On 6/28/10 10:01 PM, "Jeremy Sullivan" <[email protected]> wrote:
> I know nothing about that remote. I hope you love it, but if you find > yourself unhappy with it I highly recommend picking up a Logitech Harmony > remote. It was actually the Bose remote itself that won me over into getting the new system. The console unit for the Bose V-Series ³Lifestyle² systems contains updatable firmware that includes a database of hundreds of remotes. One programs the Bose remote by pointing the controller to be emulated at the Bose Console unit and pressing a few buttons as requested by an interactive menu on the TV screen. The console unit pops up messages on the screen to verify that the signals sent in response to key presses are as expected, then adds a new ³device² (it suggests an appropriate name, but you can edit or replace the suggested name) to the Bose remote. Takes about 30-60 seconds for a typical IR remote. Once you¹ve programmed your Bose remote to control all your devices, the list of devices you see on your TV screen and remote isn¹t ³HDMI1², ³HDMI2², etc, but ³TiVo-HD², ³BluRay², ³iPod², etc. If one of the devices is removed temporarily, it doesn¹t show up on the list until it¹s reconnected. I hope no one thinks of this as patronizing, but it almost makes this system an ideal Mother¹s Day Gift! (most of the women in my life have had more important things to do with their time than learn to juggle all the remotes that float around our family room). However, I¹ve just discovered an obstacle. I have no idea why (some say it was to kill a third party market), but Sony decided to eliminate IR remote capability from the PS3. It comes with a BlueTooth remote. There are adapters; e.g., for the Harmony remotes, but the result, if one doesn¹t HAVE a Harmony remote, is an expense of several hundred dollars just to acquire the ability to control the PS3 as a BluRay player with a universal remote (Bose¹s, Harmony¹s, or anyone else¹s). Looks as though we¹ll either have one more box to buy (a basic BluRay player) or struggle with Sony¹s BlueTooth remote. One other cool thing about the Bose remote: it¹s both IR and RF. By default, it controls all the devices attached to it, and one controls the Bose console using RF on the Bose remote, so everything can sit in a closed cabinet (another Mother¹s Day gift selling point). It also puts your iPod playlists menu on your TV and the current active entry of that list on the remote itself. So, if you¹re in the kitchen slicing onions, and your tears aren¹t flowing from the veggie vapors but from Lucciano Pavarotti¹s soaring conclusion to Puccini¹s ³Nessun Dorma² (Turandot), one press on the remote can reprise the master¹s performance even though the LifeStyle System is in another room (with additional Bose wireless devices, even in another part of the house entirely). People knock Bose all the time. I guess I like their stuff because I¹m an Apple fanboy. They figure out what people typically DO with their sound reproduction equipment, and they make it painless to do it easily (except when you write the check to acquire the stuff!!). I think TiVo has some of the same spirit. Jim Robertson -- [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
