONTINUED...

A close second is JetAudio’s $220 IAu- The $160 Rio Forge Sport has an easy-to- The screen is large enough for comfort- dio 4, which packs 512MB of memory read screen, and its ergonomic design lets able viewing, though it isn’t particularly into an elegant silver unit. Treadmill reg- you manipulate the device with one hand. bright. Video played back smoothly, but ulars will appreciate the IAudio 4’s sleek, For about $100 you can buy an SD Card the colors looked flat. The AV420 does- comfortable armband setup. It has the or MultiMediaCard that expands the Rio’s n’t use the Windows PMC OS. basic features covered (MP3 encoding capacity from 256MB to 1GB. The compa- and so on) and offers great sound quality. ny says that it hasn’t received any com- I got a little frustrated with the JetShell plaints from users about the Sport slip- software, and the unit’s small buttons can ping out of its armband while in use, but make adjusting on the fly difficult, but I had difficulty getting mine to stay put. those are minor quibbles. AT HOME IN THE OFFICE Not far behind is Samsung’s Yepp YP- T5V. The size of a small lipstick case, the one player not aimed at the Stairmas- $150 YP-T5V has an exceptionally user- ter set is Creative’s elegant $110 MuVo friendly design. Its intuitive joystick navi- Slim, which would be more appropriate gation means that you don’t even need to in the boardroom than in the weight look at the player to skip through songs or room. Packing 256MB of memory into an Zvue Player adjust volume. The sleek blue player’s ultraskinny, credit-card–like design, the Price: $220 ($150 for the player, $70 cheap plastic carrying case seems chintzy, MuVo Slim comes with a leather carrying for a 512MB SD Card) however, and the lack of a sports arm- case. Figuring out its folder/subfolder 11133 band is a drawback for the athletically navigation of music and other files takes a THE ZVUE uses SD Cards; one 512MB inclined. Samsung does include a leather while, and people with large hands may card holds up to 8 hours of content strap for hanging it around your neck. find that manipulating its tiny buttons is a (versus 80 hours for a hard-drive de- Gym rats might also consider the $200 problem. But if your latest brainstorm vice). Not a PMC, the Zvue has no video Samsung Sports Yepp YP-60V, a model catches you without pen and paper handy, inputs; its maker offers free download- that missed the chart because it sacrificed you can use the MuVo to record and play able software that converts video from music options in favor of sports and fit- back voice memos almost effortlessly. a variety of formats. The Zvue’s screen ness features. The YP-60V’s heart-rate is small, and the video produced by the monitor, stopwatch, calorie counter, and Sam Jemielity is a music editor for AOL City software looks blocky. Its display is exercise progress tracking—with music Guide. He is based in Chicago. Richard Bagu- bright, however, and the color is decent. thrown in—will appeal to some users. ley is a senior associate editor for PC World. —Richard Baguley

FEATURES COMPARISON Byte-Size Flash Players With Big Sound

THESE TINY DEVICES WON’T WEIGH YOU DOWN, but the amount of music they hold is also on the small side.

Street Weight (oz)/ Features/ Formats Capacity Battery dimensions Comments PLAYER price 1 life (w x d x h) ease of use supported 1.3/ IRiver IFP-790 11112 Outstanding/ ASF, MP3, Ogg MP3 and voice recording; doubles as portable storage; FM Best $160 256MB 40 1.3 x 1.0 x 1 Outstanding Vorbis, WMA BUY find.pcworld.com/44998 3.4 inches tuner/recorder; simultaneous browse/playback capability. 5.2/ JetAudio IAudio 4 Very Good/ MP3, VBR, WAV, Direct MP3 encoding; voice recording; FM radio; its tiny $220 512MB 15 1.3 x 3.0 x 2 Very Good WMA 11113 find.pcworld.com/45000 0.7 inches buttons and playlist creation are difficult to use. 0.9/ Samsung Yepp YP-T5V Very Good/ MP3, WMA, Intuitive joystick navigation; MP3 and voice recording; ultra- $150 256MB 15 2.1 x 0.9 x 3 Very Good Secure WMA 11113 find.pcworld.com/45006 0.9 inches tiny size; use for portable storage. 2.2/ Rio Forge Sport Very Good/ Audible, MP3, Easy one-hand navigation; expandable to 1.25GB; FM tuner $160 256MB 20 2.7 x 0.9 x 4 Outstanding WMA 11113 find.pcworld.com/45008 2.5 inches and FM record; stopwatch; uncomfortable headphones. 1.6/ Creative MuVo Slim Very Good/ Audible, MP3, Jog button navigation; impressive size/memory ratio; easy $110 256MB 17 3.4 x 0.3 x 5 Good WMA 11123 find.pcworld.com/42908 2.2 inches voice recording and playback; tiny buttons can be a nuisance.

FOOTNOTE: 1 Maximum battery life promised by manufacturer in hours. PHOTOGRAPH: RICK RIZNER PHOTOGRAPH:

7 WWW.PCWORLD.COM POWER GUIDE R A E G for the living room and beyond the living room for —

T X E EDITED BY LAURIANNE McLAUGHLIN LAURIANNE EDITED BY The new world of personal tech personal of world new The NEXT GEAR NEXT N PC WORLD Senior Associate Editor Tom Mainelli builds a PC. THE ULTIMATE REMOTE WANT ONE CLICKER THAT CAN DO IT ALL? I CLEARED THE COFFEE TABLE AND TESTED FOUR CONTROLS DESIGNED TO STREAMLINE HOME ENTERTAINMENT MANAGEMENT. BY JOSH TAYLOR my fiancée, lisa, moved in equally puzzled. So when I got which one to use for watch- more devices you’ll be able to with me several months ago, the chance to try a handful of ing, say, Desperate Housewives. control, and the more likely but whenever she wants to new universal remote controls You might be surprised at you’ll be able to connect it to turn on the home theater sys- that would let me exchange how many options are avail- your PC (usually via a USB tem, we still play a game of a coffee table’s worth of re- able. Universal remotes range port) for easier configuration. remote roulette. Should she motes for just one, I leaped at in price from around $20 for a If you don’t connect the new use the remote for the cable the opportunity. Wedding no-frills number from Radio remote to a PC, you’ll have to box, the one for the AV receiv- planning is stressful enough Shack to over $1000 for one enter a code for each of your er, or the one for the TV? All without endless queries from from a custom home theater devices, train the new remote bets are off if she wants to Lisa about which remote to installer. As a rule, the more by aiming your old one at it, or

PHOTOGRAPH: CHIP SIMONS PHOTOGRAPH: watch a DVD. Guests seem use for listening to a CD and you spend on a remote, the perform some combina-

POWER GUIDE WWW.PCWORLD.COM 8 NEXT GEAR

tion of these two tasks. I spent This feature can be a bit jar- two weeks examining four ring. Every time I walked by YOU’LL USE these THE LIGHT units priced between $90 and the coffee table, the darned buttons to scroll BUTTON is A B $700. Ultimately, there’s only thing turned itself on. (Okay, I through commands easy to find, one I’d consider purchasing. could have turned off the mo- for complex devices. even in the tion detector.) While watching dark. CLICK IT GOOD TV, I could easily access the aesthetically, I might have channel up and down buttons; picked a winner on the first if I switched over to my audio/ Osiris MX-350 day of my investigation: One video receiver, I could change Universal Remote Control 11123 For All’s Kameleon ($90). The the audio source. A , $150 B Kameleon’s primary claim to Unfortunately, in the Kame- find.pcworld.com/45672 fame is that it has no visible leon’s case, looking great does buttons. Instead, the remote’s not equate to working well. Pro: Well-spaced, nicely raised face consists of a blue electro- With a standard remote con- buttons make this universal remote a luminescent display that does trol, you can eventually use pleasure to click. nothing until it senses mo- the device by feel. If you watch Con: Menu layout requires a lot of tion. Then, it shows the appro- enough TV, you learn exactly scrolling—or some rather cumbersome priate buttons for whatever where the channel buttons customizing—to access many of the device you’re trying to control. are, thanks to tactile clues. But home theater system features. when all buttons are virtual, there’s no way to tell exactly where your finger is on the radio frequency–based device. A remote. For me, this short- This eliminates the primary coming eliminates the Kame- drawback to infrared devices leon from serious contention. (the remote’s need to “see” the Universal Remote Control’s device that it’s controlling), and it enables you to control Osiris MX-350 ($150), on the devices from a different room Kameleon other hand, is finger-clicking or even to store your compo- One For All good. The buttons are well nents in a closet. 11133, $90 spaced and pleasingly firm to THE BEER TEST find.pcworld.com/45654 the touch. An easy-to-locate light button lets you navigate even i, a self-professed gad- Pro: The Kameleon combines an aestheti- the remote in a dark room. get nut, could scarcely imagine B cally pleasing design and a very The Osiris can control up to spending $700 on a remote reasonable price. ten devices. It has a crisp LCD, control; but I still looked for- Con: The device’s reliance on an array though you’ll likely spend a lot ward to playing with Sony’s of digital buttons makes touch-based of time scrolling to reach the Navitus RM-NX7000. I had operation impossible. And the unit doesn’t screen containing the com- heard that the remote includ- support the degree of customization mands you want. I found the ed a huge, bright color display, available on the higher-end models. incessant navigating pretty but I didn’t think seriously frustrating, but I did manage about the huge part until I to cut down on it by customiz- tried to use it. Lisa could bare- ing the screens that I wanted ly hold the device—using both A B to see for each device. hands. It’s easily twice the size If you’re simply looking for of my HP IPaq Pocket PC. a remote to control a cable box Connecting the Navitus to or receiver, a TV, a DVD play- my PC for customization was THE ICONS located at the WITHOUT RAISED buttons er, and a basic audio/video painfully slow and unnecessar- top of the remote make to provide tactile clues, receiver, the Osiris is a terrific ily complex. Working with the switching between home you’ll have to keep your eye choice overall. An optional Navitus gave me two critical entertainment devices easy. on where you click. $99 base station (the MRF-250 insights: First, if a remote con-

RF) converts the remote into a trol has to have an operat- RICK RIZNER PHOTOGRAPHS:

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ered. Visit any of the various other units, forums on sites handhelds download sites on such as Remotecentral.com A B the Web (for example, www. contain a wealth of codes and handango.com), and you will user instructions to consult. THE HELP BUTTONS OFFER easy access to the find myriad remote control UNIVERSAL APPEAL? button is options you choose most often—watch TV, applications designed to turn actually helpful. listen to music, and so on. a Palm or Pocket PC device ultimately, after immers- into a universal remote. Nevo, ing myself in remote-control A Harmony 676 B developed by UEI—the same wonderland for a couple of Editor’s Logitech company that produces the weeks, I came to a somewhat PICK 11113, $230 hardware and software used surprising realization. All of find.pcworld.com/45656 inside One For All’s Kame- these remotes allowed me to leon remote—is among the reduce my coffee table clutter Pro: Easy to set up, simple to customize, best I’ve seen; it’s included dramatically, and that alone and convenient to use. This was the best with most recent IPaqs. arguably makes switching to model overall of the four I test-drove. Yet another alternative: You one worthwhile; but except for Con: Some menu options for certain might try improving your cur- the Harmony 676, none really particular devices get cut off in rent universal remote. Various simplified the task of riding midword. The small LCD screen can be remote-control geeks swap herd on my home theater sys- difficult to read. codes for the devices, opening tem. Each of these remotes up a whole new level of cus- requires you and your guests tomization. Some remotes (of- to learn a new array of quirks, forth—the Logitech did the ten ones developed by UEI) and that can be quite a hassle. job in the most intuitive way. can be connected to PCs via a You don’t want to turn off the Four brightly colored buttons JP1 cable (you can get one of cable box accidentally at an in- toward the top are configured these for the Kameleon). For opportune moment. A glitch to handle your most common- in a wedding ceremony may ly performed activities, like be a nightmare, but it pales in watching a DVD or a TV show comparison to suddenly los- ing system (in this case, Linux) (including programs recorded ing the picture in the fourth to run it, it’s probably going to on your DVR) or listening to A quarter of a 21–20 game. be too much of a hassle for me. CDs or the radio. And second, if I need to use The Harmony was the only These days, freelancer Josh Tay- both hands to operate a remote that fully recognized lor of Brooklyn, New York, spends remote, how do I hold a beer? my Onkyo receiver and gave quality time battling his fiancee´ Finally, a clear-cut winner me access to its Internet radio for control of the remote. emerged: Logitech’s Harmony features. And the Harmony 676 ($230), a recent addition to may be the first device I’ve the company’s well-respected ever used that features a truly Navitus RM-NX7000 line of remote controls. Aside helpful Help button. Clicking B Sony from being the easiest device the Help button triggers a 11333, $700 to use, the Harmony 676 was step-by-step troubleshooting find.pcworld.com/45658 far and away the least difficult process, consisting primarily A MOST COMMANDS are to configure. I simply connect- of powering different compo- accessible via the bright Pro: Virtually every aspect of the ed it to my PC and followed a nents on and off until every- TFT display. device is customizable, right wizard that took less than 10 thing is in the proper state. down to the picture that serves minutes to complete. as a backup screen to the bright MAKE YOUR OWN Although several devices let B color LCD. me group home entertain- if you can’t see spending Con: $700?!?! On top of that, ment components together— hundreds of dollars on a re- the remote can be slow and for example, to change the vol- mote, here’s another option: MEMORY STICK slot— challenging to set up, and its ume on the receiver and the You may already have a high- have you ever seen a Sony large size makes one-handed channels on the cable box, end remote lying around your product without one? operation virtually impossible. without switching back and house that you haven’t consid-

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Centralized GADGETGADGET FREAKFREAK Entertainment DAN TYNAN DEDICATED Devices (DDI) offers one solution to people who want to centralize all their digital media and serve GOLDEN RECEIVERS it from one place: its $2250 Digital Distribution Center speakers get all the glory, plugging in a portable player. wood, product manager for server, coupled with its $299 but your audio/video receiver Try stereo à la mode: Sur- Cambridge Soundworks. For Digital Player. The server has is the hub of your home enter- round-sound modes are like example, some 7.1 systems let tainment universe. Yet many reality TV shows—every time you set up a 5.1 home theater guys swap out receivers as fre- you turn around, you see a in the den and hang two speak- quently as they change hair- new one. Here’s some simple ers in another room, so the styles—once every 15 years. advice: If you have only two kids can watch Finding Nemo Today, for $300 to $400 you speakers, look for “virtualiza- while you listen to the Flaming can buy a receiver Lips. Look for a a 120GB hard drive and acts that powers your unit that uses ex- as a residential gateway and speakers and con- isting amplifier router, connecting via ether- trols your radio, channels for mul- net to your network and the TV, video players, tiple zones, so you Digital Players. Players hook digital recorders, don’t need anoth- up to your TV and stereo to and other compo- er receiver to drive feed in the content stored on nents. Here are the second set of the server. The system is five things many speakers. meant to go into prewired buyers overlook. Be acoustically homes; you can get the de- Get the hookups: correct: Most of vices only through profes- The biggest mis- us can’t afford to sional installers, such as take is choosing a hire a hi-fi geek to those in the Leviton network. receiver with the perfectly place all find.pcworld.com/45988 incorrect connec- our speakers, says tions, says Grant Mohsin Imtiaz, a pause, and rewind for DVD Garrett, an agent marketing man- playback) by color, and that with Best Buy’s Geek Squad tion” features that simulate ager for Texas Instruments, lets you program macros so (www.geeksquad.com) high- surround sound using just which makes the digital signal you can press a single button tech troubleshooters. If you two channels. Want to play processors in many receivers. to perform complex tasks (like want to plug in a DVD player your old CDs or VHS tapes on But if you get a receiver with turning on your TV and DVD and a digital video recorder, a surround-sound system? built-in “room correction,” you player and switching inputs to buy a unit with multiple com- Look for a unit that features can place a microphone where watch a movie). The remote ponent (red-green-blue) in- matrixing, which uses Dolby you’d usually sit; the unit then gets bonus points for an LCD, puts. HDTV lovers should ProLogic II or DTS: Neo6 to optimizes speaker settings to or if the buttons light up so look for higher-quality DVI or convert two-channel record- match the room’s acoustics. you can see them in the dark. HDMI hookups. Have a sep- ings into multichannel sound. Take it easy: You shouldn’t Follow these tips, and you arate DVD-Audio or Super To learn more about surround need a Ph.D. in stereotronics can walk into any stereo store Audio CD player? You may sound, check out Crutchfield’s to operate your gear. An easy- with confidence. And while want a high-speed FireWire excellent consumer guides to-use receiver usually has a you’re out, stop by the hair port. And if you want to blast (find.pcworld.com/45804). well-designed remote, notes salon and update your style. MP3s on your stereo, look for Zone out: If you want music Lance DuChateau, consumer You know you need to. ethernet jacks or Wi-Fi card in more than one room, get a marketing manager for Best slots for connecting to a home receiver that supports remote Buy. Look for one that groups Contributing Editor Dan Tynan

network, or a USB port for zones, advises Bob Hazel- similar functions (like play, gets a new ‘do every seven years. CAMPBELL HARRY ILLUSTRATION:

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