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Packard Bell WinAmp Remote Control
Review Date: December 9, 2002
Reviewed by: Chad Rose
Sponsored By: TekGems.com
My first thought when I saw this Packard Bell remote control from Tekgems.com was what in the heck would I need a remote for my computer for? But then after I had it all setup and configured I wondered why in the heck I had never gotten one before this! And considering the low cost of this item, once you have one, maybe you will never go without.
When I first received this package this is what I got:
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Not too flashy or extravagant but it gets the job done. There are a lot of features you can put into place because there are plenty of input buttons, 34 to be exact, to assign certain tasks to. Installation is a breeze because all you do is take the infrared receiver and plug it into an open serial port. After that you just install the AA batteries in the remote and then install WinLIRC, which holds a GNU General Public License, that means it's free to everyone. After all that, which takes about 3-5 minutes, it comes time to get down to the nitty-gritty of configuring WinLIRC for the grueling day to day tasks it will have to perform from here on out.
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Here are a few shots of the infrared receiver which has a pretty long cord, so you can put it just about anywhere you want to put it.
WinLIRC wasn't hard to setup at all.
But, what got me was the WinAmp Plugin configuration. I installed the plugin just like the instructions said, and configured the buttons again, read several peoples accounts of how they tried to get it working and couldn't, then I tried different configuration files posted on the internet, and then I gave up thinking that I wouldn't be able to get it to work at all. I also tried both WinAmp 3 and WinAmp 2.76 to just to make sure it wasn't a compatibility issue in case that question comes to mind.
Then I found Girder. After program installation I was very relieved to say the least. It is very well documented unlike other programs.
Girder
is capable of just about anything you have the patience to sit down and
teach the remote to do. I configured it to run not only
WinAmp, but I also programmed it to do simple windows tasks like open
and close notepad, run Media Player, and operate PowerDVD. All the
configuration information can be found by looking through different
articles and how-to's on the internet. The best place I found that
was informative and full of links was Eric's
Place.
Conclusion.
This remote control kind of adds a shock factor to even the more advanced pc users, so please expect this when you first start using one, but don't let the fact that I said Shock sway you away from getting one. Some of the pluses are the remote control fits in your hand like it belongs there so I don't see any comfort issues. Also, this remote is pretty inexpensive, expect to pay no more than $10.99 for the complete setup. I do believe that once you get over the shock of having a remote and find all the resources available to set it up you will have a good time with it no matter what. And, something that I didn't mention before is you can also use this remote control package in most Linux distributions, so for folks that don't fear the penguin you will definitely love this because there is a lot of different programs and configurations to be had from the internet.
This is a really cool gadget, but it was a little difficult to configure. PCExtreme gives the Packard Bell Winamp remote 3 X's.
For more info, see Tekgems.com website.
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