Gyration Media Center Universal Learning Remote Control?

[wirecreative]

Anyone try this out?

Gyration Media Center Universal Learning Remote Control?

I currently use a mix of Hauppage and MCE remotes for my two HTPCs, but I'd love to find something that can learn other devices as well: dvd player, TV, AR.

I tried one of the fancier Harmony remotes a few months back, but it was far too difficult to set-up, let alone hand-off to the wife.

[UFGrayMatter]

Review at the Green Button:
http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/thread/174636.aspx

[wirecreative]

Thanks for link. The only other review I've found was the pan at Amazon. I assume this would work with Sage the same way the standard MCE remote does.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by wirecreative

Thanks for link. The only other review I've found was the pan at Amazon. I assume this would work with Sage the same way the standard MCE remote does.

No it will not. It is based on using RF technology and it isn't the same as using the MCE remote. The MCE remote receiver is IR. This will learn from IR remotes but it's receiver is RF based.

Gerry

[bcjenkins]

Gerry, you sure about that? The remote is Vista MCE certified. I would think that regardless of the transport mechanism, as long as it sends the same codes to the software layer it should be fine. It also appears to support IR as well.

B

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by bcjenkins

Gerry, you sure about that? The remote is Vista MCE certified. I would think that regardless of the transport mechanism, as long as it sends the same codes to the software layer it should be fine. It also appears to support IR as well.

B

The IR support is for learning and controlling up to 3 devices other than the PC. (TV, receiver, etc)

Well here it refers to using it's gyrotools software for MCE: GyroTools

It references some of this:

MCE NAVIGATION TOOLS: Home • OK • TV • Guide • Channel Pad • Details • Back

MCE TRANSPORT TOOLS: Play • Play-Pause • Stop • Record • FF • Rewind • Skip • Replay

MCE A/V TOOLS: Gyro Volume • Volume Up • Volume Down • Mute • Channel Up
Channel Down • DVD Menu • Standby • My TV • My Music • My Recorded TV
My Pictures • My Videos

But from a CNET review it says:

Installing the Gyration remote control is as easy as plugging the radio frequency USB receiver dongle into your PC and pressing each connect button, one on the dongle and one on the remote itself. You don't need to install any software, which makes it simple to swap the remote between different PCs. You can also remove the dongle and plug it back in later, and it will remember the components you've matched it with.

So if it doesn't require a special driver then maybe it will be recognized as a MCE remote by other apps.

Now we just have to get one and try it. Anyone got $150 lying around?

Gerry

[bcjenkins]

Originally Posted by gplasky

Anyone got $150 lying around?

Gerry

Not me Just spent mine on a dual port server nic to boost i/o

[wirecreative]

A nearby store is going out of business, so I bought two of these on 70% discount, planning to sell one on ebay for what I paid for both if it didn't work out.

So far, I'm pleased. It uses a different receiver module than MCE, but most of the functionality is the same (actually, it seems to have a bit more native functionality than the MCE remotes, but I've not really compared them head-to-head).

Short version is: if you need a remote that can control your TV, receiver, DVD player and Sage, plus give you a "wireless mouse" option, this is pretty good. Would I pay $150 for it? Probably not, but I'm cheap. It works. And there's no set-up software. It just works. And it learns commands from other remotes fairly easily. I was actually able to set up both my DVD player and my receiver to share the same AUX control setting, using unused buttons for the receiver.

The biggest con is I'm not crazy about how it sits in my hand. It's very bottom heavy.

[Steep]

Originally Posted by gplasky

Now we just have to get one and try it. Anyone got $150 lying around?

PCAlchemy.com is running a nice special that seems like it was plucked straight from the SageTV Forums.

HDHomeRun QAM tuner + Gyration remote control (along with a splitter and some cables) for $249.

Since the HDHomeRun retails for around 175, that seems like a really good price for the Gyration controller (~$75).

[Steep]

So I got this Gyration Remote, but have some problems...

I'm running the latest sage beta 6.2.4 on Windows XP.
I configured SageTV as "no remote or external setup".

The remote control worked fine, but none of the media center buttons work. e.g., Watch TV/Program Guide. TV/Pictures/Video.

I used to use a Hauppauge 45 button remote and all of those keys worked fine with it.

I called Gyration and asked if there was any way I could remap the signals from the remote to act as keystrokes, but they said no, it wasn't possible.

Next thing I did, was go into Sage and I told it that I had an MCE remote. Doing this has made Sage grind to a halt. The menus render horribly slow and it has become unresponsive.

I don't know how to fix this since I can't access the menus to de-select the MCE remote.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by Steep

Next thing I did, was go into Sage and I told it that I had an MCE remote. Doing this has made Sage grind to a halt. The menus render horribly slow and it has become unresponsive.

I don't know how to fix this since I can't access the menus to de-select the MCE remote.

You can clear the remote setting by clear the ConfigWiz/Remote property while SageTV is shut down.

You might also need to clear the registry setting in HKLM by setting this reg entry to 0 (zero):

Software\\Frey Technologies\\Common\\WinRawInputHookEnable

- Andy

[MacDaddy]

I thought I would just post some of my direct experience with the Gyration remote after using it for a few months. I had the Gyration GO Air Mouse and Compact keyboard suite (GC1105CKM). It used the 2.4GHz dongle with 30' range. In my configuration, I never activated Gyrotools (native mouse with scroll wheel support, SageTV navigated with mouse options). I bought the Gyration Media Center Remote (GYR3101US) and replaced the old USB dongle with the new 100' dongle. After associating the devices, everything works (keyboard, air mouse and remote).

I did not have Gyrotools loaded from the installation of the GO products and there was no CD included with the remote. Although there was a leaflet included with a website address to use for the remote, it was not activated when I first got the remote. In SageTV, the only change I made was to tell it I have a MCE compatable remote (no additional software driver, no Gyrotools).

There are four "modes" to the remote: PC (RF only- all others IR), TV, AUX and SAT/CAB. In PC mode, Sage responds to all keys in RF (no line of sight required). The green button, gets you the home screen and there are direct buttons for Pictures, TV Recordings, Music and Videos. Additional buttons for Live TV and TV Guide (plus others I can't recall now). It's important (and a little awkward) to remember to keep it in PC mode. Some of the buttons punch through and some don't.

The other modes allow you to map IR codes for your favorite device. Somewhat primitive, but at least you can reach for the holy grail of one remote to control all. The volume buttons only work for PC volume control (RF). This is unfortunate if you use SPDIF to your amp and want to control digital passthru volume at the amp. Also remember to be explicit in defining what you do with the Power button in PC mode. It is all too easy to punch the TV mode to turn off the monitor, AUX mode and turn off the amp and then follow through with the PC mode to shutdown your PC (and Sage in the process).

So far, I like this remote for controlling Sage and have had zero problems with response or reliability. I do wish it had the favorite/watched/dislike buttons from the Hauppauge remotes, but the RF capablity outweighs the larger IR library IMHO.

Hope this helps for those who are interested in this device.

[Steep]

Originally Posted by MacDaddy

The green button, gets you the home screen and there are direct buttons for Pictures, TV Recordings, Music and Videos. Additional buttons for Live TV and TV Guide

These buttons do not work for me, and I wish very much that they would. It is very inconvenient trying to navigate the SageTV interface without them.

Does anybody know why my SageTV instance would slow to a crawl with rendering problems when I tell Sage that I have an MCE remote? (under XP same as MacDaddy). I don't know where to begin to look.

Is my remote control defective? Is there any tool I could use with this remote to tell if signals are being received by the RF receiver?

I have a clean WinXP Pro install, latest Sage beta, Java, etc. I setup SageTV to use VMR9 rendering, and selecting MCE remote seems to cause rendering problems within Sage. How could this be?

Originally Posted by MacDaddy

The volume buttons only work for PC volume control (RF). This is unfortunate if you use SPDIF to your amp and want to control digital passthru volume at the amp.

I found this very disappointing as well. Not being able to remap any of the keys in PC mode.

[Steep]

Just an update on XP compatibility.

I wasted time installing Vista Home Premium on the HTPC this weekend. In Vista, the Gyration remote control worked perfectly. All the MCE buttons mapped in both MCE and SageTV.

However, I got frustrated with getting my motley group of components working correctly in Vista, so I re-installed Windows XP Pro.

Steps:
1) Clean XP install.
2) Downloaded security updates/patches/etc.
3) Installed drivers for hardware.
4) Installed JRE
5) Installed SageTV

After getting SageTV up and running with this very clean install, the MCE buttons on the Gyration remote control did not work. Same issues as described in the previous posts.

I wish I knew what the subtle difference is between MacDaddy's setup and my own, but alas...

In the meantime I've remapped all the keys on the number keypad to perform the MCEish functions and am willing to make do until I feel like torturing myself again.

[wirecreative]

I ended up buying two of these on a deep discount, and have been pretty pleased. As mentioned before, selecting "MCE Remote" in the Sage config made nearly all of the PC buttons work out of the box with no set-up required.

My only gripe -- aside from the odd bottom heavy design -- is that one of the remotes one day simply lost all of the learned codes for my other devices (PC commands still work great). The remote in the other room hasn't suffered the same memory loss, so I don't know what's up.

It would be ideal with this kind of remote if you could backup its settings to avoid this in the future, but it's been over a month and I haven't bothered to reprogram it yet.

There's also a slight issue with its volume button. I was never able to reprogram it to operate by AV receiver in AUX mode. so i programmed the channel button in that mode to do the volume. Not an ideal hack.

Almost the remote I've been looking for. The gyro-mouse function is terrific.

[Steep]

To confirm the observations above...

I too had the programmed settings be forgotten. Their website says that weak batteries may be to blame. I replaced the cheap-o batteries that came with the remote with some Energizers and haven't had the problem since (bout 3 weeks now). This seems very strange because you'd think something as semi-permanent as this would be stored in eeprom (do people still say eeprom or is everything "flash" now?).

Also noticed the same strange programming anomalies that you did. In the TV mode, I was able to program the volume up/down buttons to control my Amplifier. However, in the AUX mode, I was unable to map the amplifier's volume buttons to the volume up/down controls.

[CollinR]

Snapstream FireFly + EventGhost Rocks!!!


It can do everything mentioned thus far an a whole lot more, I don't think the FireFly has the range of the Gyration although it too is RF.

You can do almost anything if you spend some time in EventGhost and have a supported device be it IR or RF.

[cracula]

In case anyone is looking to pick one of these up they're currently on sale at buy.com for $49.95 ($39.95 if you use Google Checkout as a first time user):

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=204071223

[visiontim]

Thanks for the tip! Just got one from Buy.com.

[brandito]

The Gyration MCE remote is an awesome piece of equipment and has freed me from having a mouse and multiple remotes at my couch. prior to this I had a Hauppauge remote, reciever remote and tv remote.

This is the best remote for the person that likes to use their computer from the couch for more than just sagetv since your mouse is always at hand and works great (amazing battery life too). The only problem I have is that there is no punch through for volume controls. I haven't had the memory loss problem. you get use to it very easy, and any problems pale to the fact that you have an awesome convergance device.

I decided to use the learned IR commands exclusively. The code setup worked fine but now I only have to use the PC and the TV setting. Since I only use about 3-5 buttons on my TV and reciever remotes I just put them all on the TV device on the gyration by learning the commands. Very easy. I actually use transport buttons for my discreet on and off commands for my tv and reciever.

If gyration is listening here are the changes I would like to see.
1. charging cradle like their mice
2. ability to override PC device buttons with IR commands or punch through
3. memory back up to pc
4. (in my dreams) a slide out mini keyboard so I don't even have to have a seperate keyboard which would make it the ultimate convergance input device.

Any other arguments to say that another remote is better???