Hands On with the ESPN Ultimate Remote
Falling squarely into the "gadgets you didn't know you needed until they existed" category, the ESPN Ultimate Remote is a universal remote that offers Wi-Fi connectivity. Connecting to the Internet through your home wireless connection allows the remote to not only give you game stats and scores from ESPN.com, but offers online shopping, text messaging, and social networking capabilities. It's billed as the "ultimate sports fan remote" but I'm actually tempted to call it the "first social media remote". There are a couple of Wi-Fi-enabled remotes on the market, but the ESPN remote is the first to offer actual Internet functionality. You can shop online at Amazon.com (ahem), text-message friends and family, and even update Facebook. Oh, and you can do sports-related stuff too, of course.
The remote uses click365 as its content portal, which connects to certain partner sites; so there's not a true web browser, and its 2.2" QVGA screen means mobile-phone-style browsing on the sites that are provided. But it's speedy and effective, there are a lot of available options, and more content is claimed to be coming for the remote via downloadable firmware upgrades.
Our Test Home Theater Setups
So how well does it work? I took it for a test spin on two different home theater setups, one high-end and one low-end. The high-end system consisted of a 52" Samsung LNT5365 LCD, an imported special-edition Onkyo TX-NA1000 receiver, a Toshiba HD-DVD player, and MartinLogan Purity speakers. The low-end system consisted of a 27" TruTech tube television, an early-1990's Sharp receiver, an RCA DRC247N DVD player, and Altec Lansing bookshelf speakers.
The ESPN remote is a completely PC-free setup--you simply choose to add a device type, choose the brand, and point the remote at the device while it cycles through its code library. It's as easy as it gets, but in the cases of popular brand names it can be time-consuming waiting for the remote to find the right code.
In the case of the low-end system, only the DVD player was recognized. This gave me the chance to test the remote's learning capability, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. My last learning remote was a URC RF20, and while it was a good remote in most respects, teaching it commands could be a hassle. The ESPN remote has a large IR port on the bottom, meaning you can hold both remotes facing the same direction, with the learned remote pointing at the back of the ESPN remote. It's a small difference that made a big difference in practice--I taught the ESPN remote the entire command sets from my TV and receiver in about five minutes.
For the high-end system, the remote recognized everything except the Onkyo import piece, but again it was easy to teach it commands. Activity macros were easy to set up for things like "Watch TV", "Watch DVD", and "Listen to Music". In general setup was painless but definitely took longer as I waited for the remote to cycle through its several hundred Samsung, Toshiba, and Onkyo codes. At one point I wondered whether it would have actually been faster just to teach it the remotes individually.
What the Wi-Fi Brings to the Table
My home network uses WPA2 encryption, but logging on with the remote was no problem. Text entry is done via the alphanumeric keypad, like text-messaging on a mobile phone. After automatically updating its firmware (which you can't stop or pause once it first logs onto your network), I downloaded program guides without issue, and it's nice to be able to browse channel guides on the remote's screen without needing to interrupt what's on TV. My weather region was selected automatically and I added a couple more regions for my family back East. Headlines are done quite nicely: it feeds and cycles through popular news sources such as AP/Reuters, ABC, and the Wall Street Journal, displaying a color photo and a quick summation of each story.
You can also get information about movies, actors, place, etc. via Yahoo! Search. The search window is predictive, meaning you don't have to know perfectly how to spell your subject--type the first few letters and it will show you available subjects. You can shop Amazon.com directly from the remote as well once you tie it to your customer account. Browsing Amazon.com looks like it does on mobile phones, or the optimized iPhone site. I even updated my Facebook directly from the remote, and while I'm not a texting champ it didn't take any longer to do than it does from my iPhone. I'm glad the buttons on the remote aren't flat--the convex tactile alphanumeric keys made it easier to "feel" my way through texting.
And oh yeah--sports. Not surprisingly ESPN.com is the portal for sports content. You can get realtime game stats and scores for any game, not just the one you're watching, or read sports articles, or even manage your ESPN.com fantasy league (which I don't have, so unfortunately I can't report on). Everything worked great, but the one feature I would have liked to have seen is an option to "jump" to the stats of the game you're currently watching.
The Final Breakdown
All in all, it's a bit funny that the ESPN moniker might be the biggest thing working against this remote. It's billed as a product built especially for sports fans but there's equal time given to multiple functions like shopping, headlines, and entertainment news. Heck, this thing has Minesweeper on it. It's definitely a multipurpose web-centric entertainment gadget and deserves a reputation as such (even if that's kind of a mouthful).
Pros: Browse popular Internet sites during commercials, get custom program guides, news, and weather, and get game stats and scores and articles while you watch. Searchable database of entertainment articles on movies, shows, actors, etc. Large, easily-readable screen that auto-adjusts brightness according to room lighting. No PC needed to set up. Raised buttons and close arrangement make texting easy. User manual can be downloaded directly to the remote itself. Updates itself automatically. Can charge via USB or AC power. Supports every type of wireless encryption, so no need to unlock your network to integrate the remote.
Cons: Setup is easy but can be time consuming if you have a popular brand with a lot of codes. Expensive. Some ghosting during scrolling on websites. Plastic body not very drop-resistant. Presence of multiple navigation methods adds a learning curve.
--Aric A.
coach outlet store on June 29, 2011 at 11:48 PM
now if you go to www.ucentric.com it redirects to a motorola.com page about a cable box that does just what the directv system was supposed to do. what happened there