MS Keyboard for Windows XP Media Centre Edition - Review

["Mark McCall" <lists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Submission by Keith Finnett

It=92s not often you can buy something that=92s well built, ergonomic and a
great gadget for under =A350 =96 but Microsoft have produced a piece of
har=
dware
that would be a steal at twice the price.

As a fully paid-up Windows Media Centre household we have become absolutely
reliant on the PC that sits upstairs to provide our whole-house
entertainment. Microsoft=92s latest version of Windows Media Centre
(versio=
n
2005) gives us access to live and recorded TV, music and (camcorder) video,
DVDs, our ever growing photo gallery, and most recently digital radio which
mysteriously appeared with the installation of Rollup 2 even though my
tune=
r
cards (both from BlackGold) did not provide support for this.

However whilst we can access the media anywhere in the house thanks to our
whole-house AV system, control of it has always been limited with the
standard Microsoft infra-red remote control. If I wanted to access the PC
from the lounge to do anything but the standard functions provided on the
I=
R
controller, I had to either walk upstairs or Remote Desktop to the PC -
which returns the PC to the user login screen, requiring me to walk
upstair=
s
to log back in.

Enter the newly released Microsoft Remote Keyboard...

http://www.automatedhome.co.uk/article1615.html

M.